Dingell Gives Up Investigations Chairmanship

DINGELL GIVES UP INVESTIGATIONS CHAIRMANSHIP
[SOURCE: US News & World Reports, AUTHOR: Danielle Knight]
Because of past changes in Democratic Caucus rules, one of the House's warhorses, Rep. John Dingell (D-MI), chair of the House Commerce Committee, will not head the subcommittee on oversight and investigations, which had been one of his passions when he led the full panel for 14 years in the 1980s and early 1990s. Instead, Rep Dingell is backing Rep. Bart Stupak (D-MI), who was ranking member on the oversight subcommittee last Congress. Rep Stupak will likely be ratified as subcommittee chair this week. There was speculation that Rep Dingell might again chair both the committee and subcommittee at the same time, as he did from 1981 to 1995. But in 1994 Democrats changed their rules and prohibited lawmakers from chairing both the main committee and the subcommittees in order to discourage lawmakers from monopolizing too much power. Rep Dingell was well known for his thorough investigations and his infamous Dingell-grams, which requested detailed information from agencies on environmental and energy polices, among other things.
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