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Mark Meadows Tag

While President Trump has spent the week undoing many of Barack Obama's executive orders and policies, I have been wondering about Michelle Obama's signature program: Healthy, Hunger-Free Kids Act (HHFKA) Legal Insurrection readers may recall some of the questionable highlights related to HHFKA as it has been implemented over the past eight years.

House Republicans have chosen to go with a short-term spending bill to fund the government through March 31 instead of a full year bill:
Appropriations Chairman Rep. Hal Rogers, R-Kentucky, said in a statement that his committee would immediately start working on “a Continuing Resolution (CR) at the current rate of funding to extend the operations of our government through March 31, 2017.”

House Science Committee Chairman Lamar Smith (R-TX) has demanded an interview with employees of the IT firm that handled Hillary Clinton's private email server. The demand comes after images of one employee on Reddit asking for advice on how to modify emails. Platte River Networks employees Paul Combetta and Bill Thornton "pleaded the Fifth Amendment when subpoenaed to testify about the server before the House Oversight Committee."

The House Freedom Caucus and Judiciary Committee Chairman Bob Goodlatte (R-VA) struck a deal to hold a hearing for IRS Commissioner John Koskinen, thus delaying a Thursday House vote to impeach him. The caucus had submitted a resolution to impeach Koskinen for impeding "Congress' effort to investigate the IRS for tough assessments of Tea Party groups that sought tax exemptions several years ago." Caucus members Members claim Koskinen failed to provide proper email documents and lied about deleting some emails. They also claim he has shown, “little effort to recover the lost documents.”

After Speaker Boehner's unexpected resignation announcement Friday, the scramble to replace him is underway. Friday, Congressional members hoping to fill Boehner's shoes were frantically whipping votes and calling in favors. Boehner indicated he will not vacate his role until the end of October, leaving the House five weeks to select his replacement. Who's in and who's out?

A handful of high-profile House Republicans have indicated they have no interest in the speakership

According to the Daily Caller, Issa and Gowdy are out:
House Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy is in the running as a potential successor to Boehner, but other members are likely to be interested in the job as well. Could a member of the Freedom Caucus become speaker? Issa does not think so.

For what is being called the first time ever, those closest to Speaker of the House John Boehner are expressing serious concerns about Boehner's future in the chamber's top spot. John Boehner has been challenged before; back in January, Texas firebrand Louie Gohmert put his name in the hat for the top spot; two dozen members of the caucus turned their backs on Boehner, but as has happened before, the opposition wasn't nearly widespread enough to oust him from power. Then, at the end of July, North Carolina Mark Meadows filed a "motion to vacate the chair" in what he said was an effort to get Republicans talking about the sharp divide between leadership and a small group of conservatives. Right-leaning advocacy organizations again took up the charge, encouraging followers to contact their representatives to demand change. And now, we have this---a Politico exclusive featuring both on- and off-the-record comments expressing doubts about Boehner's ability to lead the caucus. Via Politico:
“That’s a personal decision he has to make. I don’t know why he would want to, personally,” said Rep. Lynn Westmoreland (R-Ga.), when asked whether Boehner would run again. "But I do think that he feels, in his heart of hearts, he feels like he’s doing what’s best for this country — regardless of what the political consequences are. That says something about somebody."

The IRS-Lois Lerner email and hard drive destruction has received a lot of attention. Less so another possible scandal at the EPA, regarding the alleged destruction of documents requested by the Landmark Legal Foundation, with which Mark Levin is affiliated.. Fox News covered it in late June, but most of the mainstream media is absent, More missing emails, crashed hard drives, this time at EPA:
The Internal Revenue Service isn’t the only government agency dealing with missing emails or faulty hard drives. Environmental Protection Agency administrator Gina McCarthy on Wednesday cited a similar cyber snafu during a House Oversight Committee hearing. “Another missing hard drive?” Rep. Mark Meadows, R-NC, asked McCarthy. She responded, “We are having trouble acquiring the data.”
It's not just a problem of Congressional oversight. The Landmark Legal Foundation served a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request on the EPA regarding attempts to influence the 2012 election by delaying damaging environmental regulations until after the election. We reported on that delay in 2013, which concerned not just environmental regulations but Obamacare also. Landmark alleges that it has met stonewalling and missing documents, and now it's seeking sanctions, as described in a press release today, Landmark is seeking sanctions:

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