A Recap of “What to Expect from the 119th Congress”

In today's episode, we're diving deep into the insights, highlights, and key takeaways from our recent event titled "What to Expect from the 119th Congress." A bipartisan panel of top Congressional staffers, as well as esteemed professionals in government affairs and Congressional investigations gathered to share their expertise and insights.

Womble Bond Dickinson attorneys Lee Van Voorhis and Kristina Moore were on hand at the event and today, they're sharing their thoughts on this diverse and illuminating conversation.

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Transcript

Welcome to Womble Perspectives, where we explore a wide range of topics, from the latest legal updates to industry trends to the business of law. Our team of lawyers, professionals and occasional outside guests will take you through the most pressing issues facing businesses today and provide practical and actionable advice to help you navigate the ever-changing legal landscape.

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In today's episode, we're diving deep into the insights, highlights, and key takeaways from our recent event titled "What to Expect from the 119th Congress." A bipartisan panel of top Congressional staffers, as well as esteemed professionals in government affairs and Congressional investigations gathered to share their expertise and insights.

Womble Bond Dickinson attorneys Lee Van Voorhis and Kristina Moore were on hand at the event and today, they're sharing their thoughts on this diverse and illuminating conversation.

Lee Van Voorhis
Hello everyone and thank you for listening. My name is Lee Van Voorhis, and I am an antitrust partner here at Womble Bond Dickinson. In my day job I handle all types of antitrust matters with a specialty in government investigations. But today I have the pleasure of speaking with my partner, Kristina Moore. Kristina? 

Kristina Moore
Hi Lee. Thanks so much for having me. I’m Kristina Moore, and I lead Womble Bond Dickinson's Congressional Strategies practice. We're a relatively new practice group here. We started back in '23. However, we've already helped several clients navigate the halls of Congress before House Homeland, the Select Committee on China, House Oversight, among other committees. 

Before I joined the firm, I spent 14 years on Capitol Hill. As a former congressional investigator, I investigated numerous private companies. Think Solyndra, BP oil spill, and auto OEMs. But since I left the Hill in 2015, I've helped to defend private companies and prepare executives to testify before Congress. I've also helped clients being deposed by congressional panels, and I frequently engage with reporters to help them get their facts straight.

Lee Van Voorhis
Yes everyone, that's right. Kristina is a rock star, and we are definitely happy to have her here at Womble.

Kristina Moore
Thank you.

Lee Van Voorhis

Womble recently co-hosted, in conjunction with our friends at Forbes Tate Partners, an event with senior congressional staffers to discuss the upcoming 119th Congress. We had a great turnout. 

Kristina Moore

Yeah, it was great. We had over 70 people on a Monday night. It was really awesome for them to hear directly from our friends on the Hill and to introduce them to others in our Womble Bond Dickinson Federal Strategies Team.

Lee Van Voorhis

Yeah, let's start talking about that event. First, keeping in mind that we mandated the Chatham House Rule for the event, so we cannot attribute any comments, what were your top takeaways? 

Kristina Moore
Well, there was actually a lot of knowledge dropped by our panelists. I think the most noteworthy thing that I heard related to the differences between Congressional oversight and investigations and legislation. For those in the business, you know that investigations are famously combative, and increasingly, they've been targeted at the private sector. So, while, you know, you've got committees like the Select Committee on China, and even sometimes Senate PSI that can act in a bipartisan manner, that's absolutely not the case for House Oversight or House Judiciary.

Lee Van Voorhis
Yeah, I heard what our guests said, and I think that the rules that govern congressional investigations might seem like a bit of the Wild West to many of us attorneys. 

Kristina Moore
Oh, my gosh. It is the Wild West. It is all a negotiation. One thing that I found surprises a lot of, like, white collar attorneys is that no criminal or even wrongful activity needs be suspected by Congress. Congress can investigate, really, for any reason, and they like to tell you that, too.

Congress is also only compelled to recognize Constitutional privileges like executive privilege. So, while many attorneys and folks in corporate America have become comfortable with thinking a lot of conversations are protected by attorney client privilege, that's actually really subject to negotiation before a congressional committee. It’s not automatically recognized.

Lee Van Voorhis
Yeah, that is surprising to me and probably surprising and troubling to most of us lawyers. 

Now that one party has the presidency and majorities, however slim, in both houses of Congress, do you think that there could be more cooperation between Congress and the agencies?

Kristina Moore
Yes, absolutely. Look, each branch has unique tools and abilities to compel production of information. While the ability to compel the production of information is very broad from a congressional point of view, Congress has had a really tough time enforcing contempt of Congress charges. 

They can, you know, go all the way up, have a vote, , pass a resolution of contempt, but then it's always up to the DOJ to enforce that resolution. It's quite possible with a unified party and the agenda that's being set out right now that there could be more criminal penalties associated with failure to comply with congressional demands.

Lee Van Voorhis
So, what about on the topic of legislation? Is there a similar story of alignment? 

Kristina Moore
Well, yeah, there's absolutely going to be alignment. I mean, I think with legislation you kind of have to think about, you know, the Senate and 60 votes. But before we get there one of the more intriguing things to think about actually is the impact of Loper Bright and the impact that it'll have on the legislative process. What we heard from our guests was that Congress  is going through, you know, and becoming, you know, more intentional about how they craft legislation. They recognize that they can no longer rely on the courts to defer to an agency's interpretation of a statute. They've got to do a better job writing it.

Lee Van Voorhis
So, let's dig a little deeper. You mentioned the 60 votes in the Senate. To elaborate a little, given that there is the filibuster in the Senate and 60 votes are needed to end a filibuster, can it therefore be said that there is actually a 60-vote threshold in the Senate for legislation to pass? 

Kristina Moore
That's mostly true. Generally, Republicans are going to need to peel off some Democrats and hold all their own in order to support major reform initiatives and get it passed to the Senate. However, there is a mechanism called the budget reconciliation process that only requires 51 votes in the Senate. In fact, you might, you know, I know the Inflation Reduction act was a big initiative passed under the Biden administration. Folks might not remember, but that was actually passed under budget reconciliation procedures. And I do expect that Republican are going to be using this mechanism to push through tax reform within the first 100 days.

Lee Van Voorhis
Well, what about working together? What about bipartisanship? We had a bipartisan panel, and I heard some comments from attendees afterwards that they had a ray of hope about bipartisanship. Given the clearly civil, even friendly, relationship our panelists had in their discussion, is there any hope for bipartisanship in the coming years?

Kristina Moore
Yeah, I do think so. There was a lot of enthusiasm from the panel. And actually, I think our panelists genuinely like each other. They told me so before, and after they worked across the aisle when they were all on the same committee. And there was a lot of enthusiasm from the panel on cooperation over big tech, AI, copyright law and antitrust law, as well as national security. I think to anyone in the D.C. bubble, it's no secret that many members and staff from both parties see China as a potential threat and they're going to act together on that.

Lee Van Voorhis
Yeah, I mean, as an antitrust lawyer, I certainly find it interesting that you and they mentioned antitrust. There seems to be more bipartisanship on that front as well. But what about the so-called Department of Government Efficiency, now generally referenced as DOGE? I mean, putting aside the Catch 22-esque irony of creating a department to try to increase government efficiency, how will that entity impact the Congressional agenda?

Kristina Moore
Well, I honestly, I think it's energized a lot of old school conservatives. 

You know, when I first started out in this business conducting oversight, way back 2005, 2006, our battle - gosh, even further back than that. Actually 2003, I think - the battle cry was to root out waste, fraud and abuse. And that's why a lot of my investigations focused on companies like Solyndra who were thought to have financially benefited from sweetheart loans based on political connections as opposed to merit. 

Today DOGE is likely to focus on obtaining major cuts in the size and scope of the federal government and is looking to cut red tape and reduce spending. We already know House Oversight has announced that Marjorie  Taylor Greene will chair a congressional subcommittee to interface with DOGE. And we heard from our guests that House Judiciary, which actually has jurisdiction over many of the regulatory reform acts, pieces of legislation, they’re also going to be involved.

Lee Van Voorhis
Well, thank you very much Kristina. This is all great insight. Unfortunately, that's all the time we have for today's podcast. For more information on Womble and its work, including in congressional investigations, please check out the links in the show notes, and thank you again for listening.

Kristina Moore
Thanks so much, Lee.

Thank you for listening to Womble Perspectives. If you want to learn more about the topics discussed in this episode, please visit The Show Notes, where you can find links to related resources mentioned today. The Show Notes also have more information about our attorneys who provided today's insights, including ways to reach out to them.

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