Top Democrats say they are being restricted from using their travel budget

Democrats cite several examples where Issa limited their ability to request and question witnesses and prevent motions during hearings, including one made by Cummings to subpoena mortgage servicing companies for foreclosure problems with loans held by members of the military.

In the most recent so-called infraction, Issa denied two Democratic staffers from traveling to Chicago to attend a forum in Chicago on Oct. 17 held by Rep. Danny Davis, ranking member of the Subcommittee on Health Care, District of Columbia, Census and the National Archives.  

“We are writing to request that you reverse your recent decision to prevent committee Democrats from spending their own portion of committee travel funds under the committee budget,” they wrote.  

According to the letter, Issa denied the request because no Republican lawmaker would be in attendance, although Democrats argue that Davis invited all panel members to attend the forum, which is within the panel’s legislative and oversight jurisdiction.

“Your new policy appears to be that travel by Democratic staff is not for official committee business unless a Republican joins them,” they wrote.  

“This interpretation is unprecedented and contradicts the committee’s policy when you were in the minority.”

In response, Issa’s committee office said the request made in this case for is for a personal office, non-committee event. 

“Since it’s for personal office travel, committee staff travel at taxpayer expense would not be appropriate,” an aide told The Hill in an email. 

In a letter to Davis on Friday, Issa said that national drug policy is relevant to the committee and he looks forward to working with Davis to schedule a hearing Chicago within the next several weeks.  

The Democrats’ letter cites a December 2010 trip to Las Vegas — when Issa was ranking member of the committee — when he traveled with four minority staffers to attend unidentified “[m]eetings with technology companies.”  

The letter says that Issa was “reimbursed thousands of dollars even though no majority committee members or staff joined you.”

Republicans counter that the Vegas trip involved a committee press office staff member who accompanied Issa only because a national news reporter was traveling to interview him at the event as ranking member and incoming chairman.

“If the reporter had not have requested to travel to meet Issa at that venue, the staff member would not have made the trip,” the aide said. 

The policy, Democrats say, contradicts assurances you made to the House Committee on Administration in March that Cummings would be “allowed control” over one-third of the Committee’s total budget, including the travel budget. 

The Democrats total budget is about $3.53 million, one-third of the panel’s total budget, with a travel allocation of $95,399, according to an aide. 

“For all of these reasons, we urge you to immediately abandon this misguided policy, approve the minority staff travel request for Rep. Davis’ forum in Chicago, and stop attempting to control how Committee Democrats spend our own travel funds,” they wrote. 

Updated at 7:15 p.m.