House Oversight Committee approves first subpoenas of the new Congress

The House Oversight Committee has just voted to issue its first subpoenas of the 116th Congress.

The committee on Tuesday voted to subpoena documents from the departments of Justice, Homeland Security, and Health and Human Services related to the Trump administration's migrant family separation policy, The Associated Press reports. Rep. Elijah Cummings (D-Md.) said "this is a true national emergency" and accused the administration of "government-sponsored child abuse."

The administration's controversial separating of thousands of young migrants from their parents at the border occurred as part of the Trump administration's "zero tolerance" immigration policy. President Trump in June signed an order to end the practice, although The Washington Post reported in October that the administration was "actively considering plans that could again separate parents and children at the U.S.-Mexico border." According to a report from the Office of Inspector General for the Department of Health and Human Services last month, the number of children separated from their parents at the border since 2017 may exceed the 2,737 the government has said but the actual number is "unknown."

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