Basically the subject.
The committee staff typically seem like very nice, smart people, but their emails are worse than the spammiest think tanks that I’ve ever had to deal with. Their memos are late (and often getting sent after a vote has already started). So, I’m just curious, does anyone actually use their memos for anything?
Not really. They would be way more useful if they were one-third the length. They sent out a 10-page paper and I don’t have time to read that, and neither does anyone else.
In my experience, the most hypothetically useful parts of their memos is the links to stuff. The problem is that by the time it’s hitting my inbox, I’ve usually been done with my memo for a while already - oftentimes by over a week at that point.
I never actually met anyone who used those when I was still on the hill. The writing in them is so unnecessarily complicated when it comes to the procedural elements.
I actually find it pretty funny that a number of my clients have actually told me how much more useful my weekly email / hearing recaps are than the stuff being provided by RPC.
I was very disappointed that we UC’d the Epstein bill. Would’ve loved to see what RPC would’ve written about that.
Here you go:
Unsealing the Record: A Primer on the State of the Epstein Files
Key Takeaways
What the “Epstein Files” Are: A veritable Pandora’s box of documents connected to the extensive criminal investigations into the late, not-so-great financier and convicted sex offender, Jeffrey Epstein. This treasure trove includes everything from the now-infamous flight logs of his private jet, lovingly dubbed the “Lolita Express,” to personal contact books, emails, and mountains of court documents from legal battles involving Epstein and his partner-in-crime, Ghislaine Maxwell.
A Sudden Bipartisan Push for “Transparency”: After months of staunch opposition from party leadership, a sudden and miraculous wave of bipartisan support for transparency has washed over Congress. The “Epstein Files Transparency Act,” which compels the Department of Justice to release all unclassified documents related to the case, sailed through the House with a nearly unanimous 427-1 vote and received unanimous consent in the Senate. President Trump, in a stunning reversal, has promised to sign the bill he recently dismissed as a “hoax.”
The Not-So-Exclusive Guest List: The unsealed documents and court proceedings have name-dropped an impressive array of high-profile individuals, including former Presidents Bill Clinton and Donald Trump, the UK’s Prince Andrew, and even the late physicist Stephen Hawking. It is, of course, crucial to remember that merely being mentioned in a convicted sex trafficker’s little black book doesn’t automatically imply wrongdoing. It just makes for awkward dinner conversation.
Trump’s Tangled Web: Recent attention has fixated on the cozy relationship between Donald Trump and Jeffrey Epstein. Emails sensationally released by the House Oversight Committee suggest Trump may have known more about Epstein’s… hobbies… than he has let on. In one email, Epstein mused that Trump was the “dog that hasn’t barked” and had spent “hours at my house” with a victim. After months of trying to block the release, Trump has now pivoted, urging the release of the files and calling the whole affair a “Democrat Hoax.”
Theories, Conspiracies, and Unanswered Questions: The suspicious circumstances of Epstein’s death in a federal lockup have spawned a cottage industry of conspiracy theories, the most famous being the ubiquitous meme “Epstein didn’t kill himself.” Despite the release of thousands of documents, pressing questions linger about the full scope of Epstein’s operation, which powerful figures might have been complicit, and whether his operation was, as some theorize, a sophisticated blackmail or intelligence-gathering scheme.
You put in way too much effort, but if RPC stuff were this straightforward, it would be an improvement.