RAPID RESPONSE: Chairman McHenry Agrees to Consider Cummings Request for Public Hearing With Former NLRB Member Peter Schaumber

Jul 10, 2012
Press Release

Washington, DC—Today, Subcommittee Chairman Patrick McHenry agreed to consider a request by full Committee Ranking Member Elijah E. Cummings to hold a hearing with former National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) Member Peter Schaumber.  Calling Cummings “tough but fair,” McHenry said “you have my commitment” to consider the hearing request in the near future.

As Cummings wrote in previous letters sent to Committee Chairman Darrell E. Issa on March 28, 2012, and April 26, 2012, the NLRB Inspector General found earlier this year that after leaving the Board, Schaumber received serious improper disclosures of confidential information from his former Chief Counsel, Terrence Flynn. 

The NLRB Inspector General has issued two reports on these improper disclosures and also referred them to the Office of Special Counsel for potential Hatch Act violations due to Schaumber’s role as a co-chair of the Labor Policy Advisory Group for the Mitt Romney Presidential campaign.

However, Schaumber has refused a request for an interview on this topic from the NLRB Inspector General.  Although Inspectors General generally lack authority to compel former government officials to submit to interviews, McHenry, Cummings, and Subcommittee Ranking Member Mike Quigley agreed at today’s hearing that the Subcommittee should obtain hearing testimony from former officials when they decline to be interviewed by Inspectors General.

Today’s commitment by McHenry followed bipartisan support for a request from the Special Inspector General for the Troubled Asset Relief Program (SIGTARP) to conduct interviews with three former officials of the Administration Auto Task Force.  All three former officials testified before the Subcommittee today and agreed to submit to interviews with the Special Inspector General.

In his statement for the hearing, Cummings called for the same treatment for former NLRB Member Schaumber.

112th Congress