CNN\u00a0\u2014\u00a0The top Republican on the House Foreign Affairs Committee on Thursday requested from the State Department a vast number of documents related to the Biden administration\u2019s withdrawal from\u00a0Afghanistan, marking the official launch of the newly Republican-led panel\u2019s investigation into the\u00a0chaotic exit.Texas Rep. Michael McCaul, the chairman of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, gave the department a deadline of January 26 to respond. He threatened the power of subpoena if the department does not comply.\u201cIt is imperative that the State Department provide complete responses to these longstanding requests, and the Committee will not tolerate continued delay,\u201d McCaul wrote to Secretary of State Tony Blinken in a letter reviewed by CNN. \u201cIn the event of noncompliance, the Committee will use the authorities available to it to enforce these requests as necessary, including through compulsory process.\u201dThe Afghanistan probe into the 2021 withdrawal from Afghanistan is just\u00a0one of many investigations\u00a0into the Biden administration that House Republicans are beginning to push ahead.McCaul, in the 10-page letter, requested a list of all interagency meetings related to the withdrawal that occurred during the Biden administration. He also requested information about all meetings with the Taliban since January 2021.In addition to digging into the planning that went into the withdrawal, and the withdrawal process, the letter makes it clear that the committee is interested in probing the after-effects of the withdrawal.Questions include: \u201cWhat are the Administration\u2019s intentions for rescinding and\/or reprogramming foreign assistance in Afghanistan?\u201d and \u201cWhat is the U.S. Government\u2019s current relationship with the Taliban?\u201d and \u201cWhat is the status of SIV, P1, and P2 visa application processing?\u201dMcCaul and Republican colleagues on the committee sent the department at least three requests for similar information last year. But during that time McCaul was in the minority and the department did not provide the information requested.The Republicans on the committee went ahead with a report into the withdrawal last year, despite not having access to documents or interviews with State Department officials. But now that Republicans are in the majority in the House, they have more power to wield and can legally require the administration to give them information.At the State Department,\u202fa small group of officials had begun planning for the coming investigation into Afghanistan last year, officials said.McCaul and Blinken had started off on friendly footing with both sides casting their meeting at the State Department earlier in the week as productive.\u201cIt was a truly constructive \u2013 at least from our vantage point \u2013 successful engagement with the chairman,\u201d State Department spokesperson Ned Price said on Thursday. \u201cYesterday\u2019s engagement with Chairman McCaul was the start of that engagement with the 118th Congress, but we expect a lot more to come.\u201dWhen asked if the department would comply with document requests related to the Afghanistan withdrawal Price avoided a firm commitment. Price said, generally, that the Biden administration believes in the utility and necessity of the functions of Congress.\u201cWe look forward to continuing our engagement with this Congress on those areas that are of interest to them and that most importantly are of priority to the American people,\u201d Price said.The State Department did its own review of the Afghanistan withdrawal last year, but the department has yet to widely release its findings. The report was concluded more than 10 months ago, sources told CNN<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
CNN — The top Republican on the House Foreign Affairs Committee on Thursday requested from the State Department […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_coblocks_attr":"","_coblocks_dimensions":"","_coblocks_responsive_height":"","_coblocks_accordion_ie_support":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-121","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-afghanistan-withdrawal"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/whatistandfor.co\/LeFachicette\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/121","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/whatistandfor.co\/LeFachicette\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/whatistandfor.co\/LeFachicette\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/whatistandfor.co\/LeFachicette\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/whatistandfor.co\/LeFachicette\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=121"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/whatistandfor.co\/LeFachicette\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/121\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":122,"href":"http:\/\/whatistandfor.co\/LeFachicette\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/121\/revisions\/122"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/whatistandfor.co\/LeFachicette\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=121"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/whatistandfor.co\/LeFachicette\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=121"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/whatistandfor.co\/LeFachicette\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=121"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}