A freshman congressman from Maryland is proposing legislation that would restrict the U.S. president from dismissing the head of the FBI without “good cause” and amend a 1968 law that limits the grounds for removal to “inefficiency, neglect of duty or malfeasance in office.”
The bill sponsored by Rep. Anthony G. Brown (D-Md.) is another sign of the outrage on Capitol Hill over the May 9 firing by President Trump of FBI Director James B. Comey and subsequent reports that the ouster was tied to the agency’s probe of potential ties between Russia and Trump’s campaign.
Congress already restricts removal powers for members of the Nuclear Regulatory Commission and the leaders of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau. (The Trump administration is challenging those restrictions for the consumer agency in a court case.)
Brown says the same high standard — nothing short of a dereliction of duty — should apply to FBI directors, who are supposed to serve for 10-year terms, to protect the agency’s autonomy.
Comey’s dismissal “shatters the idea that the FBI is independent and insulated from partisan politics,” Brown said. “The president should not be able to fire the FBI director for political or personal reasons.”
Rep. Anthony G. Brown (D-Md.), shown here in Annapolis in 2015, on his final day as Maryland’s lieutenant governor. (Patrick Semansky/AP) “The question of whether or not you can impose a good-cause standard for the FBI director is certainly an unsettled matter of law,” Brown said in an interview. “But the fact that it’s a 10-year appointment demonstrates Congress’s intent to take the politics out of the hiring and firing of the FBI director.”
Eleven men have served as FBI director in the agency’s more than 100-year history. Before Comey, the only man to have been fired was William Sessions. He was dismissed in 1993 by President Bill Clinton after Attorney General Janet Reno determined that reports about the director’s ethical lapses prevented him from leading effectively.
Brown’s communications director, Matthew Verghese, said the congressman is “cautiously optimistic” his legislation will receive bipartisan support in the Republican-controlled House and make it out of the Judiciary Committee.
“I’m seeing signs that some Republican members in both the House and Senate share our concerns that we ought to be putting America first and not partisan politics,” Brown said. “I think soon we will see Republicans standing up.”
Concerns about Trump have led another freshman Maryland congressman, Rep. Jamie B. Raskin (D), to author a bill allowing the creation of a special commission, under certain circumstances, to determine whether the president is fit to serve.