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The GOP chairmen of the House Oversight and Judiciary committees have asked the Department of Justice inspector general to investigate immediately whether classified information was mishandled at the department after the resignation of retired Lt. Gen. Michael Flynn as White House national security adviser.

In a Wednesday letter to DOJ Inspector General Michael Horowitz, Chairmen Jason Chaffetz, R-Utah, and Bob Goodlatte, R-Va., requested an "immediate investigation" into the possible mishandling of classified information, citing reports before Flynn's resignation about his discussions about sanctions with the Russian ambassador to the United States.

"We have serious concerns about the potential inadequate protection of classified information here," the Republicans wrote in the letter.

With the missive to the agency watchdog, top Republicans are taking President Donald Trump's lead.

Rep. Elijah Cummings has fired back, saying in a statement today, "Chairman Chaffetz appears to be taking his marching orders directly from President Trump's tweet yesterday instead of investigating Gen. Flynn's lies to the vice president and the American people, as well as his troubling ties with Russia, the chairman chose to target those who brought them to light."

Cummings continued, "Congress should be doing independent oversight of the executive branch and protecting whistleblowers, not running interference while the White House conceals their abuses and misleads the American people for weeks. Chairman Chaffetz said he didn't want to go on 'fishing expeditions,' but that's exactly what he's doing here."

Since Flynn's resignation, the president has attacked the intelligence community for the leaks and blamed the media for Flynn's departure, though the White House has said Trump asked for Flynn's resignation.

"From intelligence, papers are being leaked, things are being leaked," Trump said at a White House news conference with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. "It's a criminal action, criminal act."

"People are trying to cover up for a terrible loss that the Democrats had under Hillary Clinton," Trump said.

While Democrats have uniformly called for investigations into Flynn's conversations and the White House's handling of the episode, House GOP leaders have instead focused on the leaks.

House Intelligence Committee Chairman Devin Nunes, R-Calif., who is leading his panel's wide-ranging investigation into Russia and the election, plans to ask the FBI to assess leaks regarding Trump administration officials and classified information, an aide confirmed.

Nunes has downplayed concerns about Flynn's actions and whether to review them in committee, though several Senate Republicans want Flynn to testify before the Senate Intelligence Committee.

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House Republicans seek Department of Justice investigation into potentially illegal leaks - ABC News

New York Times

Republicans Agree on Cutting Taxes, but Not on How to Do It New York Times Republicans remain united in their desire to cut taxes, simplify the system and recover some of the $2 trillion in untaxed profits that American companies have stashed overseas, out of the reach of the Internal Revenue Service. And the possibility of a ... and more »

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Republicans Agree on Cutting Taxes, but Not on How to Do It - New York Times

Ive been in Congress for a long time. Ive never seen anything like this, Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer said.

By Victoria McGrane and Astead W. Herndon Globe Staff February 15, 2017

WASHINGTON The sense of crisis enveloping President Trumps White House generated growing frustrations Wednesday as congressional Democrats redoubled demands for tough investigations of the new administrations ties to Russia and congressional Republicans found themselves on the defensive.

Tensions on Capitol Hill already high after national security adviser Michael Flynns forced resignation Monday night rose even higher following press reports of Flynns contacts with Russias ambassador to the United States. Related accounts emerged Tuesday of even more widespread contact between Trump campaign figures and Russia during the 2016 campaign.

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In another blow Wednesday, Trumps nominee for secretary of the Labor Department withdrew amid allegations of domestic violence and questions about his employment of an undocumented housecleaner.

Republicans are growing worried that the day-after-day controversies emanating from the White House and Trumps Twitter feed are dragging down momentum for a big conservative agenda made possible by GOP control of the White House and both chambers of Congress. Republicans started the year with lofty hopes of overhauling the tax code, making good on years of promises to repeal the Affordable Care Act, and slashing scores of other Obama-era regulations.

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There are things that we want to get done here. We want to have a clear-eyed focus on our agenda, and this constant disruption and drumbeat with these questions that keep getting raised is a distraction. Theres no way around it, said South Dakotas John Thune, the third-ranking member of Senate GOP leadership. He urged the White House to cooperate with congressional committees in answering the mounting questions about contacts between Trumps associates and Russia.

President Trump said he thought Michael Flynn was a wonderful man who had been treated very, very unfairly by the media, as I call it, the fake media.

His advice to the White House: Get it all out there and put it behind you and lets move forward.

Its time to get past the launch phase, he added.

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Despite the frustration in the GOP ranks, Republicans continued to resist the growing chorus of Democrats calling to elevate the probe into the Russia controversy beyond the normal committee structure by appointing a special prosecutor or independent investigating committee. For now, the lead role in the inquiry is being taken by the Senate Intelligence Committee, whose leaders have indicated it is expanding an existing probe into Russian meddling in the 2016 presidential election to include Flynns activities.

I dont think we need a select committee. We know how to do our work. We have an Intelligence Committee, Senate majority leader Mitch McConnell said in an interview with MSNBC that aired Wednesday morning.

Thune and other Republican senators echoed that view Wednesday: Lets let our committees do their jobs and see where that takes us, Thune said. That process does need to move forward.

Still, the tenor of GOP comments was hardening in terms of the need for a vigorous probe on the latest revelations.

I cant say with confidence on anything except that this is a serious issue and has to be addressed, said GOP Senator John McCain of Arizona, when asked whether he felt confident President Trump was not involved in directing Flynn to discuss sanctions with Russia.

The presidents national security adviser did not tell the vice president of the United States the truth and had to be fired, McCain said. That brings up a lot of questions, and those questions need to be answered.

McCain said the chaos in the White House has left the country dysfunctional when it comes to national security, putting the United States at risk.

As for the GOP agenda, McCain said, Something like this always sucks the oxygen out of the room.

Other Republicans were defensive, saying the real obstacle to their legislative hopes were recalcitrant Democrats who were unfairly trying to deny Trump a full Cabinet. Still, several of them agreed with Democrats that Flynn needed to come to the Hill and testify. And frustration could be read between the lines of their talking points when the topic turned back to Russia.

I think I talked about that all day yesterday, said Senator Roy Blunt, a Missouri Republican and member of the Intelligence Committee, when asked about the latest revelations on the Trump campaigns interactions with Russia.

Theres a cloud over the White House when it comes to Russian matters, South Carolina Senator Lindsey Graham said, quickly pivoting from blaming Democrats for blockading Trumps Cabinet.

I would urge the president to seize a leadership role and say, If theres something out there, I want to know it as much as everyone else; if somebody on my campaign did something wrong, I want to know about it, he said. That would help us move forward.

Graham said while it would have been inappropriate for Trump, as president-elect, to have directed Flynn to discuss sanctions with the Russians during the transition, it would not be illegal. Contacts during the campaign, however, could be a much bigger deal, he said.

If there are contacts between the Trump campaign and Russian intelligence officers outside the norm, that takes this whole issue in a dramatically different area. That would open up an investigation of everything Trump related to Russia, Graham said. The way you fix this is for the president himself basically to work with the Congress in a bipartisan fashion to look into what happened and to let the facts speaks for themselves.

Senate Democrats held an emergency caucus meeting Wednesday to discuss how they should handle the growing controversy.

Senators emerged to say that, for now, Democratic leaders were satisfied with the steps being taken by the Senate Intelligence Committee. That view was not unanimous among Democrats.

We need an independent investigation. I am just not convinced that Mitch McConnell is going to let the Intelligence Committee get to the real story, said Senator Chris Murphy, a Democrat from Connecticut. Murphy said his ideal situation would be for a 9/11-type independent commission to handle the investigation. Other senators said a special prosector should be appointed.

Democrats did issue a united call for Attorney General Jeff Sessions to recuse himself from any investigations into ties between Trumps aides and Russia because they dont believe the former Alabama senator can be impartial toward a president for whom he vigorously campaigned.

If this trail leads to the Oval Office, the person investigating that trail should not be the same person who helped put President Trump there, Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer said.

Schumer also said Democrats want all records pertinent to the investigation to be preserved and all implicated members of Trumps campaign to publicly testify before Senate committees.

Ive been in Congress for a long time. Ive never seen anything like this, Schumer said. We are Americans before we are Democrats and Republicans. Nothing less than our system of checks and balances, democratic institutions, rule of law, and our national security is at stake.

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Tensions on Capitol Hill rise even higher - The Boston Globe

Members of Congress are set to return to their districts this weekend for their first weeklong recess since Donald Trumps inauguration. Heading home during legislative breaks is nothing new, but this year most Republicans are foregoing a hallowed recess tradition: holding in-person town halls where lawmakers take questions from constituents in a high school gym, local restaurant, or college classroom.

After outpourings of rage at some early town halls including crowds at an event near Salt Lake City yelling Do your job! at Rep. Jason Chaffetz, chairman of the House Oversight Committee many Republicans are ducking in-person events altogether. Instead theyre opting for more controlled Facebook Live or tele-town halls, where questions can be screened by press secretaries and followups are limited as are the chances of becoming the next viral meme of the Left.

For the first two months of the new Congress, the 292 Republicans have scheduled just 88 in-person town hall events and 35 of those sessions are for Rep. Jim Sensenbrenner of Wisconsin, according to a tabulation conducted by Legistorm. In the first two months of the previous Congress in 2015, by contrast, Republicans held 222 in-person town hall events.

Republicans like Sen. John Thune of South Dakota and Sen. Ron Johnson of Wisconsin hosted multiple in-person town halls at the beginning of 2015 but have scheduled none for the first two months of 2017. Thunes office declined to discuss this on the record and Johnsons office did not respond to multiple requests for comment.

Legistorm updates its list daily with software that scrapes from congressional schedules, Facebook pages, press releases, and Twitter accounts of members of congress and their staff. As a result, Legistorm said that the 88 events may not be the ultimate total because there can occasionally be a brief lag time.

For example, Rep. Mark Sanford of South Carolina created two town hall events on Facebook on Tuesday afternoon, and Legistorm had not listed them as of Wednesday morning. Sanford told VICE News that he thinks in-person town halls are important, particularly getting out of space you control and getting into space thats neutral.

What happens in politics is that over time, you can get increasingly insulated from people that have a strongly held point of view thats different [from yours], he said. Sessions like tele-town halls arent a good substitute, he said, because oftentimes they will screen their calls and those forums can be manipulated.

Republicans who get roughed up at their town halls have taken to dismissing the attendees as professional organizers. Chaffetz called his hostile crowd more of a paid attempt to bully and intimidate him over White House ethics issues, a sentiment echoed by White House Press Secretary Sean Spicer, who said that recent marches and protests against Trump are a very paid, AstroTurf-type movement.

While there is no evidence of paid protesters attending town halls, it is true that Democratic activists have been organizing to manufacture viral moments of confrontation like the tea party movement did in the summer of 2009.

The Indivisible Project, a group started by former congressional aides, wrote a how-to guide for liberals looking to resist Trump. Tea partiers used these events to great effect both to directly pressure their [members of Congress] and to attract media to their cause, the co-founders wroteof town halls.

They also provide PR tips to help make the protests appear pervasive and produce made-for-TV moments:

And of course, Record everything!

Unfavorable exchanges caught on video can be devastating for [members of Congress], they write. These clips can be shared through social media and picked up by local and national media.

Tea party protesters did this in opposition to Obamacare during the 2009 summer recess. Though Obamacare passed 7 months later, the town hall protests scared many moderate members of Congress and helped fuel the movement that successfully took back the House of Representatives in the 2010 midterms and made gains in the Senate.

That experience was so jarring to Democrats that it dampened enthusiasm for in-person events for years. Democrats Skip Town Halls to Avoid Voter Rage, the New York Times reported in 2010. But Republicans appear to be embracing this strategy of avoidance with even more vigor than the Democrats ever did. Despite outnumbering Democrats in Congress 292 to 241, Republicans are holding 19 fewer in-person town hall events than their colleagues across the aisle in the first two months (54 fewer if you dont count Sensenbrenners 35).

But ultimately both parties are holding fewer in-person events to avoid unwanted viral moments. Senior Democratic lawmakers this week asked progressive favorite Sen. Bernie Sanders to reach out to activists and urge them to not protest at Democratic town halls, according to the Washington Post.

I bet if you looked at the number of members of Congress holding fundraisers next week during recess, it would be nearly 100 percent, said Ezra Levin, co-founder of the Indivisible Project. Constituents should demand that 100 percent also attend town halls, he added.

Some constituents are doing just that. One strategy for activists has been to host their own town halls and invite their representatives to attend. The office of Rep. John Carter of Texas declined such an invitation, citing safety reasons. Rep. Martha McSally of Arizona also rejected a similar overture, calling it a political ambush.

Another method has been to confront senators and representative in public places and demand they hold a town hall. Shivers went down the spines of many Republican communications directors on the Hill this week when a few dozen protesters confronted Sen. Steve Daines of Montana at the airport.

Matt Powell-Palm, one of the activists there, said the demonstration was organized by several progressive groups in Montana, including a local chapter of Indivisible.

Naturally, he filmed the whole thing.

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Duck and cover - VICE News

Tennessee is providing an early preview of the disruption that could ensue if lawmakers leave Obamacare in limbo.

At least 40,000 people in the Knoxville area may have no health plans to pick from in the Affordable Care Acts markets after insurer Humana Inc. opted to pull out from all 11 states where it still sell plans in 2018. Another 39,000 in the state would be forced to find a new insurance company.

Its a warning of what may come if lawmakers dont do more to shore up the markets. Some big insurers have retreated in the face of mounting losses, while those that have stuck around say that they need more certainty about the rules of the road from the Trump administration and Congress to continue to sell ACA health coverage. And the markets are already fragile, with 43 percent of enrollees having just one or two insurers to pick from, according to the Kaiser Family Foundation.

I wouldnt be surprised if we hear of other insurers leaving, said Cynthia Cox, who analyzes insurance markets at the foundation. Right now, theres just not a lot of incentive for insurers to stick around.

Tennessees insurance regulator, Julie Mix McPeak, said that shes pushing Humana to stick around, and also trying to convince other insurers to sell in the state. Its not an easy task.

It is that level of uncertainty that is so problematic for insurers right now trying to decide whether to participate, McPeak said during a briefing for reporters.

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Insurers including Anthem Inc. called the proposed regulation an important step, but it may not go far enough to reassure the industry.Molina Healthcare Inc., one of the few big insurers thats stuck with the exchanges, told analysts on Wednesday there are too many unknowns with the program to commit beyond 2017 after the company racked up $110 million in losses last year.

We will wait to see how the new administration and Congress will adjust the program, CEO J. Mario Molina said.

Lamar Alexander, the Tennessee Republican who heads the Senates health committee, has been warning of insurers exits that leave consumers without options, urging his fellow lawmakers to come up with a rescue plan.

Humanas decision, he said, should light a fire under every member of Congress.

Knoxvilles situation isnt a first. Ahead of the sign-up season for 2017 health plans, residents of Arizonas Pinal County faced the prospect of having no health-insurance options after two health plans exited. State and federal officials scrambled, and the states Blue Cross and Blue Shield carrier agreed to stick around.

This year, though, it may be harder to convince insurers to stay. The Trump administration has sent mixed signals about its willingness to support the markets. The new regulation could help, but the administration also paused some Obamacare outreach in the final days of the enrollment period.

Plus, top administration officials have declared the health law a disaster. Tom Price, the new Health and Human Services secretary, started off his statement on the rules by saying: Obamacare has failed.

The health law relies on private insurers to offer insurance options in its exchanges. If insurers make the decision that the markets arent a good business opportunity, thatll undermine the system.

Its a lot to expect of insurers to expect them to continue in the face of uncertainty, while theyre earning low profits, said Craig Garthwaite, a professor at Northwestern Universitys Kellogg School of Management. I want to believe that the government wants to shore these things up, but I just dont see it in their actions.

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Tennessee Hints at Chaos If Republicans Leave Obamacare in Limbo - Bloomberg