That’s what most people are reacting too. They have a complicated voting process to even issue a subpoena to force someone to show up. The perception is that that process should actually force someone to show up.
What we’re seeing is that when they don’t. It’s a complicated process (whichever one they use) to actually apply any force. With lots and lots and then even more delays between when the not showing up happens and when any action seems to take place.
There’s two different and distinct problems in the process too, beyond all the steps and time it takes.
First, Congress isn’t actually applying the force. They’re referring to the Justice department. So there’s the long delay to decide to refer, and then the delay once it gets there for Justice to act. Even if Congress isn’t going to have its own ability to enforce its own subpoena, the process of enforcement should be faster. In this example, Bannon isn’t fighting the enforcement action. The enforcement action hasn’t even started yet.
Second, that it’s a recommendation to the Justice department that they can decide to ignore. Especially a problem if the Justice department leaders like the person more than congress.
Combined, they make a congressional subpoena almost meaningless. Ideally, enforcement action and fighting that enforcement to show up should happen immediately after not showing up. Someone who wants to fight before showing up should have to actually fight showing up, and then fight the enforcement if they lose the first one.
