Yes, one would think he SHOULD issue a friendly subpoena as you suggested.
Just googled some articles about him…and looks like Neal is a super cautious Representative. He’s already done the request for a backlog of T’s taxes via the courts with a subpoena, but as we’ve seen that’s gotten kicked down the road in the courts.
(Potentially the date Dec 13 might be a day when the SC will push those T appeals back, and make the appellate decision of already approving their release stick)
According to Boston Globe, Rep Neal is facing a primary challenge this year in his Western MA area. He’s been their Rep for 30 years.
The average Western Mass. voter doesn’t wince when someone is called a transactional politician,” he said. “You don’t win in Western Mass. if you’re just railing against the system. This is not a hotbed of insurgency.”
There are signs that might be changing.
In his district, which encompasses most of the western third of the state, Neal faces his second consecutive Democratic primary challenger next year amid increasing frustration by progressives. They are upset with what they call his lack of urgency on key issues and limited opportunities for constituents to question him.
“I understand that he has worked very many years to achieve the position that he is in,” said Erin Freed, a local activist. “What I don’t understand is why he believes that he should keep that position without talking to his constituents.”
The groups are considering endorsing Neal’s 2020 primary challenger, Alex Morse, the mayor of Holyoke, who said people in the district are frustrated.
“They feel like they don’t have a member of Congress that’s accessible and listening to their concerns,” said Morse, who is backed by the national progressive organization that helped Representatives Ayanna Pressley of Massachusetts and Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez of New York upset incumbent Democrats in 2018.
Neal, 70, the longest-serving House member from New England,has fought back
against the criticism.
And a more recent article about Rep Neal’s comments regarding the WB (Oct 2019) show that it is Grassley who feels more urgency about getting to the WB and hashing it out, rather than Neal’s tepid response.
Neal told reporters in Springfield, Mass., Oct. 1, according to audio posted by WAMC radio.
Neal cited the whistleblower’s complaint in a court filing in August, as part of an ongoing lawsuit to enforce a subpoena to review Trump’s tax returns. The filing didn’t provide specifics about the whistleblower’s concerns.
Spokespeople for Neal didn’t respond immediately to requests for more information. On Sept. 27 Neal told reporters that he would consult with House lawyers, who represent him in the lawsuit for Trump’s tax returns, about making that whistleblower’s complaint public in a way similar to the publishing of an intelligence community whistleblower complaint.
Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa), chairman of the Senate Finance Committee and a longtime whistleblower advocate, criticized Neal’s handling of the complaint.
“Talking about the existence of a complaint before taking the time to speak with the whistleblower or follow up on the whistleblower’s complaint is irresponsible,” Grassley said in a statement. “Perhaps the most important practice when it comes to taking whistleblower complaints is making sure the whistleblower has agreed to have his or her complaint made public.”
Added Grassley: “Anyone who receives a whistleblower complaint should also make some effort to evaluate the facts as alleged before going public with such a complaint. This minimizes the risks to whistleblowers and maintains the sanctity of the whistleblower process.”
