Nice Beginning for a New Congress

We are very pleased that the Rules of the House have been amended to require committees to hold hearings regarding waste, fraud, abuse, or mismanagement by the agencies they oversee.  We very modestly point out that we had sent a letter to the sponsor of the change, Rep. John Tanner (D-TN), supporting his new rule, contained in H. Res. 40.  The measure passed yesterday by a bi-partisan vote of 423-0.

Tanner's point, as explained in his statement, was to “re-establish Congressional oversight,” which as we've pointed out often enough, has not been nearly aggressive enough in recent years.  Now each House committee will be required to conduct at least three hearings each year on the topic of waste, fraud, abuse, or mismanagement within the agencies under its jurisdiction.  In addition, at least one other hearing will be required if the agency's auditors issue disclaimers regarding the agency's financial report, or if the GAO identifies an agency program as being “high risk.”

Tanner also noted in his floor remarks yesterday that roughly 13,000 recommendations by agency Inspectors General have not been implemented by the agencies; he frankly stated that is “a dereliction of the duty of the Congress.”  Now, he said, there will be “a systematic, structural oversight mechanism, where the House will look at not only what we are going to do, but what we've already done.”

Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) hailed the action to strengthen oversight, and the Blue Dog Coalition of conservative Democrats, of which Tanner is a member, praised his “dedication to the Blue Dog tenet of fiscal responsibility.”

Now it's up to both the Inspectors General and the Congress to give federal agencies the scrutiny the taxpayers demand.  As we said in our letter of support for H. Res. 40:

Frankly, there are two problems with Congress's ignoring IG reports--one is the more common, when the IG has done good work and makes important recommendations that need to be but are not implemented.  The other problem is the flip side to this--some IGs produce only mediocre work and do not challenge their agencies aggressively enough.  Congress needs to pay attention in both cases.

-- Beverley Lumpkin