As the House GOP gets set to unveil its new agenda – the title, by the way, is the Pledge for America – the staff of Rep. Darrell Issa (R-Ca.) sends reporters a 16-page report titled “A Constitutional Obligation: Congressional Oversight of the Executive Branch.” The document tips Issa’s hand on something that Democrats have been worrying about for months: If Republicans win the House, and he runs the Committee on Oversight and Government Reform, what gets investigated?
There are two lists: One of oversight totally neglected by Democrats, one of hearings requested by Republicans that never happened. The first list: federal agency performance management, federal emergency management,federal IT systems, federal financial management, the PresidentialRecords Act, ACORN, Countrywide, food safety, stimulus spending, theSEC, TARP, and “the independence of inspectors general.” The second list: Food Safety, Homeland Security, Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, Health care reform oversight, stimulus spending, the Minerals Management Service, and Climategate (which Issa’s staff calls “Politicization of Science”).
That’s a pretty good guide to the issues that would be targeted if John Boehner picks up the speaker’s gavel. As to the ACORN issue, I’m reliably informed that there won’t be hearings on ACORN per se – it stopped existing – but possibly hearings on ACORN’s splinter groups and voter registration fraud in general.
