oversight

After interviewing Rep. Rush Holt (D-N.J.) a few minutes ago, I think I want to revise and extend my comment this morning that most members of Congress alarmed over the revelation of “significant actions” by the CIA that Director Leon Panetta recently stopped were more concerned with not being briefed than by the actions themselves.
“The [...]

There are plenty of noteworthy quotes in the Peter Baker piece on former President Bill Clinton in The New York Times Magazine, and the published interview transcript that accompanies it. So far, this strikes me as the noteworthiest; while addressing criticisms of his administration in light of recent financial failures, Clinton said:
Then there’s the argument [...]

Thomas Frank has a terrific op-ed in the Wall Street Journal today, praising President Obama’s recent presidential memorandum declaring the end of an era of unrestrained government outsourcing.
The president “meant to put the kibosh on the GOP’s favorite method for spreading the wealth around,” Frank writes, noting the astronomical growth of federal spending under former [...]

Amid the Democrats’ boostering and the Republicans’ assaults on the final stimulus package, almost no one is focusing on a key part of the bill that will be critical to making it work: accountability for how that $787 billion is spent. In fact, a look at the final bill reveals that to a large extent, [...]

As chairman of the House oversight committee, Henry Waxman (D-Calif.) uncovered critical information about the worst reported abuses of power in the Bush administration.

When Sen. Joe Lieberman (I-Conn.)  meets on Capitol Hill today with Nevada Sen. Harry Reid, the Senate majority leader, the big question will be whether Lieberman, an ardent John McCain backer, will be cut off entirely from the Democratic caucus. What’s almost certain, though, is that Lieberman will lose his chairmanship of the Senate oversight [...]

Not Rep. Henry A. Waxman (D-CA) if he can help it.
As Mike flagged yesterday, Waxman, the chairman of the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform, will challenge Rep. John Dingell (D-MI) for the post of House Energy and Commerce Committee chair. Waxman called Dingell this morning. A Dingell spokesman has called the challenge “unhealthy.”
Dingell [...]

This is at least the fourth time I’ve heard someone refer to the Bush administration’s proposed regulation on the Endangered Species Act as the “fox guarding the henhouse.”
It’s not just because endangered-species workers love animal analogies. It’s because the new rule gives government agencies the power, sans oversight, to decide for themselves whether their own [...]

Lehman Bros. CEO Richard Fuld, in a written statement for the House oversight committee, portrays himself as a victim of mortgage-market forces beyond his control. Fuld writes, “What happened to Lehman Bros. [which could have been one of the largest bankruptcies in U.S. history] could have happened to any firm on Wall Street and almost [...]

The House oversight committee is holding a hearing now on the collapse of Lehman Bros. and the financial crisis generally. This hearing– and four others– will likely provide hints of how Congress, post-bailout bill, will try to revamp how the government polices Wall Street.
The committee has produced internal Lehman Bros. documents that show Lehman CEO [...]