This is the weekly review of the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform. There wasn't much happening last week because it was 'President's Day District Work Period'. No hearings were held and no new legislation introduced. However, there were a few requests to open new investigations and gather information from government agencies.
Make the jump to read more about these requests, see the schedule of upcoming hearings, and get a sneak preview of the Oversight Plan for the 110th Congress.
Week Ahead: Hearings
- Wednesday, February 28: Full Committee Business Meeting, immediately followed by Full Committee hearing on Reforming the Presidential Library Funding Disclosure Process
To examine the need for public disclosure of donations made to private foundations established to fund presidential libraries and related facilities. The committee will consider possible legislative proposals to require such disclosure.
Witnesses:
Sharon Fawcett, National Archives and Records Administration
Celia Viggo Wexler, Common Cause
Sheila Krumholz, Center for Responsive Politics
10:00 am, in 2154 Rayburn House Office Building
- Wednesday, February 28: Subcommittee on Government Management, Organization, and Procurement hearing on 9/11 Health Effects: Federal Monitoring and Treatment of Residents and Responders
12:00 Noon, in 2247 Rayburn House Office Building
- Thursday, March 1: Subcommittee on Information Policy, Census, and National Archives hearing on The Presidential Records Act of 1978: A Review of Executive Branch Implementation and Compliance
There isn’t any information about the witnesses or purpose of the hearing but it looks like they are going to be addressing the withholding of documents by the President and Vice President based on [unitary] executive privilege.
2:00 pm, in 2154 Rayburn House Office Building
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Week in Review: 02/18/07-02/24/07
Requests
- Spurred by the WaPo's investigative series on the Walter Reed Army Medical Center, Ranking Member, Tom Davis requested a hearing to look into the treatment (and lack thereof) of wounded soldiers. He proposed that the hearing be held at Walter Reed so that the Committee can get a first-hand look at the facilities and the system. Waxman has already scheduled a date for this (Monday, March 5th). The time will be announced soon.
- Davis also sent a request to Waxman asking for a Hearing on DoD Support of National Guard Missions. The Government Accountability Office (GAO) has recently issued two reports dealing with the lack of funding and training, particularly in chemical and biological preparedness and response. The National Guard is also inadequately prepared to deal with large scale, multi-state natural disasters or terrorist attacks because State and Federal agencies have yet to complete plans for integrating the Guard into emergency responses per the Homeland Security's disaster planning scenarios.
- Waxman sent a letter to Ralph Cicerone, President of the National Academy of Sciences, requesting a panel to study and report on the environmental and economic issues related to biofuels and liquid fuels derived from coal. From the perspective of decreasing our dependence on oil and issues of global warming, what approaches are most feasible, cost-effective and environmentally safe?
- Waxman sent a request to the Transportation Security Administration asking for information about a website designed to help travelers remove themselves from ‘no-fly’ lists. The website was collecting personal information like social security numbers, driver’s license numbers and birthdates without ensuring the privacy and security of the information submitted. It wasn’t even hosted on a government server. "The overall appearance of the site was so poor that web experts first assumed it was a so-called ‘phishing’ site, a site internet hackers had created to look like a TSA webpage." The website has since been taken down, but the Committee is requesting details on the contractor that created the site and details about how the TSA handled the security breach.
Reports
I found a couple of Reports on the Minority website, discussing the future and past activities of the Oversight and Reform Committee:
- The Oversight Plan for the 110th Congress (PDF, 38 pages)
I’m still reading through this and plan to do a supplemental diary to summarize all the areas the Committee plans to investigate. The suggested areas for Oversight come primarily from a GAO report of 36 High Risk government programs that are particularly prone to waste, fraud, and abuse. These include Election System integrity, Government Contracting, the Iraq War, Healthcare and the White House. While the report is short on details, I’m presuming and hoping that the latter means investigation of the lies and crimes perpetrated by Bush/Cheney. The link is there if you want to go read for yourself.
- Official Activity Report of the 109th Congress (PDF, 272 pages)
I haven't looked much at this yet. The most interesting part is probably Waxman's statement at the end of the Report, "Views of Ranking Minority Member Henry A. Waxman", wherein he gives counter arguments and opinions about some of the results and conclusions reached by the then Republican controlled Committee.
Stay tuned for more on both of these Reports.