Role And Purpose Of Congressional Oversight In The United States
Essay Examination (What is “Congressional oversight”) Robert Johnson
Dr. Joe Trachtenberg
Political Science (3360) Congress
22 June 2013
What is “congressional oversight”? Explain in detail how congressional oversight may be used by House and Senate members for political purposes to score points against the other party, and perhaps the president, if he is of the other party. Explain in detail how congressional oversight may be used by House and Senate members in a non-politicized/non-partisan effort to see to it that “the laws are faithfully executed” by the executive branch and, or independent agencies of the federal government. The primary role and purpose of the Congressional oversight is to oversee the national
Governmental responsibilities and to ensure laws are faithfully executed by the president and
Federal administrators. …show more content…
The three types of oversight are legislative, fiscal, and investigative.
Authorizing committees, such as Agriculture, armed Services, and Commerce, review federal
programs and agencies under their jurisdictions and, if necessary, propose legislation or use other
means to remedy deficiencies they uncovered. The fiscal oversight scrutinizes agency spending
and holds agencies accountable for their fiscal decisions. The investigative oversight looks for
inefficiency, waste, and corruption in the federal government. he Constitution gives Congress an
important role in national defense, including the exclusive power to declare war, to raise and
maintain the armed forces and to make rules for the military. The US President is commander-
in-chief of the military, the Department of Defense, headed by the Secretary of Defense, as the
principal organ by which military policy is carried out.
Congress also has the power to establish post offices and post roads, issue patents and
copyrights, fix standards of weights and measures. Another power is to establish courts inferior
to the Supreme Court, which is the highest judicial body in the United States, and which leads?
the federal judiciary. The power to admit new states to the Union is vested in the Congress also.
One of the foremost non-legislative functions of the Congress is the power to investigate and
to oversee the executive branch. Congressional Oversight is usually delegated to committees and
is facilitated by Congress’s subpoena power. Congress also has the exclusive power of removal,
allowing impeachment and removal of the President, federal judges and other federal officers.
Congressional Oversight is also when the House and Senate continually review how effectively
the executive branch is carrying out congressional mandates. The can be known as “supervision,
watchfulness, or review of executive actions and activities.” This is often carried out by the
committee structures of the House and Senate. Oversight is so important because the revision
and supervision of the executive activities allow congress to find and address problem areas.
Finding these problem areas then allow them to make the necessary improvements or change to
create an effective process.
Congressional Oversight is important for more reasons than one. Oversight gives the public a view on important issues; this gives the American people the opportunity to have an opinion on what the executive branch is doing, and how they are going about it. It also allows them the opportunity see what officeholders are actually doing, and if they are performing their jobs how they should be. I believe the American public is unaware of what the government actually does, and any help that congress can give to the American public to make them more aware and interest in what our government and is office holders really do. Despite the evolving nature of our government, and the changing identity of politics throughout history, oversight has been an important function of the legislative branch since our nation’s beginning. Some tactics of oversight include; impeachment, investigation, congress’s power of the purse, and its authority to pass laws that creates programs and agencies. Congress formalized its legislative oversight function in the Legislative Re-organization act of 1946. This act required congressional committees to exercise “continuous watchfulness” of the agencies under their jurisdictions and implicitly divided oversight functions into three areas.”
(Oleszek, 2007, p.290) Oversight is essentially the “check” on the executive branch that balances everything out.
Oversight varies from committee to committee. One thing is for sure although is the large role that the press and media serve in investigating and reporting on government affairs. The traditional method of exercising congressional oversight is through committee hearings and investigations into executive branch operations. It is important that legislators know if federal programs are functioning correctly. It is also important that they are aware of the amount, or lack of, public support for governmental programs. Another technique that is used to perform oversight is a legislative veto. In 1932, Congress included in their statutes the right to Congress to approve or disapprove executive actions. A legislative veto allows one or both chambers to veto certain executive activities by majority vote. In additional to legislative veto, Congress chooses to grant committees the authority to approve or disapprove executive actions as well, known as committee
veto. The other technique of Congressional Oversight is Impeachment. This is essentially the “ultimate check on the executive and judicial branch, known as the removal power.” Even more importantly this removal is exclusive to Congress. Article II, Section 4, of the Constitution states: “The President, Vice President, and all Civil Officers of the United States, shall be removed from office on Impeach for, and Conviction of, Treason, Bribery, or other high crimes and misdemeanors.” The House has the authority to impeach an official by majority vote. The House trial managers then prosecute and case before the Senate, where a two thirds vote is required. In the history of the US, the House has impeached seventeen people; two presidents, one Supreme Court Justice, on Senator, one cabinet officer and twelve federal judges, of those the Senate convicted seven judges who were removed from office. In December of 1998, President Bill Clinton was the first elected president to be impeached by the House, despite the Senate voting acquittal on the charges two months later. (in 1868 Andrew Johnson was impeached but he was not elected) Oversight is an implied rather than an enumerated power under the U.S. Constitution. The government’s charter does not explicitly grant Congress the authority to conduct inquiries or investigation of the executive, to have access to records or materials held by the executive, or to issue subpoenas for documents or testimony from the executive. The Supreme Count of the United States made legitimate the oversight powers of Congress, subject to constitutional safeguards for civil liberties, on several occasions.
Congressional oversight may be used by House and Senate members in a non-politicized/non-partisan effort to see to it that “the laws are faithfully executed” by the executive branch and, or independent agencies of the federal government. There are times when congress agrees with the President and there are times when they may disagree with the President. This can come from having a Democratic President and a congressional house full of Republicans. Congress asserts its own role in non-politicized and non partisan issues, i.e., if the President wants to give aid to a disaster stricken country, congress can go ahead and say “no” and if more congress members agrees on it the President cannot go ahead with the plan if he does not get a majority of the votes from congress. The framers of the U.S. Constitution created a presidency that must win cooperation from Congress to get the work of government done. Lawmaking and policy making powers are divided, and the politics of shared power has often been stormy. In general, however, Congress and Presidents somehow find ways to collaborate and solve problems. The relationship between a president and congress is the most important one in the American political system, and while presidents spend great energy courting the media and appealing to the public, they do so in large part to gain support in Congress. There has been a decrease in Congressional oversight procedures. While the legislative branch is supposed to write the law according to Article 1 of the Constitution, example, the USA Patriot Act can hardly be called a product of Congress. It was written by top Bush Administration advisors and was passed in Congress without debate and deliberation. Many members of Congress have admitted to not reading the Act before voting on it (Current threats 2008). The success has diminished over time. It is in this writer’s opinion that the three branches do not interact very well. There seems to be a power struggle happening between the three branches of government. Several steps must be taken in order for Congress to reclaim their initial responsibilities that were set out for them in the Constitution; however, there are two dynamics in question because of the differing chambers in the United States Congress. There would have to be a different means of action implemented to get Congress members to assume their responsibilities and carry them out effectively. In the Senate, due to endless debate, Senators would have to learn to not only try to advance the wants and needs of their constituents, but to also be advocates of national policy and try to further the passage of laws on behalf of the nation as well. Several factors can cause conflict in our system of separated institutions sharing power. Among them are constitutional ambiguities, different constituencies, varying terms of office, divided party control of the different branches, and fluctuating support of the president or congress. The media may exaggerate presidential tensions or disputes with Congress, yet clashes between the branches over presidential nominations, vetoes, budget proposals, military actions, and the exercise of executive privilege and executive orders are inevitable. These and other political realities are part of the continuing struggle that shapes presidential and congressional relations. Presidential powers have increased over the past 60 years, so, congressional oversight is vital. The framers created a presidency of limited powers, yet the role and leadership responsibilities of presidents increased as a result of national security and economic emergencies throughout the past several generations and because of the nation’s world leadership responsibilities in this era. Congress usually tries to assert itself and serve as a reasonable and responsible check on the exercise of presidential power, it is sometimes effective and sometimes less effective in this role; yet no president can ever take congressional support for granted and presidents can always expect at least suspicion of not hostile actions from the opposition party in congress. Congress has the job of watching over the president. If Congress detects any corruption by the president, it can bring about charges to impeach the president. Also, if the president becomes incapacitated it is up to Congress to determine him as unfit to continue his duties. Congressional oversight in the areas is treaties, and again foreign affairs, the Senate must ratify all treated by a two-thirds vote. (Compton’s Encyclopedia, online). Congress has surrendered its policy forming purposes to the President in diverse pivotal sections, specifically domestic levels of budgeting, agenda setting, policy making, and also foreign policy section regarding wars, treated, and involvement in international affairs (Davidson et al 2012). The type of interaction between the congress and the executive branch has crystallized through an increased renunciation of Congressional responsibilities, heightened gridlock in Congress and the extension of congressional power to the president such as executive orders, proclaiming a federal crises, and endorsing federal declaration (Davidson et al 2012). However, the most important reason Congress has willingly transferred many of their legislative powers to the president is because it is convenient for them to have less agenda items to worry about and also to not have to serve the consequences of an unsuccessful policy (Fisher 1988).
President Obama recently signed an executive order this year setting sustainability standards for Federal agencies to improve energy performance. During the past century, the President has taken a large part in setting the agenda of Congress. Sponsoring legislation, using the bully pulpit, and using his role as the party leader have lead to what Sundquist calls the president new role as “Chief Legislator” (Sundquist 1981). Despite the fact that Congress has transferred an extensive amount of power to the executive branch, they still have the ability to limit and even reverse this shirt. As Howell and Pevehouse point out, the Republican Party controlled Congress and because of the “Partisan unit, not institutional laziness, explains why the Bush administration’s Iraq policy received such favorable hearing in Congress from 2000 to 2006. Additionally, the loss of even a handful of seats can affect the probability that the nation will go to war (Howell and Pevehouse 2007). Congressional members that want to showcase mistakes made by the President that can negatively affect his approval ratings usually use their checking abilities. Another thing to consider is that many times, presidents rather “abandon the sword as their primary tool of diplomacy” (Howell and Pevenhouse 2007) when they sense a congressional resistance to the policy they will bring forth so there lacks a need for Congress to check the president war powers Congress’s power of the purse is one of the most important tools they can use to check presidential powers by controlling the duration of wars, scheduling debates regarding foreign policy, how much funding is available to spend on war related equipment, troops, traveling costs, and many other things.
References:
Mount Steve, (1995), US Constitution online. US Constitution online.
Retrieved June7, 2013 from http://www.usconstitution.net/
The United States Supreme Court. (2008). Self-Regulation is a Violation of the Constitution. Retrieved June 17, 2013 from http: www.perkel.com/pbl/regulate.htm.
The Bill of Rights Defense Committee, (2008). Current Threats: Checks and Balances, Retrieved June 17, 2013 from http://www.bodc.org/threats/checks.php
1. Carroll Van West, Don Sundquist, “Tennessee Encyclopedia of History and Culture, 2009, Retrieved: 9 January 2013.
While Dangers Gather; Congressional Check on Presidential War Powers, William G. Howell and Jon C. Pevehouse, webmaster@press.princeton.edu; Princeton University Press
Dr. Joe Trachtenberg
Political Science (3360) Congress
22 June 2013
What is “congressional oversight”? Explain in detail how congressional oversight may be used by House and Senate members for political purposes to score points against the other party, and perhaps the president, if he is of the other party. Explain in detail how congressional oversight may be used by House and Senate members in a non-politicized/non-partisan effort to see to it that “the laws are faithfully executed” by the executive branch and, or independent agencies of the federal government. The primary role and purpose of the Congressional oversight is to oversee the national
Governmental responsibilities and to ensure laws are faithfully executed by the president and
Federal administrators. …show more content…
The three types of oversight are legislative, fiscal, and investigative.
Authorizing committees, such as Agriculture, armed Services, and Commerce, review federal
programs and agencies under their jurisdictions and, if necessary, propose legislation or use other
means to remedy deficiencies they uncovered. The fiscal oversight scrutinizes agency spending
and holds agencies accountable for their fiscal decisions. The investigative oversight looks for
inefficiency, waste, and corruption in the federal government. he Constitution gives Congress an
important role in national defense, including the exclusive power to declare war, to raise and
maintain the armed forces and to make rules for the military. The US President is commander-
in-chief of the military, the Department of Defense, headed by the Secretary of Defense, as the
principal organ by which military policy is carried out.
Congress also has the power to establish post offices and post roads, issue patents and
copyrights, fix standards of weights and measures. Another power is to establish courts inferior
to the Supreme Court, which is the highest judicial body in the United States, and which leads?
the federal judiciary. The power to admit new states to the Union is vested in the Congress also.
One of the foremost non-legislative functions of the Congress is the power to investigate and
to oversee the executive branch. Congressional Oversight is usually delegated to committees and
is facilitated by Congress’s subpoena power. Congress also has the exclusive power of removal,
allowing impeachment and removal of the President, federal judges and other federal officers.
Congressional Oversight is also when the House and Senate continually review how effectively
the executive branch is carrying out congressional mandates. The can be known as “supervision,
watchfulness, or review of executive actions and activities.” This is often carried out by the
committee structures of the House and Senate. Oversight is so important because the revision
and supervision of the executive activities allow congress to find and address problem areas.
Finding these problem areas then allow them to make the necessary improvements or change to
create an effective process.
Congressional Oversight is important for more reasons than one. Oversight gives the public a view on important issues; this gives the American people the opportunity to have an opinion on what the executive branch is doing, and how they are going about it. It also allows them the opportunity see what officeholders are actually doing, and if they are performing their jobs how they should be. I believe the American public is unaware of what the government actually does, and any help that congress can give to the American public to make them more aware and interest in what our government and is office holders really do. Despite the evolving nature of our government, and the changing identity of politics throughout history, oversight has been an important function of the legislative branch since our nation’s beginning. Some tactics of oversight include; impeachment, investigation, congress’s power of the purse, and its authority to pass laws that creates programs and agencies. Congress formalized its legislative oversight function in the Legislative Re-organization act of 1946. This act required congressional committees to exercise “continuous watchfulness” of the agencies under their jurisdictions and implicitly divided oversight functions into three areas.”
(Oleszek, 2007, p.290) Oversight is essentially the “check” on the executive branch that balances everything out.
Oversight varies from committee to committee. One thing is for sure although is the large role that the press and media serve in investigating and reporting on government affairs. The traditional method of exercising congressional oversight is through committee hearings and investigations into executive branch operations. It is important that legislators know if federal programs are functioning correctly. It is also important that they are aware of the amount, or lack of, public support for governmental programs. Another technique that is used to perform oversight is a legislative veto. In 1932, Congress included in their statutes the right to Congress to approve or disapprove executive actions. A legislative veto allows one or both chambers to veto certain executive activities by majority vote. In additional to legislative veto, Congress chooses to grant committees the authority to approve or disapprove executive actions as well, known as committee
veto. The other technique of Congressional Oversight is Impeachment. This is essentially the “ultimate check on the executive and judicial branch, known as the removal power.” Even more importantly this removal is exclusive to Congress. Article II, Section 4, of the Constitution states: “The President, Vice President, and all Civil Officers of the United States, shall be removed from office on Impeach for, and Conviction of, Treason, Bribery, or other high crimes and misdemeanors.” The House has the authority to impeach an official by majority vote. The House trial managers then prosecute and case before the Senate, where a two thirds vote is required. In the history of the US, the House has impeached seventeen people; two presidents, one Supreme Court Justice, on Senator, one cabinet officer and twelve federal judges, of those the Senate convicted seven judges who were removed from office. In December of 1998, President Bill Clinton was the first elected president to be impeached by the House, despite the Senate voting acquittal on the charges two months later. (in 1868 Andrew Johnson was impeached but he was not elected) Oversight is an implied rather than an enumerated power under the U.S. Constitution. The government’s charter does not explicitly grant Congress the authority to conduct inquiries or investigation of the executive, to have access to records or materials held by the executive, or to issue subpoenas for documents or testimony from the executive. The Supreme Count of the United States made legitimate the oversight powers of Congress, subject to constitutional safeguards for civil liberties, on several occasions.
Congressional oversight may be used by House and Senate members in a non-politicized/non-partisan effort to see to it that “the laws are faithfully executed” by the executive branch and, or independent agencies of the federal government. There are times when congress agrees with the President and there are times when they may disagree with the President. This can come from having a Democratic President and a congressional house full of Republicans. Congress asserts its own role in non-politicized and non partisan issues, i.e., if the President wants to give aid to a disaster stricken country, congress can go ahead and say “no” and if more congress members agrees on it the President cannot go ahead with the plan if he does not get a majority of the votes from congress. The framers of the U.S. Constitution created a presidency that must win cooperation from Congress to get the work of government done. Lawmaking and policy making powers are divided, and the politics of shared power has often been stormy. In general, however, Congress and Presidents somehow find ways to collaborate and solve problems. The relationship between a president and congress is the most important one in the American political system, and while presidents spend great energy courting the media and appealing to the public, they do so in large part to gain support in Congress. There has been a decrease in Congressional oversight procedures. While the legislative branch is supposed to write the law according to Article 1 of the Constitution, example, the USA Patriot Act can hardly be called a product of Congress. It was written by top Bush Administration advisors and was passed in Congress without debate and deliberation. Many members of Congress have admitted to not reading the Act before voting on it (Current threats 2008). The success has diminished over time. It is in this writer’s opinion that the three branches do not interact very well. There seems to be a power struggle happening between the three branches of government. Several steps must be taken in order for Congress to reclaim their initial responsibilities that were set out for them in the Constitution; however, there are two dynamics in question because of the differing chambers in the United States Congress. There would have to be a different means of action implemented to get Congress members to assume their responsibilities and carry them out effectively. In the Senate, due to endless debate, Senators would have to learn to not only try to advance the wants and needs of their constituents, but to also be advocates of national policy and try to further the passage of laws on behalf of the nation as well. Several factors can cause conflict in our system of separated institutions sharing power. Among them are constitutional ambiguities, different constituencies, varying terms of office, divided party control of the different branches, and fluctuating support of the president or congress. The media may exaggerate presidential tensions or disputes with Congress, yet clashes between the branches over presidential nominations, vetoes, budget proposals, military actions, and the exercise of executive privilege and executive orders are inevitable. These and other political realities are part of the continuing struggle that shapes presidential and congressional relations. Presidential powers have increased over the past 60 years, so, congressional oversight is vital. The framers created a presidency of limited powers, yet the role and leadership responsibilities of presidents increased as a result of national security and economic emergencies throughout the past several generations and because of the nation’s world leadership responsibilities in this era. Congress usually tries to assert itself and serve as a reasonable and responsible check on the exercise of presidential power, it is sometimes effective and sometimes less effective in this role; yet no president can ever take congressional support for granted and presidents can always expect at least suspicion of not hostile actions from the opposition party in congress. Congress has the job of watching over the president. If Congress detects any corruption by the president, it can bring about charges to impeach the president. Also, if the president becomes incapacitated it is up to Congress to determine him as unfit to continue his duties. Congressional oversight in the areas is treaties, and again foreign affairs, the Senate must ratify all treated by a two-thirds vote. (Compton’s Encyclopedia, online). Congress has surrendered its policy forming purposes to the President in diverse pivotal sections, specifically domestic levels of budgeting, agenda setting, policy making, and also foreign policy section regarding wars, treated, and involvement in international affairs (Davidson et al 2012). The type of interaction between the congress and the executive branch has crystallized through an increased renunciation of Congressional responsibilities, heightened gridlock in Congress and the extension of congressional power to the president such as executive orders, proclaiming a federal crises, and endorsing federal declaration (Davidson et al 2012). However, the most important reason Congress has willingly transferred many of their legislative powers to the president is because it is convenient for them to have less agenda items to worry about and also to not have to serve the consequences of an unsuccessful policy (Fisher 1988).
President Obama recently signed an executive order this year setting sustainability standards for Federal agencies to improve energy performance. During the past century, the President has taken a large part in setting the agenda of Congress. Sponsoring legislation, using the bully pulpit, and using his role as the party leader have lead to what Sundquist calls the president new role as “Chief Legislator” (Sundquist 1981). Despite the fact that Congress has transferred an extensive amount of power to the executive branch, they still have the ability to limit and even reverse this shirt. As Howell and Pevehouse point out, the Republican Party controlled Congress and because of the “Partisan unit, not institutional laziness, explains why the Bush administration’s Iraq policy received such favorable hearing in Congress from 2000 to 2006. Additionally, the loss of even a handful of seats can affect the probability that the nation will go to war (Howell and Pevehouse 2007). Congressional members that want to showcase mistakes made by the President that can negatively affect his approval ratings usually use their checking abilities. Another thing to consider is that many times, presidents rather “abandon the sword as their primary tool of diplomacy” (Howell and Pevenhouse 2007) when they sense a congressional resistance to the policy they will bring forth so there lacks a need for Congress to check the president war powers Congress’s power of the purse is one of the most important tools they can use to check presidential powers by controlling the duration of wars, scheduling debates regarding foreign policy, how much funding is available to spend on war related equipment, troops, traveling costs, and many other things.
References:
Mount Steve, (1995), US Constitution online. US Constitution online.
Retrieved June7, 2013 from http://www.usconstitution.net/
The United States Supreme Court. (2008). Self-Regulation is a Violation of the Constitution. Retrieved June 17, 2013 from http: www.perkel.com/pbl/regulate.htm.
The Bill of Rights Defense Committee, (2008). Current Threats: Checks and Balances, Retrieved June 17, 2013 from http://www.bodc.org/threats/checks.php
1. Carroll Van West, Don Sundquist, “Tennessee Encyclopedia of History and Culture, 2009, Retrieved: 9 January 2013.
While Dangers Gather; Congressional Check on Presidential War Powers, William G. Howell and Jon C. Pevehouse, webmaster@press.princeton.edu; Princeton University Press