By CHARLES BABINGTON, Associated Press Writer
August 22, 2007
WASHINGTON - Congressional Democrats are using subpoenas and
other investigatory powers to expose Bush administration missteps
and push for policy changes even as they struggle at times
to enact legislation.
Backed by hundreds of hearings that compel the administration's
attention but often draw scant publicity, House and Senate
Democrats are leaving their stamp on a range of governmental
matters, without passing a bill.
Congressional inquiries have prompted the Federal Emergency
Management Agency to test trailers used by displaced hurricane
victims for formaldehyde poisoning. They triggered a Justice
Department investigation into Attorney General Alberto Gonzales'
role in firing federal prosecutors.
Other probes spurred the Army to recover millions of dollars
in overpayments to private security contractors in Iraq. And
the mere threat of Democratic-run hearings prompted President
Bush, after months of resisting, to submit a controversial
warrantless wiretap program to a special court's review.
Congress' oversight and investigative powers are especially
vital to Democrats because a potent GOP minority in the Senate
has kept them from passing legislation on issues such as immigration
and an Iraq withdrawal plan.
"Maybe it's even more important than legislation," said
Rep. Henry Waxman, D-Calif., a key player who chairs the House
Oversight and Government Reform Committee.
Democrats' ability to conduct such hearings "has been
the most important change since the 2006 election in terms
of relations between the Congress and the administration," said
Thomas E. Mann, a Brookings Institution scholar and co-author
of a book on Congress, "The Broken Branch."
"I have no doubt the hearings have altered the course
the administration has taken on a range of areas, including
Iraq," Mann said.
The White House has complained bitterly about the sharp increase
in congressional inquiries since Democrats took over the House
and Senate in January.
"I would hope Congress would become more prone to deliver
pieces of legislation that matter as opposed to being the investigative
body," Bush said at an Aug. 9 news conference. "I
mean, there have been over 600 different hearings, and yet
they're struggling with getting appropriations bills to my
desk."
Democrats call the inquiries long overdue after years of GOP-controlled
congresses treating the administration with a light touch. "I
don't think Congress is overdoing the oversight," Waxman
said in an interview.
New or expanded congressional inquiries seem to pop up almost
daily. On July 17, Waxman called on a former White House political
aide to testify about trips made by top federal drug policy
officials to help GOP congressional candidates in the 2006
campaign's closing weeks.
The aide, Sara Taylor, had appeared only a week earlier before
a Senate panel that subpoenaed her testimony about the prosecutor
firings.
Meanwhile:
- Waxman's panel is conducting a multi-agency search for missing
e-mail records to and from numerous White House officials who
had electronic message accounts with the Republican National
Committee.
- The House Judiciary Committee has approved contempt citations
against White House chief of staff Josh Bolten and former counsel
Harriet Miers because they refused to testify about the fired
U.S. attorneys.
- The House Select Committee on Energy Independence and Global
Warming is looking into allegations that the Smithsonian Institution
toned down a climate change exhibit to avoid angering lawmakers
and the Bush administration.
- Waxman says he will introduce legislation to protect the
surgeon general from political interference, following a hearing
in which a former surgeon general said the administration muzzled
him on sensitive public health matters.
- Waxman's committee is conducting an inquiry into the administration's
handling of the friendly fire death of former NFL player Pat
Tillman in Afghanistan, which has proved embarrassing to the
White House and Pentagon.
Rep. Tom Davis of Virginia, the top Republican on the House
oversight committee, has joined Waxman in criticizing FEMA's
formaldehyde policies and in pursuing the Tillman case. But
on other topics, he says the chairman sometimes goes overboard.
"When you have one-party government, you tend to under-investigate," Davis
said in an interview. "And when you have divided government,
you tend to over-investigate."
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