Oversight Before Reform

In a telling move, the new Democratic majority has given the House Government Reform Committee a new name: the Committee on Oversight and Government Reform. Observers have indicated that they expect the committee’s new chairman, Rep. Henry Waxman, D-Calif., to focus more attention on oversight of the executive branch and the subtle name change seems to confirm that.

The panel was created in 1927 as the Committee on Expenditures in the Executive Departments. In 1951 its name was changed to the Government Operations Committee to reflect a focus on overseeing agency operations. After the 1994 Republican takeover of Congress, the Committee on the Post Office and the Civil Service and the Committee on the District of Columbia were combined with Government Operations to form the Committee on Government Reform and Oversight. Then, for the 106th Congress, the word “oversight” was taken off the panel’s name when it assumed the Government Reform Committee name. -- Daniel Pulliam