Republican argues Democrats have abdicated government oversight functions

Since President Obama was elected, Democrats on the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee have abdicated the watchdog role they once considered a top priority, the panel's ranking Republican claims in a report released Wednesday.

Rep. Darrell Issa, R-Calif., says Democrats -- who regained control of the House in 2006 -- have failed to hold the Obama administration to the same standard of scrutiny the committee leveled on the Bush administration in 2007 and 2008.

"Only four years ago Democrats lamented a lack of congressional oversight under one-party [Republican] rule," the report said. "But today, at a time of unprecedented expenditures and growth in the federal workforce and its presence in Americans' lives, with all the potential for fraud, waste and abuse such growth carries with it, the Democratic-controlled Congress has consciously abdicated its constitutional responsibility to provide oversight of the executive branch."

A spokeswoman for Chairman Edolphus Towns, D-N.Y., dismissed the report and its findings. "Staff is too busy preparing for upcoming hearings on contracting in Iraq and Johnson & Johnson's 'phantom recall' to read the minority's partisan nonsense," she said. Issa is slated to take over the committee if Republicans win back the House in November.

The report criticizes the committee leadership for not holding enough hearings; since he assumed the chairmanship in 2009, Towns has held 62 full committee hearings. His predecessor, Rep. Henry Waxman, D-Calif., who led the panel in 2007 and 2008, held 74 hearings. Issa also pointed out that of 34 hearings on national security and foreign affairs, only 13 involved an administration witness who was not an agency inspector general. The House is set to adjourn Oct. 8.

"These hearings often felt more like a think tank discussion rather than a real congressional hearing," the report said. "While it was appropriate to bring an academic perspective to these problems, not having the administration at these hearings to defend their policies did a disservice to the members of the committee and the public in general."

According to documents provided to Issa, Waxman in 2007 sent more than 450 letters seeking information from public and private sector officials, or requesting a witness' presence at a committee hearing. In 2009, Towns sent only 173 such letters -- a decline of more than 61 percent, according to the report. In the past two years combined, Towns has sent roughly 420 request letters.

"For anyone wanting to know what type of oversight we can expect from Issa next year, regardless of whether we're in the majority or minority, this pretty much is the roadmap," Issa spokesman Kurt Bardella said.

Committee Republicans have sent 46 letters to Towns and his subcommittee chairs, requesting hearings on a host of topics, including stimulus spending, health care oversight, federal agency performance management, domestic terrorism and inspector general independence. The report said formal responses were received for only six of the requests.

The spokesperson for committee Democrats, however, said some of the examples Issa cited were false, noting Democrats subpoenaed documents related to Countrywide Financial Corp.'s Friends of Angelo program and held numerous hearings on stimulus oversight.

Issa argued in the report that Democrats have held hearings on less important topics, such as the number of federal bathrooms available to women, the future of minority-owned radio stations and the challenges female felons face.

A former Democratic committee staffer disputed the report's premise, saying the panel's work during the past two years has been substantive and of vital importance to taxpayers.

"Chairman Towns is focused on finding answers and getting to the bottom of the problems that got us to where we are today," the former staffer said. "We're not going to get bogged down in comparing hearings from one committee to the next."