OMB management chief welcomes Democratic oversight

Key committees involved in oversight of government activities are preparing to hold their first hearings this session of Congress, and the Bush administration's management chief says he is looking forward to working with the new Democratic leaders.

Clay Johnson, deputy director for management at the Office of Management and Budget, said last week that he has met with the chairmen of the House Oversight and Government Reform and the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs committees. Both sides agreed there are flaws that need to be addressed, he said.

He said Sen. Joseph Lieberman, I-Conn., the chairman of the Senate committee, wanted to know how he could assist OMB.

"[He] told us … 'Let me know what I can do. If you have any stumbling blocks or obstacles out there, let me know what I can do to keep these things moving forward,'" Johnson said.

Johnson cited a need to establish priorities and hold people accountable for following through.

"I think the key is for us to identify what we want to do with regard to better service, faster service or better information or whatever, and define how we need to go get there; and then seeing that they're held accountable for doing it … not just talk about it," Johnson said.

On Tuesday, the Oversight and Government Reform Committee, chaired by Rep. Henry Waxman, D-Calif., will hold a hearing on possible political interference with the work of federal climate change scientists.

Norman Ornstein, a resident scholar at the American Enterprise Institute and the co-author of The Broken Branch, a book accusing recent Congresses of failing to conduct meaningful oversight, said the hearing has the potential to be constructive because the larger issue of politicization of science is an important one. But he said it also could end up being a politically motivated event that does not result in meaningful changes within government.

Ornstein said Johnson is right to welcome the oversight from the Democrats.

"The best kind of oversight is the kind that focuses on management and focuses on how programs are administered … whether they fit within the faithful execution of the laws and whether they are done with efficiency and fairness and without profligacy," Ornstein said. "Throughout the last six years, we have had virtually none of that."

Rep. Edolphus Towns, D-N.Y., chairman of a House Government Oversight and Reform subcommittee on government management, organization and procurement, said his panel will be looking at major agency procurements to determine whether or not the government received "the best bang for the buck."

"We're going to be looking at especially the military contracts," Towns said. "That's where a lot of money is being spent, and we think we can do better."

Towns said he will take a close look at the government's purchase of information technology systems that are not interoperable.

"You have to have better planning," he said. "We will raise questions with them …to find out what they are doing and make them think about it. And sometimes that makes them a little more efficient."