![]() “We clearly want to do oversight,” says one Democratic source familiar with the House Foreign Relations Committee’s oversight strategy. So far, Democrats have indicated they will investigate the Biden Administration. ![]() ![]() In recent years, congressional oversight typically has involved “the President’s party basically protecting its quarterback and under-investigating its president, and over-investigating the other party,” says Tom Davis, a former Republican lawmaker who chaired the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform during the George W. ![]() The congressional fight will be waged on both substance and process: Democrats control both chambers of Congress, so Republicans don’t have the power to issue subpoenas or call for testimony on their own. For Republicans, this moment marks an opportunity to attack the Biden Administration after a series of decisions led to a speedy Taliban takeover that put both U.S. For Democrats, the fight will reveal whether their loyalties lie with party or with truth, after they spent four years criticizing Republicans for not conducting rigorous oversight of President Donald Trump. DHS’s Office of Legislative Affairs should have more authority to ensure headquarters and components adopt coordinated positions on important legislative policy and resource decisions.The push for accountability is coming from both political parties, but differences in approach between Democrats and Republicans are already setting the stage for a pitched partisan battle.Congress can consolidate expertise by having other committee leaders who work with specialized DHS components sit ex officio on homeland security subcommittees.The Senate should separate homeland security and government oversight into separate committees, as the House does.The US Senate and House of Representatives should each empower a single committee with comprehensive primary authorization and oversight jurisdiction over DHS and all of its components.To overcome this challenge, the Congress and DHS should work together to take the following actions: By contrast, Congress passes an authorization bill for the Department of Defense almost every year, often with strong bipartisan support. Congress denied to itself the same clarity of view that it gave to the executive branch.īecause of diffuse congressional oversight, Congress has not passed a comprehensive authorization law for DHS since the Homeland Security Act of 2002. However, Congress kept its own stovepipes of authority and jurisdiction in place. When Congress established DHS in 2002, it cut away most of the stovepipes of authority and jurisdiction for the executive branch. In order for DHS to make these much-needed reforms, Forward Defense’s Thomas Warrick & Mark Massa recommend in a newly released report that Congress should consolidate its oversight of DHS by strengthening the role of the two core homeland security committees and making other reforms to enable Congress and DHS to work more effectively together.Ĭurrently, oversight of DHS is spread out among more than ninety committees and subcommittees, in contrast to the way Congress deals with other national security departments like the Departments of Defense and State, each of which is overseen by one lead authorization committee and one Appropriations subcommittee.ĭifferent components of DHS currently report to different congressional committees in ways that reflect the organization of the Federal government more than twenty years ago. Download PDF To enable the reforms DHS needs, Congress needs to provide more effective oversightįorward Defense’s Future of DHS Project has previously assessed that the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) must refocus its mission, reform its approach to public-private partnerships and its management structure, and rebuild the morale of its workforce.
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