Besides these general powers, numerous statutes direct the executive to furnish information to or consult with Congress. For example, the Government Performance and Results Act of , requires agencies to consult with Congress on their strategic plans and report annually on performance plans, goals, and results.
In fact, more than 2, reports are submitted each year to Congress by federal departments, agencies, commissions, bureaus, and offices. Inspectors general IGs , for instance, report their findings about waste, fraud, and abuse.
The IGs are also instructed to immediately issue special reports concerning particularly serious problems to the agency head, who transmits them unaltered to Congress within seven days.
House and Senate Chamber rules also reinforce the oversight function. In addition, House rules direct each standing committee to require its subcommittees to conduct oversight or to establish an oversight subcommittee for this purpose.
House rules also call for each committee to submit an oversight agenda, listing its prospective oversight topics for the ensuing Congress, to the House Committee on Government Reform, which compiles and prints the agendas. The House Government Reform Committee and the Senate Governmental Affairs Committee, which have oversight jurisdiction over virtually the entire federal government, are authorized to review and study the operation of government activities to determine their economy and efficiency and to submit recommendations based on GAO reports.
In addition, House rules require that the findings and recommendations from the Government Reform Committee be considered by authorizing panels, if presented to them in a timely fashion. Oversight occurs through a wide variety of congressional activities and avenues. Some of the most publicized are the comparatively rare investigations by select committees into major scandals or into executive branch operations gone awry.
The precedent for this kind of oversight goes back two centuries: in , a special House committee investigated the defeat of an Army force by confederated Indian tribes. The room is located on the second floor, on the west side of the building, adjacent to the Senate chamber.
The view is looking toward the front of the building. Advice and consent is a power of the Senate to be consulted on and approve treaties signed by the president. In the United States, advice and consent is a power of the United States Senate to be consulted on and approve treaties signed and appointments made by the President of the United States to public positions, including Cabinet secretaries, federal judges, and ambassadors. The founding fathers of the United States included the language as part of a delicate compromise concerning the balance of power in the federal government.
Many delegates preferred to develop a strong executive control vested in the president, while others, worried about authoritarian control, preferred to strengthen the Congress. Requiring the president to gain the advice and consent of the Senate achieved both goals without hindering the business of government. Under the Twenty-fifth Amendment, appointments to the Office of Vice President are confirmed by a majority vote in both Houses of Congress, instead of just the Senate.
Several framers of the U. Constitution believed that the required role of the Senate is to advise the president after the nomination. Roger Sherman believed that advice before nomination could still be helpful. Likewise, President George Washington took the position that pre-nomination advice was allowable but not mandatory. Typically, a congressional hearing is held to question the appointee.
For a treaty, a two-thirds vote of the Senate is required anyway; thus, a filibuster could only delay passage. National security laws prevent the disclosure, by anyone, of classified information. In the past, none of these tools have been used successfully to thwart legitimate congressional investigations on matters of serious public import.
Now, however, oversight is about to go to Court. If the president continues to block these investigations, the House will ask the judiciary to enforce its subpoenas.
As some have recently remembered, Congress used to have the Sergeant at Arms arrest recalcitrant witnesses, but this practice has gone out of favor. Supreme Court case law makes clear that Congress has the authority to subpoena any witness and to hold them in contempt of Congress on any matter about which Congress could legitimately oversee the executive.
This power is intentionally broad: it includes not only the power to actually legislate, but also to anticipate legislation, and supervise executive employees. It even includes a legitimate interest, as the Court said in McGrain v. National security concerns, if present, cannot thwart the request—if sincere, they lead to Congress taking testimony in its secure facilities which it did during Iran-Contra.
The Supreme Court in United States v. Reforms like those in the National Security Powers Act — a bill that was introduced last month in the Senate — would be strong steps in the right direction. Effective reforms would include a requirement for Congress to give affirmative approval of an emergency, prevent the president from wrongfully using a crisis to expand executive powers, and put an end to permanent emergencies.
This would set Congress up to be a primary decision maker concerning national emergencies and the use of emergency powers. Congress should work to reestablish their authority to weigh in on the use of emergency powers through mechanisms within the bounds of the constitutional limits determined by the Supreme Court.
The ability to serve as a check on the executive is a vital role. But we can only continue to do this with your help. National Emergencies and Executive Overreach Enacted in , the National Emergencies Act was meant to give the president fast-acting power, subject to congressional review, in the event of a national emergency.
Sign up to stay informed! Congress is asking the administration important policy questions. Are adequate rules, resources and incentives in place to reunite families who have been separated at the border?
Are student loan providers being held accountable for their failure to treat students fairly? Why have energy efficiency improvements slowed down or reversed? All federal agencies, commissions and offices that presidents direct were created by Congress. But the power of individual presidents remains constitutionally limited to the powers that Congress gives them. George Washington only had four Cabinet officials. Lincoln had seven. The executive branch remained small until the early 20th century, when the Great Depression led Congress to expand and create various agencies to deal with the economy, poverty and unemployment.
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