Op-Eds

Oct 10, 2010

How Oversight Should Work

Earlier this year, the Congressional Research Service released a report underscoring the important function that congressional oversight plays in working with the executive branch: "A fundamental objective of congressional oversight is to hold executive officials accountable for the implementation of delegated authority. This objective is especially important given the huge expansion of executive influence in the modern era." As we move closer to the November midterm elections, a ...

Oct 7, 2010

White House Records in the Facebook Era

Advances in technology have brought new transparency to our democracy. Americans can interact with federal officials in real time. Citizens use Twitter and Facebook to have unfiltered conversations with their elected representatives — anytime and anywhere. These innovations in direct digital democracy have increased government’s openness and accountability and lowered the barriers between public servants and the people they serve. The challenge for policymakers is to ensure that these ...

Oct 6, 2010

Time for a Hiring Freeze

While millions of Americans struggle to find work, the federal civilian workforce has prospered. Federal employees’ salaries and benefits have spiked over the past decade. In fact, their compensation advantage over workers in the private sector has grown since 2000 from about $24,000 to almost $51,000. Not even the recession has slowed this trend. Unemployment remains dangerously high, and the number of poor is at its highest level since 1959. But as the private sector has lost 7.7 million ...