Today, the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee passed several government accountability provisions, including legislation aimed at improving management of the Senior Executive Service; improving federal officials’ compliance with the Federal Records Act; establishing a regulatory review commission to identify outdated, costly, or overly burdensome federal regulations; and removing restrictions on the Government Accountability Office’s audit access to the Federal ...

“The recently reported allegations against Mr. Gutierrez are extremely serious and shake the very core of the taxpayer funded Ex-Im Bank,” said Chairman Issa on the issuance of the subpoena. “Congress needs to know exactly what occurred in this corruption scheme and will learn from both Mr. Gutierrez and EX-IM Bank Chairman Hochberg what actions the bank is taking to ensure that the organization will eradicate this culture of corruption.”

House Oversight and Government Reform Committee Chairman Darrell Issa, R-Calif., today sent a letter to Attorney General Eric Holder regarding oversight of the Department of Justice’s litigation policy with respect to large financial institutions accused but not convicted or adjudicated of illegal conduct in conjunction ...

“I urge Mr. Simas to appear, but the White House has offered us no indication that it intends to accept our offer. What are they afraid of? The Director of the political office in the Bush Administration testified before this Committee, we know that there have been high-level Hatch Act violations under President Obama, and a federal judge has already rejected claims that an official like Mr. Simas enjoys a special immunity above and beyond Executive privilege. I expect our Committee will ...

Specifically, the investigative report found: Problems with TSA’s application of the SSI designation date back to 2004, including inconsistent application of the designation. TSA improperly designated certain information as SSI in order to avoid its public release. TSA has repeatedly released information to the public against the advice of the SSI Office and without having produced suitable documentation to explain the decision. The ...

Oversight and Government Reform Committee Chairman Darrell Issa (R-Calif.) recently led a bipartisan delegation of Committee Members to Central America to understand the recent border crisis involving unaccompanied children illegally entering the United States.  During the fact finding mission, from Thursday July 17th to Sunday July 20th, Members traveled to El Salvador, Honduras, and Guatemala to assess root causes of the surge in migration as well as U.S. and local efforts to ...

“The Committee has obtained information that senior IRS leadership knew in February 2014 that e-mails on Ms. Lerner’s hard drive were unrecoverable,” Issa and Jordan write in today’s letter. “The IRS’s failure to disclose in a timely manner that it had destroyed evidence critical to congressional and criminal investigations is further reason that a special prosecutor is needed to thoroughly and independently investigate all facets of the IRS targeting.”

“The court’s decision is consistent with the Committee’s oversight, which through multiple briefings and hearings, learned that neither the Internal Revenue Service nor the Treasury Department conducted a serious or thorough analysis of the statute or the legislative history and intent prior to cobbling an ad hoc legal rationale for a key provision of the President’s healthcare law,” said Chairman Issa. “The Committee’s findings were the reason that I signed onto an amicus brief ...

“I’m struck by the fact that the IRS attempted to keep a key witness like Mr. Kane away from investigators and only agreed to his appearance after I issued a subpoena for his testimony. Finding out that IRS Commissioner Koskinen jumped the gun in reporting to Congress that the IRS ‘confirmed’ all back-up tapes had been destroyed makes me even more suspicious of why he waited months to inform Congress about lost Lois Lerner e-mails. Commissioner Koskinen has repeatedly blamed the ...

“FDA developed the proposed rule to ensure manufacturers of generic drugs would face liability, and resulting litigation, by establishing a process for generic drug manufacturers to change their label without prior FDA approval,” the lawmakers wrote in the letter. “It seems to us that the proposed rule is not designed to address a health or safety related concern, instead it is designed to placate special interests groups and increase lawsuits.”