INSIGHTi
HSA@20 Episode Companion: Oversight
April 3, 2023
This Insight accompanies the “Oversight” episode of The Homeland Security Act at 20 podcast series and
includes background information on the issues discussed during the podcast.
Click this link to ask questions, provide feedback, or offer suggestions for future topics. You can also e-
mail the podcast team at HSA20@loc.gov. Thank you for your engagement.
Defining Oversight
Congressional oversight of the executive branch involves the review, monitoring, and supervision of
federal agencies, programs, activities, and policy implementation.
This may include not only reviews of efficiency and effectiveness, but also whether the executive branch
is acting in a manner consistent with congressional intent.
The congressional oversight toolbox includes:
Investigations and reports
Hearings
Legislative activity
Appropriations
Reporting requirements
Letters and staff contacts
Oversight involves more than Congress. It can include:
Statutorily created special oversight bodies, such as:
Recovery, Accountability, and Transparency Board (2009)
Pandemic Response Accountability Committee (2020)
Inspectors General
Government Accountability Office
Public oversight
Authority for congressional oversight comes from several places in Article I of the U.S. Constitution:
Congressional Research Service
https://crsreports.congress.gov
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The legislative authority
Confirmation of nominees (“advice and consent”)
The “power of the purse”
The Taxing and Spending Clause
The Appropriations Clause
Congress’s authority to conduct investigations as part of its oversight function is an implied constitutional
power. Congressional investigative power has limitations:
Separation of powers, including “executive privilege”
Fifth Amendment of the U.S. Constitution
Legitimate legislative purpose is required as the basis for congressional investigation
Power resides in the House and Senate and is delegated to their various committees:
House:
Clause 1 of Rule X defines the subject matter jurisdictions of House committees
Rule XI provides committees procedural authority to conduct investigations and
studies in their areas of jurisdiction
Senate:
Rule XXV defines the standing committees of the Senate and their jurisdictions
Rule XXVI establishes baseline committee procedure
Homeland Security Congressional Oversight Debate
President George W. Bush signed Executive Order 13228 establishing the Office of
Homeland Security, headed by former Pennsylvania Governor Tom Ridge (October 8,
2001).
o The White House position was that Governor Ridge did not have to testify before
Congress because the office was not established legislatively and he was not
confirmed by the Senate.
o This led to threats of subpoenas if Governor Ridge would not testify voluntarily.
Once the Homeland Security Act was enacted, and the Department of Homeland Security was
established with a Senate-confirmed appointee, the question of how Congress would oversee
homeland security became more pressing.
The Appropriations Committees reorganized in early 2003, with the House and Senate
creating subcommittees that dealt solely with DHS.
The 9/11 Commission Report in July 2004 recommended reorganization of congressional
committee structures (see 13.4, p. 419 and 420).
In October 2004, the Senate passed a committee reform resolution, amended on the
Senate floor to reduce the degree of consolidation of authority in a single committee.
In January 2005, the House adopted rules that created a new permanent Homeland
Security Committee (see debate on the 108th Congress House Rules from the
Congressional Record).
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Inspectors General
The history of the modern inspector general (IG) system can be traced to efforts by agencies beginning to
improve their financial management in the late 1950s. In the mid-1970s, Congress began to codify the IG
model.
The Inspector General Act of 1978 institutionalized IGs across the federal government
(P.L. 95-452; currently 5 U.S.C. Chapter 4).
Since 1978, Congress has created more IGs and enhanced their role. Major reform
legislation has included:
o The Inspector General Act Amendments of 1988
o The Inspector General Reform Act of 2008
o The Inspector General Empowerment Act of 2016
o The Securing Inspector General Independence Act of 2022 and the Integrity
Committee Transparency Act of 2022
Selected Potential Ways to Improve Homeland Security Oversight
Inspector General Oversight and Support
Key stakeholders including Congress, the President, agency leadership, and IGs
themselves can conduct oversight of the IG community.
The Council of the Inspectors General on Integrity and Efficiency has confirmed that
the DHS Inspector General is currently under investigation.
One way Congress maintains IG independence is by directing IGs to develop their own
budget justifications and to ensure that information on their resource needs is reported to
Congress with the President’s budget request.
Improve Congressional Capacity
For specific information on committee staffing levels in the House of Representatives,
see CRS Report R43947, House of Representatives Staff Levels in Member, Committee,
Leadership, and Other Offices, 1977-2021, by R. Eric Petersen.
FOR MORE INFORMATION
For more information on oversight, see CRS Report RL30240, Congressional Oversight
Manual, coordinated by Ben Wilhelm, Todd Garvey, and Christopher M. Davis.
For more episodes of this podcast series, search “HSA@20” on the CRS website.
NEXT EPISODE
April 10, 2023: Cybersecurity
Music: “Icas,” by Audiorezout, as carried on freemusicarchive.org, under the terms of its Creative
Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International license.
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Author Information
William L. Painter, Coordinator
Ben Wilhelm
Specialist in Homeland Security and Appropriations
Analyst in Government Organization and Management
Todd Garvey
Legislative Attorney
Disclaimer
This document was prepared by the Congressional Research Service (CRS). CRS serves as nonpartisan shared staff
to congressional committees and Members of Congress. It operates solely at the behest of and under the direction of
Congress. Information in a CRS Report should not be relied upon for purposes other than public understanding of
information that has been provided by CRS to Members of Congress in connection with CRS’s institutional role.
CRS Reports, as a work of the United States Government, are not subject to copyright protection in the United
States. Any CRS Report may be reproduced and distributed in its entirety without permission from CRS. However,
as a CRS Report may include copyrighted images or material from a third party, you may need to obtain the
permission of the copyright holder if you wish to copy or otherwise use copyrighted material.
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