Saw a brilliant bit of questioning yesterday. At a press conference with some White House spokesman, someone read this definition of Congressional oversight.
Quote:
|
Congress regards oversight as "the authority to conduct inquiries or investigations of the executive, to have access to records or materials held by the executive, or to issue subpoenas for documents or testimony from the executive. "
|
Source
She then asked, which of those three powers was Congress given in this case? His response? "Congress is an independant branch of the government. The President informed them of the program. That's oversight." She shot right back, "Yes, but were they allowed inqueries, access to records, or the power to issue subpoenas?" Then, like a freaking robot, "Congress is an independant branch of the government. The President informed them of the program." In otherwords, he had no answer because saying, "Hey, I'm doing this" and then not allowing Congress to investigate it is NOT oversight.