It seems as if hardly a week goes by that we don’t hear about this Congressional committee or that one planning to hold hearings or undertake some other action to exercise its oversight function.
But how many citizens know what oversight by Congress involves and how it works? For that matter, how many Congressmen know?
To make understanding Congressional oversight easier, the Congressional Research Service has recently updated its 154-page Congressional Oversight Manual.
The manual explains the purposes of Congressional oversight which include:
- Ensure Executive compliance with Legislative intent
- Improve the efficiency, effectiveness, and economy of governmental operations
- Prevent executive encroachment on legislative prerogatives and powers
- Assess agency or officials’ ability to manage and carry out program objectives
- Ensure that executive policies reflect the public interest
- Protect individual rights and liberties
The manual elaborates on what is involved in accomplishing these and other purposes.
As Woodrow Wilson said in 1885:
Quite as important as legislation is vigilant oversight of administration.
It is the proper duty of a representative body to look diligently into every affair of government and to talk much about what it sees. It is meant to be the eyes and the voice, and to embody the wisdom and will of its constituents.
