Comer’s Washington Times Op-ed: Holding the Federal Bureaucracy Accountable

WASHINGTON—In an op-ed published in The Washington Times, House Committee on Oversight and Accountability Chairman James Comer (R-Ky.) outlines the Committee’s top priorities for the 119^th Congress. Chairman Comer details the steps the Committee will take to actively support the Trump Administration’s government efficiency efforts, rein in runaway bureaucracy, and ensure federal agencies are held accountable to the American people.

The Oversight Committee often enters a period of dormancy under unified government. However, Chairman Comer commits to bucking this trend during the 119^th Congress. The Committee will be as active as ever as it works with President Trump to empower Department of Government Efficiency proposals, hold the federal workforce accountable, institute regulatory reforms, and root out waste, fraud, and abuse.

Holding the federal bureaucracy accountable

Legislative priorities for the 119th Congress

The House Oversight Committee is tasked with identifying and rooting out waste, fraud and abuse within the federal government and ensuring accountability within the unelected federal bureaucracy. This is a solemn duty, but the panel all too often enters dormancy when the same political party takes control of both the House of Representatives and the White House.

For example, during the first two years of the Biden administration, when Democrats held control, the committee targeted American industry rather than holding the federal government accountable. Democrats wasted time on investigations into an NFL team, pet flea and tick collars and the U.S. oil and gas industry. As a result, they earned an F grade from the nonpartisan Lugar Center for their lack of oversight.

Under Republican leadership in the 119th Congress, the committee will buck this trend by being as active as ever during the Trump administration. Many of President-elect Donald Trump’s key priorities align with the Oversight Committee’s jurisdiction: the federal civil service, government management, efficiency in government operations, federal procurement, executive branch reorganizations and more. We will actively work with Mr. Trump and his administration to hold the federal bureaucracy accountable and ensure taxpayer dollars are spent wisely. Here are some of our top priorities:

Make the federal government more efficient and effective. We will support the Trump administration’s efforts to reduce duplicative and overlapping agency functions and cut back on government bureaucracy.

One area of reform includes eliminating the many federal programs whose authorization to receive appropriations has expired. According to the Congressional Budget Office, the federal government spent $510 billion on such programs in fiscal 2023, half of which expired over a decade ago. This wasteful spending must end.

We will also renew the long-lapsed executive reorganization authority that presidents once had. This authority would require Congress to take an up-or-down vote on proposals from the president to reorganize executive branch agencies and offices to make the bureaucracy more efficient and cost-effective. This change would create a streamlined process for advancing Department of Government Efficiency reorganization proposals supported by Mr. Trump.

Hold the federal workforce accountable. We will advance practical reforms to increase the accountability and productivity of the federal workforce. Pandemic-era telework policies must end, and federal employees must return to in-person work.

The Biden administration has provided no evidence that massive federal telework benefits taxpayers and no explanation why more than 200,000 federal employees work entirely remotely while costly federal agency headquarters office buildings in downtown Washington remain largely vacant.

As a parting gift to federal employees and their unions, Biden administration officials have sought to cement this status quo by inking long-term collective bargaining agreements that attempt to lock in pandemic-era telework policies for the duration of Mr. Trump’s second term.

To address this, the Oversight Committee will quickly move the SHOW Up Act, which we also passed in Congress but is collecting dust on Sen. Charles E. Schumer’s desk. This bill requires federal agencies to reinstate pre-pandemic telework policies unless there is a provable case for change.

We will also take action to ensure the unelected federal bureaucracy is held accountable to the American people and to the president. It’s far too hard to discipline or remove tenured career bureaucrats, which has, over time, transferred civil servants collectively into an unaccountable “fourth branch” of government.

Mr. Trump has pledged to bring the bureaucracy to heel by bringing back Schedule F to ensure the federal civil service remains responsive to the elected president, his appointees and the American public who put them in power. We will complement the president’s executive order with legislation that brings lasting reform and accountability.

Cut red tape to foster economic prosperity. We will pursue regulatory reforms to lower costs, increase clarity, enhance accountability and provide predictability to the federal government’s regulatory regimes. Under the Biden administration, sweeping regulations created uncertainty for U.S. businesses and imposed costs on American consumers. While the Supreme Court reined in federal agencies’ regulatory power in Loper Bright Enterprises v. Raimondo, more must be done.

We will introduce measures requiring agencies to better analyze the potential costs of newly proposed mandates. Additionally, we will direct the Office of Management and Budget to establish an annual, governmentwide regulatory budget that restricts the amount of new, unfunded regulatory costs agencies can impose each fiscal year.

Tackle waste, fraud and abuse. The Oversight Committee’s bread and butter is to identify waste, fraud, and abuse. We plan to establish a new Subcommittee on Delivering on Government Efficiency, led by Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, Georgia Republican, to investigate, among other matters, rampant waste. Taxpayers deserve to see their money spent effectively and efficiently. Our findings will inform the congressional appropriations process and hold federal agencies to account.

Reforming the federal government is no small task, but Mr. Trump, his incoming administration and the House Oversight Committee are committed to taking on this challenge. Together, we will rein in the runaway federal bureaucracy and make it more accountable to the American people it serves.

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