Dems plan to bring heat

[citizen snips]

WASHINGTON - Congressional Democrats say they will press new legislation this week to restore the power of a federal agency in charge of ferreting out waste and corruption in Iraq and greatly increase its investigative reach.

The new bills, the first of what are likely to be dozens of Democratic efforts to resurrect investigations of war profiteering and financial fraud in government contracting, could be introduced as early as Monday morning.

The move would nullify a Republican-backed provision, slipped into a huge military authorization bill, that set a termination date for the agency, the Office of the Special Inspector General for Iraq Reconstruction. The agency's findings have consistently undermined Bush administration claims of success in the reconstruction of Iraq.

An eye on spending

Oversight, the power wielded by Congress to demand information and to haul executive branch officials to hearings, is reverberating through Congress as a Democratic battle

The imperative to investigate financial misdeeds extends beyond the military.

Congressional aides said that the House Government Reform Committee under Rep. Henry A. Waxman of California also might investigate spending related to domestic security and the government's response to Hurricane Katrina.

more...
http://www.newsobserver.com/114/story/509519.html

[ovidsen]

1. Checks and balances

A responsible government would welcome independent audits of its programs.

And then there's the GOP...