Darrell Issa plans hundreds of hearings

[I AM NOT THAT GUY 5,715]

California Rep. Darrell Issa is already eyeing a massive expansion of oversight for next year, including hundreds of hearings; creating new subcommittees; and launching fresh investigations into the bank bailout, the stimulus and, potentially, health care reform.

Issa told POLITICO in an interview that he wants each of his seven subcommittees to hold “one or two hearings each week.”

“I want seven hearings a week, times 40 weeks,” Issa said.

Issa is also targeting some ambitious up-and-comers like Reps. Jason Chaffetz of Utah, Patrick McHenry of North Carolina and Jim Jordan of Ohio — all aggressive partisans — to chair some of his subcommittees.

He also wants to organize aggressive oversight beyond his committee and plans to refer inquiries to other House panels, drawing even more incoming GOP chairmen to the cause of investigating the executive branch.

“As Clint Eastwood says, a man needs to know his limitations,” Issa said in the interview. “With other committees, we have good working relationships. Our committees have some areas of primary jurisdiction, including the federal work force, procurement and the Postal Service. We will take care of our core knitting, but we have very narrow legislative jurisdiction.”

While he promises an ambitious — and some say confrontational — agenda, Issa is making overtures to the Obama administration: He already has a meeting scheduled with Vice President Joe Biden to discuss stimulus oversight.

But Issa’s specific plans bring a certain reality to what has been known for months: Oversight of the Obama administration and congressional Democrats will be a central purpose for the new Republican House.

To give an idea of how expansive Issa’s oversight plans are, look at the record of Rep. Henry Waxman (D-Calif.) when he chaired the oversight committee during in the 110th Congress during George W. Bush’s presidency. Waxman held 203 oversight hearings in two years; Issa has signaled he’s prepared to hold about 280 in just one year.

Issa sees the committee’s role as not policy but to “measure failures.” He likens his job to seeing “whether the fuel being consumed meets the specifications.” And he isn’t looking to catch witnesses off guard, saying that “oversight should be done with a balance for the American people and not as a gotcha.”

Issa won’t have a shortage of targets. He’s been hammering for better tracking of the stimulus and has a growing list of other investigative targets, including the housing meltdown and the bank bailout.

Earlier this year, Issa pressured Oversight and Government Reform Committee Chairman Edolphus Towns (D-N.Y.) to issue a subpoena to Countrywide Financial about its VIP loan program. Other investigations during the minority included inquests into actions taken during the financial meltdown and a look at problems with Toyota automobiles.

There are already résumés piling up from people looking to join Issa’s staff — mostly lawyers, a source said. Republicans have a good deal of hiring to do in the weeks ahead, although the House Republican Steering Committee will approve chairmen in December. Issa will most likely face no serious challenge.

In the coming weeks, Issa and his staff are also planning to reach out to the inspector general community and staffers at the various bureaucracies the committee will oversee.

Issa also is looking to dig into procurement and government contracting, and he seems sure to return to the Countrywide VIP program — which has subpoenaed records en route to the Capitol. He’s also got inquiries into Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac’s role in the financial collapse. And with earmarks all but gone from the Capitol, Issa will turn his fire toward the White House and the far larger sums of cash controlled by the executive branch at a time of huge deficits.

“We really want to study presidential earmarks and the grant-making process: How do we take all this discretionary money and see what is necessary,” Issa said. “The debate on how to shrink the federal government is at the core of our problem of government not doing its job.”

Issa is also pointedly looking to avoid probing what he seems to view as peripheral issues — like Waxman and former Chairman Tom Davis’s foray into hearings on steroids in baseball.

“This is important, in contrast to hearings on steroids in baseball, where I felt that it was inherently wrong to get Roger Clemens to lie to Congress,” Issa said. “The American people really want us to shrink government.”

Issa also wants to avoid the sometimes petty controversies that enmeshed Rep. Dan Burton (R-Ind.) as committee chairman during the Clinton presidency and sometimes made him the issue.

Another, more cosmetic change could be coming up the pipe.

“We will seriously consider a name change back to what it was,” Issa said, hinting the committee will again be named the Government Reform and Oversight Committee — “to emphasize government reform and not oversight.”

Read more: http://www.politico.com/news/stories/1110/44850.html#ixzz14oUeb3Zx

[Mr. Big Dog 10,747]

Good. This will definitely help balance the budget and create those 15 million jobs we need so urgently. I like the focus the good Congressman puts on the major concerns of the electorate.

Edited November 10, 2010 by Mr. Big Dog

[scandal 951]

I really hope he leaves no stone unturned, and observes no Statute of Limitations in his inquiries and hearings.

I'd really like to finally see an in depth probe into the Bush era warrantless wiretaps that ignored FISA, and into the Gonzales dismissal of US Attorneys in 2006. Lord knows terrible injustices were committed, and I sure hope Congress looks into them.

[Gary and Alla 3,694]

Good. This will definitely help balance the budget and create those 15 million jobs we need so urgently. I like the focus the good Congressman puts on the major concerns of the electorate.

No doubt a Muslim Terrorist. Notice how he only attacks Americans!

[Ken y Leidys 20]

Issa was the "Concerned Conservative" who led to the special election which brought California Governor Arnold S. This guy is full of it IMO.

[Gary and Alla 3,694]

Issa was the "Concerned Conservative" who led to the special election which brought California Governor Arnold S. This guy is full of it IMO.

Relax. All is OK, Jerry Brown is governor again and he will fix it like he did last time!

[I AM NOT THAT GUY 5,715]

Relax. All is OK, Jerry Brown is governor again and he will fix it like he did last time!

I know all the bars in Sacramento will start showing a profit again. I wonder if he still has the hots for Linda Ronstadt.

[one...two...tree 2,762]

Issa was the "Concerned Conservative" who led to the special election which brought California Governor Arnold S. This guy is full of it IMO.

He's a former car thief who made his fortune on car alarms.

[Ken y Leidys 20]

I know all the bars in Sacramento will start showing a profit again. I wonder if he still has the hots for Linda Ronstadt.

I think that's a cool photo. Jerry Brown is married - not to Linda Ronstadt.

[Ken y Leidys 20]

He's a former car thief who made his fortune on car alarms.

My Jeep Rubicon has a Ravelco system kill on it. Works better than a car alarm, because it kills the entire ignition system completely dead.