Congressional Oversight
443 Articles
About that Executive Privilege “Policy”: Congress Should Call the Bluff
During last week’s hearing of the Senate intelligence committee, Attorney General Jeff Sessions generated withering criticism by repeatedly refusing to answer Senators’ questions…
America’s AUMF Problem: Tomorrow’s Senate Hearing and a New Proposal from Eliot Engel
Events over the last several weeks show that not only is the AUMF issue not going away, but that Congress continues to inch closer to agreement. This Tuesday, the Senate Foreign…
Fight It with FOIA: How Congress Can Respond to White House Attempts to Block Congressional Oversight
The Trump White House took another step last week to weaken the checks and balances at the center of our constitutional system. According to Politico, President Donald Trump’s…
Never Waste A Good Crisis, FBI Edition
President Trump’s decision to summarily dismiss now-former FBI Director James Comey has sparked grave concerns in many quarters. The move has been described as a profoundly…
Q&A on Comey Firing, Russia Investigation and More
In the wake of President Donald Trump’s firing of FBI Director James Comey, there have been a handful of new revelations reported on the status of the investigations into…
Sally Yates, Russia Testimony & Executive Privilege in the Trump Era
This week has shed light on the Trump administration’s aggressive approach to executive privilege, but it has also cast doubt over President Donald Trump’s ability to assert…
National Security-Related Congressional Hearings, March 27-March 31
Tuesday, March 28 10:00am – House Committee on Armed Services – Military Assessment of Russian Activities and Security Challenges in Europe (here) 10:00am – House Committee…
Reforming Surveillance In the Age of Donald Trump
Above: An NSA site in Germany. On Wednesday, the Republican chair of the House Intelligence Committee, Devin Nunes (R-CA), gave a press conference in which he reported that Trump…
Incidental Collection Is Extremely Troubling, Regardless of Legality
A lot of ink has been spilled over statements by House Intelligence Committee Chairman Nunes that President Trump’s communications were incidentally collected pursuant to a surveillance…
Drawing a Line on Mass Surveillance: How Congress Must Reform Section 702
RAF Menwith Hill in the United Kingdom, host to U.S. National Security Agency facilities. On Monday, members of the House Intelligence Committee held an open hearing into Russian…
A Small Step Toward a Better House of Representatives
Today the Committee on House Administration took a small but important step to restore the House of Representatives as an effective legislative and oversight body. It voted unanimously…
Whistleblower Retaliation: A Governmental Accountability and National Security Crisis
The role of an Inspector General (IG) office in a federal agency or department is to root out waste, fraud, and abuse, and where necessary refer criminal conduct to the Justice…