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Hensarling: Committee Will Hold Agencies Accountable on Spending
‘This isn’t Washington’s money; it is the taxpayers’ money’

 

Washington, February 7, 2017 -

House Financial Services Committee Chairman Jeb Hensarling (R-TX) delivered the following statement at today’s meeting to approve the committee’s Oversight Plan for the 115th Congress:

The Rules of the House require each standing committee to adopt an oversight plan and submit it to the Committee on Oversight and Government Reform and the Committee on House Administration. Today our committee meets to fulfill our obligation under this rule.

Let us also take this time to remind ourselves of a greater obligation than the one we have to House rules, and that’s the obligation we have to America’s hardworking taxpayers.

Our task is to make sure every dollar spent by the agencies under our committee’s jurisdiction is treated with the respect that the taxpayers deserve. Far too many in Washington still believe that April 15th like children view Christmas morning. We need to always remember that this isn’t Washington’s money; it is the taxpayers’ money. Taxpayers work hard for every dollar they earn. That’s why our committee’s oversight plan requires us to continually and vigilantly scrutinize how these agencies spend precious taxpayer dollars. We will hold hearings and investigate and ask the tough questions of the heads of these agencies and bureaus about their spending, and hold them accountable.

This is always important, but it is especially important now as budget deficits are once again on the rise and the national debt has doubled during the last eight years. A most ominous occurrence.

Hearings, inquiries, asking tough questions, investigations – this is the essence of effective congressional oversight. They make possible the “checks and balances” that were brilliantly envisioned by America’s Founders.

Those who want to free and insulate Washington bureaucrats from congressional oversight apparently view oversight as an obstacle to be overcome, rather than as a vital tool to make sure laws are properly enforced, dollars are well spent, and the people are protected from government overreach and abuse.

Effective oversight is also what makes it possible for us in the legislative branch to craft responsible and effective laws to the challenges we face as a nation.

I look forward to working with all members of the committee as we implement this oversight plan. It is virtually unchanged from the oversight plan we adopted by voice vote at the beginning of the last Congress. When our committee met two years ago to markup that oversight plan, which – again – is virtually the same as the oversight plan we’re considering today – I was very pleased to hear the gentlelady from California, the Ranking Member, say, and I quote: “I appreciate the straightforward and clear manner in which this oversight plan has been drafted. Mr. Chairman, I am pleased you have decided to make this document, which is designed to discuss the issues that this committee will examine throughout the 114th Congress, non-controversial. This is a dramatic and very positive departure from the Republican plan in the last Congress, which was more contentious, inflammatory, and ideological. While we are certain to disagree on many of the topics our committee will cover the next two years this document appropriately highlights the issues, agencies, and laws that will occupy our time.”

So at the beginning of the 114th Congress, at the request of the Ranking Member, the committee’s oversight plan was written as objective, factual discussion of the agencies, programs and issues within our committee’s jurisdiction.

Knowing of the Ranking Member’s wishes for the oversight plan and in the spirit of bipartisanship, I trust that we will not be viewing any contentious, inflammatory, or ideological amendments, to use the Ranking Member’s words. And I trust they will all be, again, using her words “non-controversial.” The 9-page oversight plan before us today – which members received five days ago – is essentially unchanged from the one that garnered such bipartisan praise under a Democratic administration. Again, virtually unchanged from two years ago.

Like its well-hailed predecessor, this oversight plan is by no means exhaustive. No realistic plan could be. It is not intended to capture every possible matter that could arise before our committee over the course of two years. However, that does not preclude us from investigating programs or issues that are not specifically mentioned, if warranted by the circumstances.

This oversight plan, as drafted, is not intended to represent partisan goals of either side; rather, it is a recitation of important matters within the jurisdiction of the Financial Services Committee. Thus, like two years ago, I hope using the Ranking Member’s words it is once again recognized as “straightforward,” “clear” and “very positive.”

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