President Obama’s hometown of Chicago is nearly 1,000 miles from the Gulf of Mexico. But like many other communities across the country, it is suffering the consequences of his Administration’s anti-drilling agenda. Illinois accounted for $376.2 million in shallow-water drilling expenditures over the past three years, according to an analysis …
NPR put out a story this week on congressional oversight of homeland security. Currently, 108 Committees and Subcommittees have oversight over the Department of Homeland Security. The story includes a diagram of this oversight that should make heads spin. For some, this might seem like cute clip-art, but this is …
The $700 billion financial rescue that the House will vote on today is a significant improvement over the drafts released last Friday, and the Friday before that. According to the Congressional Budget Office, the plan will eventually cost “substantially less” than the oft-quoted amount of $700 billion, and it even …
There is no doubt that past government intervention in the market, particularly by Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, is largely to blame for the current financial turmoil. And while past government intervention cannot be used to justify further government interference, we also have to ask how much unnecessary pain the …
Seven years removed from the attacks of September 11, 2001, what are the key next steps for homeland security? In a testimony before the House Committee on Homeland Security, Subcommittee on Management, Investigations, and Oversight, I provided several answers to that question; my first answer, consolidation of congressional oversight of …
Congress has often criticized the Department of Homeland Security for its short comings, however in many ways Congress itself is to blame. When DHS was created 22 agencies and almost 200,000 people were pulled together into one entity. However, despite the 9/11 Commissions recommendation that congressional oversight should be consolidated, …
