GOP Watchdogs Promise Fight Over EPA, Obamacare

There's been a lot of talk about Republican plans to subject the Obama administration to strict oversight once the new GOP House majority takes office. Most of the discussion has focused on Rep. Darrell Issa, head of the Committee on Oversight and Government Reform, which is the main panel charged with keeping the administration in line. "I'm going to be doing a lot of investigating," says Issa.

That's true, but it's also true that some of the most intense action will be elsewhere. Two key areas on which Republicans plan to keep a close eye are Department of Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius' implementation of the new national health care law and Environmental Protection Agency head Lisa Jackson's work to unilaterally regulate carbon emissions. Both fall under the oversight of the House Energy and Commerce Committee -- a panel so important that the famed Democratic Rottweiler Rep. Henry Waxman left the Oversight Committee to chair it -- and both will be the subject of extensive oversight next year.

It hasn't been decided who the next chairman of Energy and Commerce will be. Current ranking member Rep. Joe Barton of Texas wants the job, but Hill sources say it is likely to go instead to Michigan Rep. Fred Upton, despite the opposition of conservatives who object to some of Upton's votes on land use, the EPA budget, and TARP.      Read more