A new committee created in the Pennsylvania House of Representatives has some lawmakers and observers excited about the potential to ensure that the executive branch of government is operating as it should, while others are criticizing the move as a politically motivated effort that duplicates existing authorities.
In the package of rules adopted by the House when the new session kicked off Jan. 1 was a section that establishes a Government Oversight Committee. This body, to be made up of five Republicans and four Democrats, will have subpoena power and the mandate to look into any activity that isn’t already covered by the Appropriations and Ethics committees.
The House speaker, majority leader and minority leader each will have the authority to refer items to the new committee for investigation. The committee would have to be reauthorized in order to continue to exist after 2020.
State Rep. Seth Grove, R-York, who introduced a bill last year that would have created such a committee in both the House and the Senate, lauded Republican leadership for taking the action in the rulemaking for the new session.
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2 comments:
All of these powers are already available to the legislative body, but having a name on a committee that wields them makes it so much more easily referred to in the news.
Congress is still not doing its job. It’s engaged in a temper tantrum. Their real job is to create a viable and fiscally responsible budget. Something they have failed to do for two plus decades now. Until they do that, everything else is posturing for cameras, hoping you’re stupid enough to buy the schmultz. Wise up people. You’re being had.
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