United States House Committee on Oversight and Reform

House Oversight Committee
Standing committee
Active; ; United States House of Representatives; 116th Congress
History
Formed	1927
Leadership
Chair	Carolyn Maloney (D) ; Since October 17, 2019
Ranking member	Vacant (R) ; Since March 30, 2020
Vice chair	Jimmy Gomez (D) ; Since December 19, 2019
Structure
Seats	41
Political parties	Majority (23) Democratic (23); Minority (18) Republican (18);
Subcommittees
	National Security; Government Operations; Economic and Consumer Policy; Civil Rights and Civil Liberties; Environment;
Website
	oversight.house.gov

The Committee on Oversight and Reform is the main investigative committee of the United States House of Representatives.

The committee has broad jurisdiction and strong legislative authority, which makes it one of the most influential and powerful committees in the House. Its chairman is one of only three in the House that can make subpoenas without a committee vote or talking with the ranking member.^[2] However, recently, it has become common to not make a subpoena by themselves..^[3]

Carolyn Maloney (D-New York) became the acting chair of the committee after Elijah Cummings (D-Maryland) died on October 17, 2019;^[4]^[5]^[6] she was elected chair a month later.^[7]^[8]

History

The committee was called the Committee on Expenditures in the Executive Departments, and it was created in 1927 to combine 11 separate Committees on Expenditures that had overseen the spending of various federal departments.^[9]^[10]

Subpoena usage

In 1997, the Republican majority on the committee changed its rules to allow the chairman, Dan Burton (R-Indiana), to make subpoenas without asking the committee's ranking Democrat.^[11] From 1997 to 2002, Burton used this to make 1,052 subpoenas by himself. Many of those subpoenas were related to alleged misconduct by President Bill Clinton. This cost more than $35 million.^[12]

Members, 116th Congress

Majority	Minority
Carolyn Maloney, New York, Chair^[4] Eleanor Holmes Norton, District of Columbia Lacy Clay, Missouri Stephen F. Lynch, Massachusetts Jim Cooper, Tennessee Gerry Connolly, Virginia Raja Krishnamoorthi, Illinois Jamie Raskin, Maryland Harley Rouda, California Debbie Wasserman Schultz, Florida John Sarbanes, Maryland Peter Welch, Vermont Jackie Speier, California Robin Kelly, Illinois Mark DeSaulnier, California Brenda Lawrence, Michigan Stacey Plaskett, U.S. Virgin Islands Ro Khanna, California Jimmy Gomez, California, Vice Chair Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, New York Ayanna Pressley, Massachusetts Rashida Tlaib, Michigan Katie Porter, California (since December 17, 2019) Deb Haaland, New Mexico (since December 17, 2019)	Jim Jordan, Ohio, Ranking Member Paul Gosar, Arizona Virginia Foxx, North Carolina Thomas Massie, Kentucky Mark Meadows, North Carolina, until March 30, 2020^[13] Jody Hice, Georgia Glenn Grothman, Wisconsin James Comer, Kentucky Michael Cloud, Texas Bob Gibbs, Ohio Clay Higgins, Louisiana Ralph Norman, South Carolina Chip Roy, Texas Carol Miller, West Virginia Mark E. Green, Tennessee Kelly Armstrong, North Dakota Greg Steube, Florida Fred Keller, Pennsylvania

Sources: H.Res. 24 (Chair), H.Res. 25 (Ranking Member), H.Res. 67 (D), H.Res. 68 (R)

Subcommittees

The Committee on Oversight and Reform has six subcommittees.^[14]^[15]

Subcommittee	Chair	Ranking Member
Civil Rights and Civil Liberties	Jamie Raskin (D-MD)	Chip Roy (R-TX)
Economic and Consumer Policy	Raja Krishnamoorthi (D-IL)	Michael Cloud (R-TX)
Environment	Harley Rouda (D-CA)	James Comer (R-KY)
Government Operations	Gerry Connolly (D-VA)	Mark Meadows (R-NC)^[13]
National Security	Stephen F. Lynch (D-MA)	Jody Hice (R-GA)
Coronavirus Crisis (Select)	Jim Clyburn (D-SC)	TBD (R)

Related pages

List of current United States House of Representatives committees

References

↑ Acting Chair from October 17, 2019 – November 20, 2019
↑ Koempel, Michael (March 16, 2017). "A Survey of House and Senate Committee Rules on Subpoenas" (PDF). Congressional Research Service. Retrieved 2017-04-25.
↑ "Cummings to Issa: Unilateral subpoenas, access to records" (PDF). January 24, 2011. Archived from the original (PDF) on 2012-09-16. Retrieved 2012-06-20.
↑ ^4.0 ^4.1 Chiacu, Doina; Heavey, Susan (October 17, 2019). Lambert, Lisa (ed.). "Maloney to be acting House oversight chair after Cummings death". Reuters. Retrieved October 17, 2019.
↑ "Cummings Named Oversight Committee Chairman" (Press release). Committee on Oversight and Reform. 2019-01-04. Archived from the original on 2019-01-11. Retrieved 2019-01-11.
↑ "Oversight and Reform Members". House Committee on Oversight and Reform. 2015-01-28. Retrieved 2019-03-07.
↑ "Maloney Elected Chair of House Committee on Oversight and Reform". House Committee on Oversight and Reform. 2019-11-20. Archived from the original on 2020-03-23. Retrieved 2020-03-23.
↑ Daly, Matthew (2019-11-20). "Maloney chosen as first woman to lead House Oversight panel". WCTI-TV. Associated Press. Retrieved 2020-03-23.
↑ "House Committee on Government Reform". www.princeton.edu. Retrieved 2019-03-07.
↑ "Oversight Plan". lobby.la.psu.edu. Archived from the original on 2020-08-01. Retrieved 2019-03-07.
↑ Green, Joshua (2018-11-07). "Republicans Weaponized the House. Now, Democrats Will Use It Against Trump". Bloomberg Businessweek. Retrieved 2019-03-07.
↑ Milbank, Dana (December 18, 2005). "Bush's Fumbles Spur New Talk of Oversight on Hill". The Washington Post. Retrieved 2012-06-20.
↑ ^13.0 ^13.1 Blitzer, Ronn (2020-03-30). "Meadows to resign from Congress this afternoon, officially starts as Trump's chief of staff tomorrow". Fox News. Retrieved 2020-03-31. Rep. Mark Meadows, R-N.C., is planning to resign from Congress on Monday afternoon[, 30 March 2020,] and will begin as President Trump's new White House chief of staff Tuesday, a Meadows aide told Fox News.
↑ "Cummings Announces Subcommittee Chairs and Full Committee Vice Chair". 24 January 2019. Archived from the original on 28 January 2019. Retrieved 28 April 2020.
↑ Committee on Oversight and Reform: Subcommittees – 116th Congress^{[permanent dead link]}

Other websites

House Oversight and Government Reform Committee (Archive)
House Oversight and Government Reform Committee. Legislation activity and reports, Congress.gov.
House Oversight and Government Reform Committee Hearings and Meetings Video. Congress.gov.
OMB Watch a government ethics and reform nonprofit agency
Plum Book Archived 2006-06-01 at the Wayback Machine, United States Government Policy Key Employees and Supporting Positions: About the Committee on Government Reform
Records of the Government Operations Committee and its Predecessors at the National Archives and Records Administration

[1] Acting Chair from October 17, 2019 – November 20, 2019

[2] Koempel, Michael (March 16, 2017). "A Survey of House and Senate Committee Rules on Subpoenas" (PDF). Congressional Research Service. Retrieved 2017-04-25.

[3] "Cummings to Issa: Unilateral subpoenas, access to records" (PDF). January 24, 2011. Archived from the original (PDF) on 2012-09-16. Retrieved 2012-06-20.

[MaloneyActing-4] 4.0 ^4.1 Chiacu, Doina; Heavey, Susan (October 17, 2019). Lambert, Lisa (ed.). "Maloney to be acting House oversight chair after Cummings death". Reuters. Retrieved October 17, 2019.

[5] "Cummings Named Oversight Committee Chairman" (Press release). Committee on Oversight and Reform. 2019-01-04. Archived from the original on 2019-01-11. Retrieved 2019-01-11.

[:0-6] "Oversight and Reform Members". House Committee on Oversight and Reform. 2015-01-28. Retrieved 2019-03-07.

[7] "Maloney Elected Chair of House Committee on Oversight and Reform". House Committee on Oversight and Reform. 2019-11-20. Archived from the original on 2020-03-23. Retrieved 2020-03-23.

[8] Daly, Matthew (2019-11-20). "Maloney chosen as first woman to lead House Oversight panel". WCTI-TV. Associated Press. Retrieved 2020-03-23.

[:1-9] "House Committee on Government Reform". www.princeton.edu. Retrieved 2019-03-07.

[:2-10] "Oversight Plan". lobby.la.psu.edu. Archived from the original on 2020-08-01. Retrieved 2019-03-07.

[11] Green, Joshua (2018-11-07). "Republicans Weaponized the House. Now, Democrats Will Use It Against Trump". Bloomberg Businessweek. Retrieved 2019-03-07.

[:3-12] Milbank, Dana (December 18, 2005). "Bush's Fumbles Spur New Talk of Oversight on Hill". The Washington Post. Retrieved 2012-06-20.

[blitzer20200320-13] 13.0 ^13.1 Blitzer, Ronn (2020-03-30). "Meadows to resign from Congress this afternoon, officially starts as Trump's chief of staff tomorrow". Fox News. Retrieved 2020-03-31. Rep. Mark Meadows, R-N.C., is planning to resign from Congress on Monday afternoon[, 30 March 2020,] and will begin as President Trump's new White House chief of staff Tuesday, a Meadows aide told Fox News.

[14] "Cummings Announces Subcommittee Chairs and Full Committee Vice Chair". 24 January 2019. Archived from the original on 28 January 2019. Retrieved 28 April 2020.

[15] Committee on Oversight and Reform: Subcommittees – 116th Congress^{[permanent dead link]}

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