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Broken Government: How the Administrative State has Broken President Obama’s Promise of Regulatory Reform

In the wake of stagnant job creation, an unacceptably high unemployment rate and growing concern that our country is marching towards another recession, the House Committee on Oversight and Government is continuing its examination of regulations that are acting as impediments to job creation. Late last year, the Committee began the most expansive look in more than a decade at the impact that regulations were having on businesses – large and small – the result was input from more than 1,300 ...

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Doubling Down on Failure: Before Asking for a New Stimulus Package, Will the Obama Administration Admit that the First One Failed?

The House Oversight and Government Reform Committee has reviewed public-available data on the stimulus and prepared a comprehensive report that examines stimulus measures as well as how President Obama and his Administration “sold” the program to the public. On both accounts, stimulus failed.

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The Department of Justice’s Operation Fast and Furious: Fueling Cartel Violence

This report explores the effect of Operation Fast and Furious on Mexico. Its lethal drug cartels obtained AK-47 variants, Barrett .50 caliber sniper rifles, .38 caliber revolvers, and FN Five-seveNs from Arizona gun dealers who were cooperating with the ATF by continuing to sell to straw purchasers identified in Operation Fast and Furious.

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The Department of Justice’s Operation Fast and Furious: Accounts of ATF Agents

This report is the first in a series regarding Operation Fast and Furious. Possible future reports and hearings will likely focus on the actions of the United States Attorney’s Office for the District of Arizona, the decisions faced by gun shop owners (FFLs) as a result of ATF’s actions, and the remarkably ill-fated decisions made by Justice Department officials in Washington, especially within the Criminal Division and the Office of the Deputy Attorney General. This first installment ...

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The BP Oil Spill Recovery Effort: The Legacy of Choices Made by the Obama Administration

The Oversight and Government Reform Committee has conducted a yearlong investigation into the efficiency, adequacy, and accuracy of the federal response to the Gulf Oil Spill. This on-going investigative effort included three separate fact finding trips to southern Louisiana, Mississippi, and Florida, careful examinations of accounts provided by the Administration that directly conflict with the experience of federal and local officials on the ground, as well as a Congressional hearing. ...

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Rising Energy Costs: The Intentional Result of Government Action

The Obama Administration has advanced an agenda that discourages development of domestic carbon-based energy resources. Administration actions include the threat of new federal regulation of hydraulic fracturing, withdrawal of federal lands, both on and offshore, from energy production, increasingly burdensome requirements for oil shale research and development leases, and a de facto moratorium on drilling permits. This strategy has added to permitting delays, created additional layers of ...

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A New Era of Openness? How and Why Political Staff at DHS Interfered with the FOIA Process

The House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform has learned through the course of an eight-month investigation that political staff under DHS Secretary Janet Napolitano have corrupted the agency’s FOIA compliance procedures, exerted political pressure on FOIA compliance officers, and undermined the federal government’s accountability to the American people.

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Assessing Regulatory Impediments to Job Creation

The Administration’s economic strategies employed over the last two years have not succeeded in getting Americans back to work in sufficient numbers... The President has reached out to several organizations representing business interests in the preceding weeks and months and has invited the heads of some of the largest national and multinational companies to share their suggestions for jumpstarting the economy. Businesses that responded to the President overwhelmingly reported that ...

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A Constitutional Obligation: Congressional Oversight of the Executive Branch

Hand-in-hand with the powers expressly granted to Congress by the Constitution – among others, to legislate, to appropriate funds, to declare war, to raise armies, and to impeach – is the implicit responsibility to perform rigorous oversight of the Executive Branch.

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The Removal of the Inspector General for the National Railroad Passenger Corporation (Amtrak)

Prior to his sudden retirement, Weiderhold contacted and met with Finance Committee staff on several occasions. During these conversations, Weiderhold described an environment where Amtrak management repeatedly interfered with the independent functioning of the Office of Inspector General (OIG).