Quiet as a mouse.
There certainly have been gaffes, softballs, and missed opportunities. And the most obvious are found in the Senate Committee on Homeland Security—the Senate’s version of Rep. Henry Waxman’s Oversight Committee in the House. Unlike Waxman’s enthusiastic probing, the Senate chair conducted zero proactive investigations into Bush administration malfeasance. It’s chairman? Connecticut’s Joseph Lieberman.
Actually, Lieberman’s committee’s full name is the Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee and here are their responsibilities:
Jurisdiction
Archives of the United States; budget and accounting measures, other than appropriations, except as provided in the Congressional Budget Act of 1974; census and collection of statistics, including economic and social statistics; congressional organization, except for matter amending the Senate”s rules or orders; Federal Civil Service; Government information; intergovernmental relations; municipal affairs of the District of Columbia, except appropriations therefor; organization and management of United States nuclear export policy; organization and reorganization of the executive branch of the Government; Postal Service; status of officers and employees of the United States, including their classification, compensation, and benefits.
The Committee also is to receive and examine reports of the Comptroller General of the United States and submit any desired or necessary recommendations to the Senate in connection with the subject matter of such reports; study the efficiency, economy, and effectiveness of all agencies and departments of the Government; evaluate the effects of laws enacted to reorganize the legislative and executive branches of the Government; and study the intergovernmental relationships between the United States and the States and municipalities, and between the United States and international organizations of which it is a member.
In other words, this committee should be investigating a wide range of issues related to the functioning of government. It’s not just a Homeland Security committee. Lieberman is doing nothing.
