An oversight idea for each member of the Cave Caucus.
Over 40 days of a government shutdown. 600,000 furloughed workers. Families left without SNAP benefits and federal employees going weeks without pay. What was it all for? Apparently, a doomed-to-fail vote on Affordable Care Act subsidies and no guarantees that the Trump administration will start to follow the law in dispersing appropriations.
Last week saw sweeping Democratic victories in elections from across the country, with voters blaming Trump and Republicans for shutdown pains, among all the other harm they’ve caused. Trump’s favorability is in the tank. He and the Speaker of the House spent Sunday afternoon getting booed while watching football from a suite that would probably cost a normal person tens of thousands of dollars. While the President was trying (and failing) to look like an everyman, a group of 8 Democratic Senators—the Cave Caucus—decided it was time to roll over to Republican demands and give up on the shutdown fight.
So why did they do it? Sen. Angus King, one of the eight, said he folded because Democratic strategy “wasn’t working.” Sen. Jeanne Shaeen claimed it “was the only deal on the table.” One can easily contest both claims, but even granting their argument, what does a competent political party do if its current course of action is failing in high stakes negotiations? It changes strategies. It increases the pressure on its opponents. It leverages that pressure to force its opponents to give in or face (further) repercussions from constituents.
Rather than simply fold, the Cave Caucus could have exercised their oversight powers, focusing the power of the various Senate Committees they sit on to highlight the excesses and corruption of the Trump administration and its negative impact on their constituents. It’s too late to make a difference this time, but maybe the Cave Caucus can take these ideas and run with them when we’re right back in the same place two months from now.
Sen. Catherine Cortez Masto: Investigate Department of Energy Favoritism
Sen. Cortez Masto sits on the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee, which has been failing to properly oversee the Department of Energy. It’s not particularly surprising if you watched the nomination hearing for Energy Secretary Chris Wright, wherein Democratic Senators neglected to grill Wright on his climate change denialism, conflicts of interest, or abysmal workplace safety record. But Sen. Cortez Masto can still investigate those conflicts of interests as they become even more apparent.
Prior to joining the administration, Wright served on the board of Oklo, a nuclear energy company backed by Sam Altman, who served as Chair until his resignation in April. Despite its shaky record, Oklo has boomed under this administration. The DOE selected Oklo as one of four companies for a reactor pilot program, gave approval to its Nuclear Safety Design Agreement in just two weeks, and is considering granting Oklo access to 19 metric tonnes of weapons grade plutonium. This is a remarkable turnaround for a company whose 2022 application to construct a nuclear reactor was denied for “significant information gaps” regarding its safety systems.
Sen. Cortez Masto should be using her position on the Energy Committee to investigate whether this is the result of favoritism towards Oklo. In addition to Wright’s personal connection, Sam Altman donated $1 million to Trump’s inauguration fund and partnered OpenAI with the administration on AI infrastructure. Given the potential danger in the nuclear energy industry, the public needs to know whether Oklo is being properly vetted.
Sen. Dick Durbin: Investigate DOJ Potential Quid Pro Quos With Google
Sen. Durbin’s membership in the Cave Caucus is perhaps the most inexcusable. He’s the Senate Democratic Whip—evidently doing a poor job—and represents a deep blue state whose biggest city is being terrorized by Trump’s goons in ICE and CBP. To be fair to Durbin, he has been vocal on the issue and regularly uplifted stories of the most egregious excesses by federal agents. But there’s another issue that Durbin is well positioned to take the lead on—oversight of the construction of the new White House Ballroom and its impact on government policy.
By funding the construction of the White House Ballroom with private donations, the administration has opened up the door for rampant corruption. Every administration action regarding any of the donors must now be viewed with the utmost suspicion, and Senate Dems should be using every tool to scrutinize them. As Ranking Member of the Senate Judiciary Committee, Durbin is the top Democrat responsible for overseeing the Department of Justice and therefore poised to lead this fight.
Last week, the DOJ Antitrust Division approved Google’s $32 billion acquisition of cyber security company Wiz just weeks after Google’s parent company gave $22 million to the Ballroom project. Durbin could’ve spent his shutdown shining a light on the corruption undergirding a wildly unpopular project in order to sharpen the contrast between Trump’s priorities and the suffering of people affected by the shutdown.
Sen. John Fetterman: Investigate the Impact of DOGE Cuts on Avian Flu
After waning over the summer, avian flu is back on the rise, with nearly 4 million birds culled in September as a result of increased positive tests for H5N1. Trump’s gutted government may be ill-prepared to address the issue. In April, the CDC cancelled a workshop on preventing human bird flu infections. The USDA lost 15,000 staff members to deferred resignations, including experts and staff responsible for responding to and investigating animal disease outbreaks. With anti-vaxxer RFK Jr. at the helm, HHS cancelled a contract with Moderna to develop a bird flu vaccine.
Sen. Fetterman, as a member of the Senate Committee on Agriculture, Nutrition, and Forestry, could be leading an investigation into the impact of these actions on containment efforts and food prices. With Thanksgiving just around the corner—turkey prices are reportedly 40% higher than in 2024—and the ever salient issue of egg prices, Congress should be demanding answers from the administration. If the administration ignores them, Democrats could hold informal hearings with farmers and terminated experts who could speak first hand about the administration’s fumbling of the crisis.
Sen. Maggie Hassan: Investigate AI In Healthcare
Sen. Hassan is the Ranking Member of the Senate Subcommittee on Healthcare. The Democrats staked their entire shutdown strategy on the expiring Affordable Care Act subsidies, so Sen. Hassan should have been central in using this leverage. Instead, she agreed to a deal that all but guarantees the subsidies will expire, dramatically increasing healthcare costs and the number of people uninsured.
In addition to hammering away on issues related to the ACA, the health care industry generally is in desperate need of congressional oversight. The industry has increasingly used artificial intelligence to deny care to patients, and, under Dr. Oz’s leadership at the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services, Medicare will soon do the same. Sen. Hassan could be requesting appearances of the CEOs of the worst offending companies and speaking with patients that were denied care due to AI. This is a useful endeavor in itself, but it would also serve as a warning of things to come as the federal government integrates AI services into its processes. Getting ahead of this issue is crucial to having the capacity to conduct more forceful oversight via subpoenas and hearings if Democrats regain power.
Sen. Tim Kaine: Investigate Effects of USAID’s Dismantling
Sen. Kaine serves as the Ranking Member on the Senate Subcommittee on Western Hemisphere, Transnational Crime, Civilian Security, Democracy, Human Rights, & Global Women’s Issues. Part of the subcommittee’s jurisdiction includes U.S. foreign assistance programs, meaning Sen. Kaine is the top Democratic Senator responsible for oversight of the destruction of programs like USAID.
To be clear, Sen. Kaine and others were very vocally opposed to the dismantling of USAID as DOGE destroyed it. But the real world impacts are ongoing. A researcher at Boston University estimates that 600,000 people have already died as a result of USAID’s destruction. Somalia is experiencing a food insecurity crisis and health facilities are shutting down. Thousands of Sudanese refugees are looking for new ways to make a living after the administration ended a grant that helped them become self-supporting through a cash award and coaching. Stories like these will continue to come to light as communities deal with the loss of support, and Sen. Kaine should be using congressional oversight to keep them in the news. The public strongly disapproved of the cuts even as they happened. Now, it’s Congress’ job to ensure the devastating effects remain in the public consciousness and voters in turn blame the people who caused so much pain around the world.
Sen. Angus King: Investigate National Park Service Cuts
Sen. King is the Ranking Member of the Subcommittee on National Parks, which have been under widespread attack by the Trump administration. While the Republicans seem content to let the administration run roughshod over funding for these national treasures, the public still holds National Parks in high regard. The public needs Congress to provide accountability for the administration’s actions: National Park Service cuts have led to extreme understaffing for crucial roles, including fee collectors, emergency services, educational programs, and park maintenance, according to recent New York Times reporting.
Sen. King provided a comment to the Times for the story, but is not using his actual power as a Senator to do anything about it. King could request a GAO investigation into the downward spiral of underfunding fee collection, hold hearings with Park Service employees, and investigate if there have been serious injuries due to lapses in emergency services. Instead, he merely told the Times that the administration should “show [him] the data” to justify cuts, as if that’s something the administration would do.
Sen. Jackie Rosen: Investigate Cybersecurity Protocols of Government Contractors
Early this week, the Department of War (née Defense) began the rollout of its Cybersecurity Maturity Model Certification (CMMC), a three-phase rule that mandates strict cybersecurity requirements for their contractors. Despite the long build up to the rule’s implementation, surveys of the industry suggest that contractors are not prepared to be in compliance.
As Ranking Member on the Subcommittee on Cybersecurity, Sen. Rosen should be at the forefront of addressing this issue. It doesn’t appear that she’s commented on the issue at all. This is a major concern given that top contractors like Raytheon are already failing in their cybersecurity requirements and unproven companies that are linked to the Trump family are getting Pentagon contracts.
Sen. Jeanne Shaheen: Investigate Tariff Quid-Pro-Quos and Caribbean Strikes
As Ranking Member of the Senate Committee on Foreign Relations, Sen. Shaheen has a host of issues on her plate that demand oversight, namely the extrajudicial bombings of boats in the Caribbean and Trump’s tariff policies. Sen. Shaheen has spoken out about both, but a few mild denouncements are hardly the type of forceful oversight demanded by these scandals. The Ranking Member on Foreign relations should be demanding to know who authorized the strikes and promising to work with the international community in holding the administration accountable for violating international law. Trump’s tariffs are not only raising prices, but also open the door for insider trading and quid-pro-quos. The public is not happy about Trump’s foreign policy, and Sen. Shaheen should be the key Democrat drawing a contrast to his chaos.
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