Congressional Oversight

January 30, 2025

Press Release

Congressional OversightIndependent Agencies

Revolving Door Project Condemns Trump Administration’s Illegal Firings, Implores Congress To Conduct Oversight

Donald Trump has now illegally fired multiple Democratic members of independent agency boards, including Gwynne Wilcox from the National Labor Relations Board and Jocelyn Samuels and Charlotte Burrows from the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, years before their actual term expiry dates. In so doing, Trump has demonstrated yet again, an abject disregard for the basic rule of law, as well as an apparent willingness to engage in authoritarian-esque hostile takeovers of any part of the government able to provide a check to his power. 

December 23, 2024 | The American Prospect

Toni Aguilar Rosenthal

Op-Ed

Congressional OversightDepartment of Veterans Affairs

The VA's Self-Made Dialysis Disaster

Former Representative Doug Collins is Donald Trump’s pick to head the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA), a federal agency that oversees the administration of health care to over 9.1 million veterans. Collins, notably, is a veteran himself, but has seemingly little background on veterans issues. His early pronouncements are superficially bland, promising to “root out corruption, and ensure every veteran receives the benefits they’ve earned,” among other things. 

September 23, 2024 | Common Dreams

KJ Boyle

Op-Ed Climate and EnvironmentCongressional Oversight

Senate Democrats Must Flex their Oversight Powers against the Oil Industry

With a divided Congress and an election fast approaching, congressional Democrats have little opportunity to enact any landmark legislation, but they need not sit on their hands. Congressional committees have the power to conduct hearings, investigations, and issue subpoenas. As the majority party in the Senate, Democrats should be using this authority to aggressively critique corporations that harm the public’s health and pocketbooks.

May 01, 2024 | Revolving Door Project Newsletter

Hannah Story Brown

Newsletter Congressional OversightCriminal JusticeDepartment of JusticeEthics in Government

Merrick Garland’s Delay May Mean Justice Denied

Last week, the Supreme Court mulled over whether the former president (the “very stable genius” who pushed a “miracle cure” for COVID later tied to 17,000 avoidable deaths) should be prescribed his own miracle cure: presidential immunity for the crimes he is charged with committing while in office. 

April 15, 2024

Ananya Kalahasti Fatou Ndiaye

Interview 2024 ElectionCongressional OversightExecutive BranchGovernment Capacity

Unpacking The Federal Executive Branch, A Conversation With Vanderbilt University Professor David Lewis

Coverage of presidential elections typically hones in on contestants’ competing legislative visions, which in truth, tend to morph considerably when hit by the reality of an intransigent Congress. This prompts an important question: are presidential elections overrated? Well, before drawing that conclusion, consider one of the underrated consequences of a federal election: the potential for a new administration to alter the management of the federal workforce and the operations of individual departments within the executive branch. Although journalists eschew reporting of these consequences in favor of (legislatively focused) policy platforms and rallies, there is a wide body of academic research which investigates the impact of presidential administrations on the federal executive branch’s ability and capacity to fulfill its roles and responsibilities.