Report: Democrats 'think big' on Bush oversight

RAW STORYPublished: Monday November 20, 2006

Democrats are "thinking big" on Bush oversight, according to a Capitol Hill newspaper.
"Senate Democrats’ plans to significantly beef up the chamber’s oversight of the Bush administration will go well beyond intelligence-gathering activities and President Bush’s prosecution of the Iraq War to include investigations into the Medicare program, alleged censorship of scientists, climate change and potential manipulation of energy markets, according to aides and lobbyists," John Stanton reports for Roll Call.

Both the Environment and Public Works and the Energy and Natural Resources committees are "expected to be aggressive in their investigative activities."

Excerpts from Roll Call article:

Incoming Environment and Public Works Chairwoman Barbara Boxer (D-Calif.) already has said she will address the issue of climate change in the 110th Congress, and oversight hearings of the Bush administration’s policies will be a central aspect of that work. Since Bush took office in 2000, environmentalists’ complaints about lax enforcement by the EPA and allegations that the administration was undermining the nation’s environmental laws largely have fallen on deaf ears in Congress.

But with Boxer in charge, the committee is expected to take up a number of other environment issues, including the EPA’s toxics and pesticide testing rules, the Superfund program, Clean Air Act rules covering emissions from coal-fired power plants, wetlands and Clean Water Act regulatory development. The committee also will likely launch inquires into allegations by environmentalists and EPA whistle-blowers that the agency has been censoring scientists working in a number of areas that could harm the industries the agency regulates.

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