Coming to the Hill: lots of hearing-room
drama
The Christian Science Monitor
By Gail Russell Chaddock
January 3, 2006
WASHINGTON – It's going to be a banner year for C-SPAN. That's because
Congress is gearing up for the most dramatic slate of hearings since the
Clinton impeachment fracas.
The high-profile probes underscore efforts by Congress to reclaim power from
a war-time White House. And they could reshape this fall's midterm
elections.
In the closing weeks of the old year, lawmakers on both sides of the aisle
set in motion an aggressive oversight agenda, ranging from secret prisons and
the treatment of detainees under US control, to the president's authorization
of domestic eavesdropping without a warrant.
At the same time, more members of Congress find themselves under scrutiny,
as ex-super-lobbyist Jack Abramoff and his former associates work out plea
agreements promising cooperation in a widening bribery investigation on Capitol
Hill. Former House majority leader Tom DeLay, meanwhile, will face charges of
money laundering in court later this month.
In all, the scrutiny on - and from - Congress is a sharp turnaround for a
Republican-controlled body that came to power extolling ethics, and one that
has been deferential to the Bush presidency about its conduct in the war on
terrorism.
"It has clearly been a pattern in the past few months of Congress
intensifying its efforts of looking into how the executive branch has handled
executive authority, and this will only intensify," says Julian Zelizer, a
congressional historian at Boston University. "During the 1970s, Congress was
also under scrutiny for how it operated; at the same time, it increased its
scrutiny of how the White House conducted the war in Vietnam and intelligence.
The two go together," he adds.
A major reason for the new posture on Capitol Hill is the willingness of GOP
moderates to challenge the Bush administration's war policies. Alarmed by
recent disclosures of secret prisons and eavesdropping without warrants,
moderates are joining Democrats on key votes - and behind the scenes - to step
up congressional oversight.
Indeed, the limits of executive power will be a key theme in the
confirmation hearings for US Supreme Court nominee Samuel Alito, which begin
next week. As soon as those hearings end, the Senate Judiciary Committee,
chaired by GOP moderate Arlen Specter of Pennsylvania, will investigate
domestic spying by the National Security Administration (NSA).
"When the Bill of Rights is involved, it's time to go into it very deeply,"
says Senator Specter. "The public has a right to know as much as possible. It's
hard to see how a resolution on the use of force can be extended to the conduct
involved here."
In a radio address last month, President Bush called the highly classified
program of NSA intercepts "critical to saving American lives" - a theme he
repeated this weekend in comments to the press.
GOP moderates are teaming up with Democrats to push for a second
investigation by the Select Committee on Intelligence. In a Dec. 20 letter, GOP
Sens. Chuck Hagel of Nebraska and Olympia Snowe of Maine joined Democratic
Sens. Dianne Feinstein of California, Carl Levin of Michigan, and Ron Wyden of
Oregon in calling for an "immediate inquiry" on whether the president exceeded
his authority by authorizing wiretapping without a warrant.
Behind the scenes, a battle is also raging on how aggressively to push the
White House on reports of secret CIA prisons abroad. Before breaking for the
holidays, both the Senate and House called for the director of national
intelligence to submit a classified report to the intelligence committees on
secret prisons. At the 11th hour, the provision was stripped out of the FY 2006
Defense Authorization bill, with the understanding that the issue would be
taken up directly by the intelligence panels.
If GOP chairmen fail to take up the issue, Democrats say they will use it in
this year's midterm elections. "Twice now, Congress has overwhelmingly voted to
require classified reports on the alleged secret prisons," says Sen. John Kerry
(D) of Massachusetts. The Senate vote was 82-9. The House vote, which was
nonbinding, was 228-187. "People are going to have to choose between doing
what's right for our country and doing the administration's bidding, and if
they choose to roll over, then Americans have every right to hold them
accountable," he adds.
As Congress wound down last month, an unidentified Republican senator
blocked the intelligence authorization bill that included the amendment on
secret prisons. It also included an amendment by Sen. Edward Kennedy (D) of
Massachusetts requiring the Bush administration to turn over prewar
intelligence.
A long-stalled item on the investigative agenda is Phase II of a probe by
the intelligence committee into whether the Bush administration manipulated
prewar intelligence. After Democrats called the Senate into a rare secret
session over this issue, insiders say the committee is now "fully engaged" on
this issue, which is also expected to surface early in the new year.
But the biggest wildcard in the new year is how pending criminal
investigations will affect members of Congress themselves.
In the run-up to Mr. Abramoff's expected trial date on Jan. 9, members in
both parties are returning campaign contributions associated with his name.
Since 1999, at least 250 members of Congress have accepted campaign funds from
Abramoff or his American Indian clients, according to the Center for Responsive
Politics.
"This could be the biggest investigation of 2006," says Stephen Hess,
professor of media and public affairs at George Washington University.
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