Congress can assure the success of the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) by fulfilling its constitutional duty to oversee the executive branch.
The U.S. House’s DOGE Subcommittee, Chaired by Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, R-Ga., can act as a "grand jury."
The subcommittee can become a key forum for informing the public of existing waste, fraud, and abuse, building the nonpartisan case for cutting budgets and eliminating programs.
This existing information would be delivered by Inspector Generals who are tasked with performing objective reviews of the finances and operations of the Executive Branch.
The first hearing could review the Defense Department (DOD) failing its seventh financial audit.
The recent independent financial audit documented that the DOD could not account for $824 billion.
The DOGE Subcommittee could simply have the accountants reveal what they found over the seven years of failed audits.
The Inspector General witnesses will not be hostile. They will be eager to report their findings in the hopes that tangible reforms might finally be made.
DOGE-focused hearings will be an historic opportunity to bring fundamental and lasting change to the federal government.
Over the years, most Congressional Oversight Hearings were contentious as they convened to embarrass the executive branch.
Witnesses were hostile and refused to answer questions, obfuscated their answers, and outright lied.
Members ended up talking far more than the witnesses to make their case to counter the bogus testimony.
DOGE-focused hearings will be different.
Witnesses from the Government Accountability Office (GAO) and the 73 inspector general offices could review the last 10 years of their findings.
Each year they collectively report over $650 billion in ongoing waste and provide recommended actions. Few of their recommendations were implemented.
What great media moments could occur if credible, nonpartisan, professionals were allowed to present their findings.
They would explain how the executive branch has squandered $6.5 trillion over the last 10 years. They would list unimplemented reforms, which could form the roadmap of eliminating countless programs and offices.
Waste is not partisan. No one wants public funds misspent.
The work of the DOGE Subcommittee could be bolstered by real oversight hearings as part of the appropriation process.
Congress can control the executive branch through its constitutional power of the purse. What is funded exists and grows, what isn’t funded shrinks or vanishes.
Appropriations committees are mandated to meet and build the case for spending public funds. Administration witnesses make their case for spending. Appropriation committee members make their alternative case.
What should occur is a dialogue designed to align congressional intent, and executive branch actions, to public spending.
What should emerge is legislation with properly vetted financials. Supporting these numbers should be the hearing record that builds a compelling case for how and why public funds should or shouldn’t be spent.
This rarely happens in Congress. The result is Congress abdicating its spending control and destabilizing the constitutional balance between coequal branches.
There has been a steady decline in incorporating congressional oversight into the Appropriation process.
In 2015, there were 128 House appropriation hearings prior to marking-up funding legislation. In 2024, there were only 71.
House appropriators heard from only three of the 73 Inspector Generals. No one from the Government Accountability Office (GAO) was involved.
The handful of "public" witnesses represented Washington-based stakeholder organizations. No one from oversight groups documenting government waste and abuse were invited to testify.
In the 1980s and 1990s, Appropriation hearings lasted three or more hours. Hearings in 2024 averaged less than two hours. In most cases, only the Department/Agency Head testified.
On average only three to five Members of Congress attend these hearings; even though all Subcommittees have at least eleven Members (Defense has sixteen).
There were 43 Senate Appropriation hearings in 2024. Three inspector generals appeared, and there were no witnesses from the GAO or government watchdog groups.
Reversing these trends will be a critical part of establishing DOGE-focused hearings.
U.S. Senate and U.S. House authorizing committees could also help build the case for DOGE reforms by holding their own series of oversight hearings featuring testimony from the inspector generals under their respective jurisdictions along with the GAO.
[DOGE-focused hearings with House/Senate Oversight, Appropriations, Authorization Committees could form an echo-chamber of evidence building a compelling nonpartisan case for reducing the size of the Executive Branch and its cost.]
The findings of these DOGE-focused hearings will make it easier to pass legislation to eliminate programs, offices, and agencies. It will also make the case for dramatically reducing the budgets and personnel of obsolete and ineffective executive branch activities.
Americans deserve cost-effective government. DOGE-focused hearings will return Congress to its Constitutional role and responsibility.
Scot Faulkner is the best-selling author of "Naked Emperors: The Failure of the Republican Revolution." He also served as the first chief administrative officer of the U.S. House, and was director of personnel for the Reagan campaign and went on to serve in the presidential transition team and on the White House staff. During the Reagan administration, he held executive positions at the FAA, the GSA, and the Peace Corps. Read Scot Faulker's reports — More Here.
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