Pelosi Letter to House Committee Chairs on Continuing Oversight Efforts of Government Spending

WASHINGTON, April 28 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- Speaker Nancy Pelosi sent the following letter today to committee chairs requesting that each of the committees continue to conduct "oversight of all aspects of federal spending and government operations to help achieve deficit reduction and long-term fiscal responsibility."  The Speaker asked that the chairs report back with a hearing schedule by May 28th. She issued the following statement on the letter:

"Over the past decade, Republicans in Congress and the Bush White House turned record surpluses into record deficits, and they want to take us back to an era of fiscal irresponsibility and record job losses," said Speaker Pelosi. "With this letter today, Democrats are demonstrating our ongoing commitment to reining in unnecessary spending; we are continuing to take steps to restore responsibility to the federal budget.  That's why I'm asking committee chairs to continue their efforts in conducting vigorous oversight of all aspects of the federal budget, to help reduce the deficit even further, and ensure fiscal discipline for the long term."

The text of the letter is below.

April 28, 2010

The Honorable XX

Chairman, Committee on XX

U.S. House of Representatives

Address, House Office Building

Washington, D.C. 20515

Dear Chair:

With your leadership, our New Direction Congress has produced an outstanding record of reform. We have delivered on our pledge to restore fiscal discipline and to restore accountability with honest leadership and open government.

A critical part of this initiative was our effort last year to build on the House Rules change proposed by Congressman John Tanner.  As you will recall, each Chairman was requested to schedule committee hearings to examine the budgets of programs in the departments or agencies within the committee's jurisdiction.

The responses from the committees described more than 150 hearings conducted to scrutinize our budget, while promoting efficiency and reducing waste, fraud, and abuse in government spending. Your efforts have promoted efficiency and reduced waste throughout government and, in the case of health care reform, saved taxpayers billions of dollars.

The 111th Congress took the important step of implementing statutory pay-as-you-go budgeting discipline to end the irresponsible deficit creation of previous Congresses and the Bush Administration.  And we have taken other important steps to improve oversight and accountability:

• bi-partisan passage of the Weapon Systems Acquisition Reform Act of 2009;
• bi-partisan passage, this week, of the IMPROVE Acquisition Act to reform the entire defense acquisition system, potentially saving billions for taxpayers;
• reduction of waste, fraud, and abuse in the Medicare and Medicaid systems to improve the delivery of health care services.

These are just a few examples of how the vigorous oversight by our committees has helped reform government and control spending on behalf of the American people. However, more work needs to be done to reduce the deficit and restore accountability.

To that end, it is essential that you redouble your efforts in conducting oversight of all aspects of federal spending and government operations to help achieve deficit reduction and long-term fiscal responsibility. Please submit a letter by May 28, 2010, outlining oversight hearings held by your committee this year, as well as any that have been scheduled or are currently being planned for the remainder of the 111th Congress, intended to scrutinize departments, agencies, and programs under your jurisdiction.

Thank you again for the hard work that you, the Members of your committee, and your staff have devoted to conducting these hearings over the past year.

best regards,

NANCY PELOSI

Speaker of the House

SOURCE Office of the Speaker of the House