Issa targets 'broken bureaucracy'

WASHINGTON — The Obama administration can expect congressional hearings this year on WikiLeaks, foreclosures, corruption in Afghanistan and food safety as Republicans take over the House oversight committee.That's the agenda that Rep. Darrell Issa, the incoming chairman of the committee, laid out Monday.

His "Initial Oversight Investigations Lineup," which the California Republican rolled out via Twitter and later outlined in a written statement, is his most detailed indication of where and how he intends to use Congress's subpoena power after taking the helm of the committee on Wednesday.

Issa spokesman Kurt Bardella said in a written statement that all the hearings will "advance an agenda focused on reforming a broken bureaucracy and addressing waste, fraud, abuse and mismanagement."

Among the topics for hearings:

•The impact of government regulations on job creation. "Why hasn't the economy created the private sector jobs the president promised?" Bardella said.

•The role of government-sponsored mortgage backers Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac in the housing crisis.

•The failure of the Financial Crisis Inquiry Commission to agree on a root cause of the financial meltdown.

•Corruption in Afghanistan.

•How to combat the release of classified information via the website WikiLeaks.

•The Food and Drug Administration, which Issa calls "a broken bureaucracy."

The Democrat in line to become the committee's ranking minority member, Rep. Elijah Cummings, D-Md., acknowledged that Republicans are in control and can set the agenda.

"I think the thing that concerns me most is not so much the subjects, but how they will be addressed," he said.

Foreclosures, he said, should be a top priority — but Congress should also look at the failure of lenders to modify mortgage terms, and the "robo-signing" scandal in which banks foreclosed on homeowners without verifying they were in default.

"Now it sounds like a how-do-we-attack-Fannie-Mae-and-Freddie-Mac hearing," Cummings said. "I don't see how you can have true oversight and true reform if you only look at one piece of the puzzle. I have no problem looking at Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, but I know — and Congressman Issa knows — that's not the only cause of the financial crisis."

Danielle Brian, director of the independent good-government advocacy group Project on Government Oversight, said the lineup mostly avoided obvious partisan bludgeons.

One topic did give her pause: Hearings on jobs, which will invite business leaders to talk about how regulations are hurting job growth. "That was at the top of the Chamber of Commerce's priority list," she said.

But hearings on corruption in Afghanistan are "a brilliant topic" for oversight hearings, she said. Those subjects have previously gone to Foreign Affairs or Armed Services, "and those committees don't have the culture to do serious oversight," she said.

The agenda is for the first three months of the year. "If something's not on the list, it doesn't mean we're not doing it," Bardella said.

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