ABSTRACT
This chapter focuses on the sources of Congress's oversight power. This power stems from specific aspects of the Constitution. Congress has found the need over the years to bolster its ability to conduct oversight by passing laws clarifying the power, in some cases, and adding capacity to help it keep track of the proliferation of agencies and federal programs, in others. The Constitution does not specifically enumerate the oversight power. The absence of debate at the Constitutional Convention on this question did not mean that the framers did not want Congress to be able to supervise the executive branch; quite the opposite was true. Both the George W. Bush and Obama administrations attempted to push the limits of executive privilege—in Bush's case to the point of asserting that presidential advisers and agency officials have immunity from congressional subpoenas. Oversight is part and parcel of the legislative power granted to Congress in the Constitution.
