Congress Weak on Control of 'Czars' Power

The Heritage Foundation points out the disaster that is the growth of 'Czars' and their power.

Congress partly to blame for 'czars'

When faced with controversial issues, Congress often turns to The Heritage Foundation for advice. Heritage scholar Matthew Spalding, for example, testified this week before the Senate Judiciary Committee about the constitutionality of the President's "czars" and their implications for Congressional oversight.

In his testimony, which was covered widely in the media, Spalding says it's unclear whether the "czars" are simple advisers or whether they're de facto department heads. This lack of clarity, he argues, raises serious concerns about their role and whether they are protected from Congressional oversight by executive privilege.

The proliferation of "czars" stems in large part from Congress' own bad decisions, argues Spalding, director of Heritage's B. Kenneth Simon Center for American Studies:
President Obama's attempt to centralize control over administrative agencies is therefore nothing new, nor is it peculiar to one of the two major parties in America. It is a symptom of a much more serious sickness -- the fact that Congress has transferred a great deal of its authority to administrative agencies, and neglected to put anyone in charge of the whole structure.

This entire framework is in tension with the original Constitution, but the Constitution nevertheless can give us some basic principles for thinking about the question of "czars" in the White House.

Spalding singles out last year's TARP bailout program as "a perfect example" of Congress giving away large amounts of authority to the executive branch: Unbounded delegations allowed the Secretary of the Treasury to spend up to $700 billion at will to purchase "troubled" assets of any financial institution. Lo and behold, the United States is now a majority owner of General Motors and there is a Car Czar.

In an interview with the Washington Times, Spalding again points the finger at lawmakers, warning that Congress "needs to be more careful in the types of legislative discretion it gives, which in many cases gave rise to the creation of these czars in the first place."