The Hill reports that North Carolina Congressman Patrick McHenry, R-10th, is calling for Obama’s “czars” to testify before Congress about their duties in the administration:
The president’s “czars” have become a point of controversy among his opponents because they do not have to be confirmed by the Senate as cabinet-level officials do.
McHenry wrote to committee chairman Edolphus Towns (D-N.Y.) and ranking member Darrell Issa (R-Calif.) asking the appointed officials to testify.
“If the czars have high-level, decision-making authority as their titles would indicate, then it is my concern that their appointment without Senate approval represents a circumvention of our Constitutionally-mandated confirmation process,” McHenry, who is a member of the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee, said in his letter.
It’s ironic that the same forces worried — and rightly so — about executive power and civil liberties under the Bush administration have gone mute about Obama’s unprecedented number of czars. Those tactics are commendable, it would appear, as long as the president has a “D” after his name.
