Byron York‘s latest Washington Examiner article explains that the incoming U.S. House Republican majority will be watching two federal agencies especially closely:
Two key areas on which Republicans plan to keep a close eye are Department of Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius’ implementation of the new national health care law and Environmental Protection Agency head Lisa Jackson’s work to unilaterally regulate carbon emissions. Both fall under the oversight of the House Energy and Commerce Committee — a panel so important that the famed Democratic Rottweiler Rep. Henry Waxman left the Oversight Committee to chair it — and both will be the subject of extensive oversight next year.
It hasn’t been decided who the next chairman of Energy and Commerce will be. Current ranking member Rep. Joe Barton of Texas wants the job, but Hill sources say it is likely to go instead to Michigan Rep. Fred Upton, despite the opposition of conservatives who object to some of Upton’s votes on land use, the EPA budget, and TARP.
“Our oversight role is going to be very active,” says Upton. “I look at the last two years and I think Sebelius has come up one time, same for Lisa Jackson. We’re going to give them a reserved parking place in the Rayburn House Office Building.”
