House Republican leaders have set aside a vote on legislation that would establish an appointed “results” commission to issue recommendations for federal programs and agencies to be reorganized, consolidated, abolished, expanded, or transferred and that would be considered under expedited procedures.
It also removed from the floor a vote on legislation that would establish a “sunset” commission, which would require a federal agency to be abolished within one year of its’ review unless Congress either reauthorized the agency or extended the deadline for ending it.
The House government reform committee passed both bills recently along party lines, but some Republicans in the House reportedly were concerned about transferring Congress’s oversight role to the Executive, part of a wider debate about keeping the Executive in check.
The National Treasury Employees Union echoed that concern, describing the bills, HR-5766 and HR-3282, in a statement as “an unprecedented and extremely unwise transfer of power from the Legislative Branch to the Executive Branch.”
Specifically, the union said the bills would open the door for unelected commissions to eliminate programs and agencies based on “philosophical opposition to their mission rather than their failure to perform their mission.”
