Staffing Congress to Strengthen Oversight of the Administrative State

Executive Summary: While Congress has made reforms in the past to square the executive branch’s regulatory actions with representative government, congressional capacity has not kept pace with the growth of administrative government. This brief discusses reforms that would strengthen Congress’s capacity to engage the regulations that already exist and provide oversight for the large flow of new regulations proposed each year. Any serious and durable effort to reduce the power of the administrative state must increase the number of congressional overseers to engage and, if necessary, correct the executive branch’s regulatory activity. First and foremost, that means augmenting Congress’s staff. PB24_01-Kosar- Download