Armey honors champions of oversight

Congressional committee chairmen who hold hearings to conduct oversight of executive branch management often note during those hearings that management oversight is not "sexy."

If that is so, then House Majority Leader Dick Armey, R-Texas, has honored the 12 least sexy members of the House of Representatives with a new award for oversight excellence.

Last week, Armey chose a dozen representatives as "outstanding and little-recognized valiant chairmen who are heroes and heroines of congressional programmatic oversight." Armey picked the 12 from among the 110 House committee and subcommittee chairmen who make up the House leadership.

"When performed properly, oversight forces bureaucrats to realize that they work for the American people, not the other way around," Armey said. "It ensures that government spends tax dollars prudently and protects the rights of citizens."

Winners of the first "Excellence in Programmatic Oversight" awards received a framed magnifying glass from Armey.

The twelve winners are:

• Christopher Shays, chairman of the Government Reform and Oversight Subcommittee on Human Resources, for pushing the Department of Veterans Affairs to deal with Gulf War syndrome and urging the Health and Human Services Department to increase its efforts to combat Hepatitis C.
• Dennis Hastert, chairman of the Government Reform and Oversight Subcommittee on National Security, International Affairs, and Criminal Justice, for helping set performance targets for federal drug prevention efforts and reviewing drug programs during the course of 24 hearings.
• Curt Weldon, chairman of the National Security Subcommittee on Military Research and Development, for building support for a national missile defense system.
• Spencer Bachus, chairman of the Banking and Financial Services Subcommittee on General Oversight and Investigations, for exposing misconduct in a federal grant program designed to aid poor communities.
• James Sensenbrenner, Jr. chairman of the Science Committee, for questioning Russian-U.S. collaboration on the international space station and pushing agencies to improve their Government Performance and Results Act plans.
• John Edward Porter, chairman of the Appropriations Subcommittee on Labor, Health and Human Services, and Education, for prodding agencies under his jurisdiction to demonstrate the results they get for the money they spend.
• Stephen Horn, chairman of the Government Reform and Oversight Subcommittee on Government Management, Information and Technology, for his sustained oversight of federal efforts to solve the year 2000 problem and improve financial management.
• Constance Morella, chairman of the Science Subcommittee on Technology, for making the Office of Management and Budget improve its coordination of agencies' efforts to solve the year 2000 computer problem.
• Porter Goss, chairman of the Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence, for redirecting the intelligence community from a Cold War strategic vision to a vision that reflects present and future challenges.
• Dan Miller, chairman of the Government Reform and Oversight Subcommittee on the Census, for fighting the Clinton Administration on its plans to use sampling in the Year 2000 Census.
• Joe Barton, chairman of the Commerce Subcommittee on Oversight and Investigations, for overseeing the Food and Drug Administration's efforts to reduce the waiting time for drug approval without compromising safety.
• David McIntosh, chairman of the Government Reform and Oversight Subcommittee on National Economic Growth, National Resources, and Regulatory Affairs, for leading the effort to overturn President Clinton's executive order on federalism.