Okay the committee will come to order the chair is authorized to declare a recess of the committee. And this time article one, restoring capacity and equipping. I get myself five minutes to give an opening statement. Its our first hearing of the new year, this committee has had an incredibly productive last year, passing 45 recommendations focused on making congress more effective and efficient so that they can better serve the American People and i am proud of what we have conceived and accomplished with this committee so far and what weve accomplished together. Every member of this committee has been fully engaged, the work has taken time to consider the work in the mandate, and really working consider the colleagues. Finding Collaborative Solutions to the challenges this institution faces. Successful institutions what you are talking up businesses or organizations or governments, depends on people who are invested in the work they are doing. And that is fundamental. Invite successful institutions invest in their cells, their employees, their infrastructure, and the overall Work Environment and experience. They think can plan with an eye towards the future. Bottom line is, it is hard for people to be fully invested in their work if their work is not fully invested in them. Congress has been lucky to get extremely dedicated staff, and continue to be productive despite the many challenges that they have faced. Fulfilling the mission has become harder over the past couple of decades, primarily due to the decisions and choices that congress has made. Today is about looking inward, what the framers created of congress, the first coequal branches of government. Article one, has the congress and numerous powers. Congress capacity to uphold these powers as we can. This across many of our hearings from last, year and drastically effects congress is ability to help the American People. And we felt it good to put article one front and center. Todays hearing will help us understand gore the factors that has been the Congress Power since world war ii. And look how congress has reduced its own capacity to fulfill its constitutional obligation. Also we will consider what to be done to return congress to a coequal branch of government. The no decision should be made by one branch of government. That is the beauty of our, system and i look forward to hearing recommendations from our Witnesses Today and how to strengthen congress and the legislative branch. We have a group of students here from virginia tech, who are here to look at oversight, and i think these issues are very important, and i think its people its great that they want to learn about this, stuff and thank you for taking an interest in our work. applause i even see them coming in thank you students for being here. I would like to ask are vice chair for opening remarks. I am going to im going to echo the chairs thanks for a productive and historic, in history making here for this committee. 45 recommendations in total all bipartisan with a lead significantly piece of legislation to match. Which is a testament to this committee and what we can do. I want to see what we can accomplish this year this year weve been granted and grateful for. And weve also had some good times going on a speaking tour together. We had a great group that is interested in what were doing here, but weve learned a lot, over the last year about the way the legislative branch functions, and i think weve heard a bit more about the way it doesnt function. And the founders created legislative branch to act as a coequal branch of government. Our powers are clearly laid out and we are all familiar with our day today duties as representatives of the American People. With these rules and regulations as vision by the founders, are not as they exist today. The American Peoples first branch is not truly equal. We will hear more from our witnesses about this today, of the growing power of the executive, Branch Admissions staff capacity, and a refusal to admit yourself at times, weve got a lot of work to do. Diminished Article One Branch means a diminished government for the people we serve. And that is not the goal of this committee, our goal is to return that authority back to this body. This committee is finding ways to reinvest and have strength in our congress, so we can serve better the American People. I am very excited about todays hearing, and are witnesses that are joining us, that mr. Chairman happy to yield back. Today we west welcomed the testimony of our four witnesses, our first witness is rachel augustine, before becoming a political scientist, she were for several government institutions, including the White House Office of management, u. S. Accountability, office the German Federal ministry of the interior, are next witnesses kevin costar, Vice President of research non, profit non partisan, Public Research organization. Doctor closer directs our codirected our governance department. Are working, group which aims to strengthen congress, and establish an online hope for congressional reform and scholarship. Doctor costar work for the Congressional Research service for more than a decade, where he served as an analyst and research manager. No pressure. Third is the washington codirector of the 11 center, from 1985 to 2014, it has been working for carl leaven, including 15 years at the Senate Subcommittee on investigations. Supported chief staff her, legislation on matters such as money laundering, corruption and tax abuse. 2014 senator 11 retired, and has been joining the senator, at the federal state and local and international levels, to perform investigation an oversight. And last john hudak. Senior doctor who tax questions the president ial power, personnel and Public Policy. His book president ial report white house influence over the distribution of federal grants, looks at pork barrel politics, and his other work shows how institutional structure, facilitates or hinder, president ial power and influence. Witnesses are reminded, that youre oral testimony will be limited to five minutes, and without objection, your written remarks will be made part of the record. Doctor potter you are now recognized for five minutes to give us an oral already representation of your presentation. Thank you for the opportunity, todays hearing focus on congressional capacity, my testimony focus on changes in the capacity of the executive branch for our time. The executive branch, George Washington had a small personal staff a few individuals. And the cabinet consisted of three departments. Obviously thats a very different executive branch than the one we are today. Which is sophisticated, complex, and large. Much of the transformation from the executive branch occurred after the period of world war ii. And thats where my comments will focus. I will make three points of the growth of the executive branch. First the federal bureaucracy has systematically expanded its policy and implementation capabilities. Second and concurrently, the powers of the office of the president have expanded. And third numerous factors gave rise to these situations. Allow me to elaborate on each point, first with respect to the bureaucracy, there is been an inexorable increase in size and scope, between 1946 and 1997, an average of eight knew agencies was created this year. Today there are estimated 278 agencies in the executive branch. The growth in the capacity of the executive branch is reflected in its line. Each year federal agencies issue an average 2500 proposed rolls and 3005 under finals. Many of these expand and entrench the executive branch. No doubles about the bureaucracy, is that while it has amassed more and more responsibility over time, they have not been, increases in staffing. Civilian employment has hovered and approximately 2 million individual since 1950. This may seem confusing, how is it that the executive branch, is accomplishing so much more, without commensurate increase in staffing. A key factor is that contractors increasingly perform the work of government. One estimates puts the curtain ratio of employees to contractors at one to three. This means that in practice, the executive Branch Workforce has grown, but in a less visible and accountable way. Second at the same time the federal bureaucracy has grown, the officers as the president has seen a significant expansion in its ability to make policy. At least three ways. First president s have increasingly relied on unilateral action to accomplish policy wiggles. Well executive orders received the lions share of attention, there are many ways a president can actually achieve this laterally. Across this broad class of actions, it has been one of consistent time and growth second the president has amassed increase powers. Despite congressional attempts to limit unilateral authority in regards to war, the president remains autonomy one comes to deploying troops abroad and inducting military operations. Initially the president has a niche increased number of authority. Third the president s policy making advisory and supervisory capabilities have also grown substantially. For instance the executive office of the president , which is created in 1939, now employs about 2000 people. This organ provides a president with a sophisticated ability to develop new policy and manage the executive branch. My final point is that these trends have persisted under both democratic and republican administrations. And they could be attributed to numerous factors. First domestic and international crises, have expanded the region of the executive branch. When the country is that crisis, there is demand for coordinated National Response and the executive is well positioned to fulfill that role. Second policy complexity, contributes to the and dry and dies meant of the branch. The executive branch is saint indepth attention to heart problems. It means when new problems observed, the executive branch is off to want to respond to them. Polarization also magnifies the power of the executive branch. When congress does not act, problems to not go away, this means the president or the bureaucracy off and steps up to the plate. Going forward, delegation to the executive branch will remain a necessary part of governance. The challenge of confronting these Important Committee then, is how to conduct oversight of the executive branch, without stymied being its ability. Thank you for your time. Doctor costar i recognize you for five minutes. Thank you. Thank you chairman kilmer, for holding this hearing and inviting. They just heard from professor parlor about the growing scope of the executive branch, and to be sure, there is just no doubt about, it government is widening the expanse of its efforts. Policy is becoming ever more complicated, my written testimony is one thing i cite is that the original Landmark Education act, the education act 1965, was a mere 32 pages long, 40 years later, we have updated that in 2000, two the no child left behind act, was the hundreds and hundreds of pages. One side of government growing. Unfortunately, preponderance of the evidence indicates that the capacity has not kept up. With the expensive government. Increasingly you have an executive branch that is not directed by the legislative branch. And that runs contrary to the plan laid out by the constitution, and creates real accountability troubles. Noted in my written testimony are all sorts of factors of congressional capacity, we dont have time to cover them all, and i was asked to focus on just, one which is people. The people whose efforts produce governance. And in particular to focus on legislative staff. Legislative staff branch, support agencies, the trend since 19 eighties are very troubling. The number of total Congressional Staff, have declined, the number of Committee Staff have declined, percentage of personal staff working in d. C. Has gone down,. Representative staff doing communication work has grown. And the number of staff working for the legislative Branch Support agencies, how also has gone down. The number of people who can help out with it, within the legislative branch as actually contracted. Two troubling trends, also worth merit mentioning, with regard to staff, first of which, Congressional Staff salaries have been stagnant for many years, we all know the price of living in d. C. Maryland Virginia Area has skyrocketed, and the result of the stagnation, is unpredictable will. There are significant turnover of staff, folks who are here every day of the week, trying to help you all govern. Committees in the house and senate, saad annual turnover rate of 21 in 2017. Its a big number. And when we surveyed staff two summers ago, about their plans for the future, more than two thirds said the they were working to get out of congress within five years. And where are the staff going . Not surprisingly to other lucrative positions. One of which is lobbying. Its a second troubling trend. The amount of aid to have joined this industry has risen, and it trains expertise from the legislative branch. And that, behind all this, is basic fact which was alluded to, which is growing government. Congressional need for information to try and understand policy, a various issue, you get jammed with every single, day goes up and not because governments operation get bigger and bigger, but if capacities like behind, it what do you guys do . You just triage the situation the best you can. Sometimes you get notforprofit folks, are others will who will come and help out. Frequently you have to depend on lobbyists. And lobbyist no doubt have their interests. So to conclude, let me be clear, i am a small government guy, i think our government is too big and is trying to do far too much, i would like to see it spend less, and i am alarmed by our deficits all, that nonetheless i think it is, penny wise and patent foolish for congress to skimp on staff. Particularly committee and legislative Branch Support staff. Congress is supposed to be the first branch of government, for governmental action, congress is also the branch of government most accountable to the public for the policy choices our nations make, which Means Congress needs to grow its capacity to direct government, and also solve public problems. With that i thank you for you my testimony i would be happy to answer any questions. Thank you doctor closer. Think you chair kilmer and the members of the subcommittee for having this hearing on how to restore congress as a true partner for the executive branch and the judiciary. Im here we are part of the wayne state university, but my views are on behalf of the senate itself, and that weve just heard from the first two witnesses about how the executive branch has expanded, in numbers and funding and activities, at the same Time Congress has lost staff. Lost funding, and it is struggling to keep up. The particular thing i was asked to look at, is oversight because that senator 11 championed. It is a key power of congress, because if you want government, you simply have to have good oversight. And yet when we look at the quality of oversight all the time it is really very from committee to committee, and cross issues. And part of the reason that we just heard, is a staffing problem. We have staff that is underpaid, that is fewer in number. But does not have the expertise that you need so that is a real problem. But there is a bigger problem, and that is the whole issue of bipartisanship. I was an investigator for 30 years with senator 11, i found it if you investigation somebody whose views match your own, it was operating in an echo chamber. It is only when you investigated with somebody that had a fundamentally different world view, that you started to ask questions, you look at different facts, you interpreted them differently, and you challenged each other about what happened and why. And it is really that important fact based bipartisan operation that has really fallen off, and the testimony that ive given you has gone into some of the factors. One of the things that i wanted to mention our for bipartisan recommendations that remain not only by the 11 center but lugar center, government oversight, and american oversight. There are four suggestions on a bipartisan basis that we thought you would like to hear. First of all legal opinions, on issues having to do with oversight. For decades the department of justice the, office of Legal Counsel has been issuing opinions, directing the federal agencies on how they should respond, to requests for information from congress. And it is no surprise that those statements, have severed the executive branch. Congress has no progress admits perspective on how federal agencies ought to respond. If we had the kind of process, and we created a bipartisan will supported legal opinions, we would not only help committees, help members, set norms, for inside and outside congress. I Want Congress is forced to go to court, he would helps in the courts as well. Right now executive branch has that we dont. And that is one of our recommendations. The second one is more mundane, and it has to do with bipartisan compensation of committee clerks. Clerks do a lot of work, they can create a safe space for bipartisan operations, as im sure you all know and on the senate side, a majority minority parties get together, higher administrate of staff, pay their salaries on a 50 50 basis, but in the house, into many cases we have a democratic her clerk and a republican clerk. Not only does that waste money, but each of those clerks are being hired to enter to a particular Party Instead of both parties. One thing that you could do could to save money, and promote bipartisanship, is to follow the senate sleet, and have your administrative personnel, hired and paid for by both parties on a 50 50 basis. Third suggestion has to do with hearings, that has to do