GSA scandal: Is Congress engaged in hearing overkill?

Witnesses of sworn in on Capitol Hill in Washington, Tuesday, April 17, 2012, prior to testifying before a House Transportation subcommittee hearing to investigate an excessive conference at a Las Vegas resort by General Services Administration officials in 2010.

/ AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite

Analysis

(CBS News) Congress is holding a pair of hearings today on spending by the General Services Administration (GSA), the federal procurement agency that has come under fire for a 2010 fundraiser that cost taxpayers more than $822,000. Those two hearings follow two other hearings earlier this week into the GSA scandal.

The decision to hold four separate hearings into the scandal raises a question: Does Congress' investigation into government waste amount to its own form of government waste, creating some sort of government waste vortex that threatens to suck all of us down into the Potomac?

Well, OK, maybe not that last part. But the first part of the question is certainly worth exploring. After all, any viewer of the hearings so far might be forgiven for wondering what, exactly, was being accomplished with comments like this one, from Republican Rep. Trey Goudy, in reference to a $75,000 GSA team-building exercise: "Working for the government is a sacred trust, which you have blown. So instead of a team building exercise, you might want to investigate a trust building exercise, 'cause you have lost it."

Goudy was far from alone in making statements like this: A number of lawmakers from both parties seemed more focused on expressing their outrage over the GSA's behavior than on engaging in a dispassionate investigation of what actually took place. And while their anger may not have been manufactured, they were certainly aware the cameras were rolling.

It wasn't all grandstanding. Inspector General Brian Miller, who investigated GSA misconduct, has had a chance to explain his findings publicly, and when they weren't making speeches lawmakers did manage to pose questions to GSA officials past and present about the findings. (Though Jeffrey Neely, the central figure in the investigation, asserted his Fifth Amendment right not to testify and did not answer any questions.)

There's also an argument to be made that the lawmakers' showmanship - self-interested though it may be - has its value. After all, seeing government workers get called before Congress to sit in a chair and be lectured like a naughty school kids is a powerful incentive for others in government to prevent the sort of behavior that could land them there as well.

The decision to hold the hearings are made independently by Congress' many committees and subcommittees, all of which have different (though sometimes overlapping) jurisdictions. The two hearings so far have been in the House: One by the wide-ranging Oversight Committee, and the other by the Transportation and Infrastructure Committee. The Senate hearings today are being held by the Environment and Public Works Committee and the Financial Services and General Government Subcommittee, which is part of the Appropriations committee.

While all of the hearings are focused broadly on ensuring that the excessive spending by the GSA is not repeated, they have different focuses. The Environment and Public Works Committee, for example, has jurisdiction over public buildings, which explains its connection to GSA. The Financial Services and General Government Subcommittee actually scheduled its hearing before the scandal broke -- the subcommittee simply added a probe of the scandal to its previously-planned hearing on the GSA's FY2013 budget request.

The Senate and the House are effectively independent, with different staff and different motives. The decision by a House committee to hold a hearing is thus not going to convince a Senate committee not to hold one of its own. Indeed, it might actually prompt a hearing. The Republican-led House, for example, has been working to tie the GSA scandal to the Obama administration. But the hearings in the Democratic-led Senate are expected to look at systematic, long-term problems at the GSA -- including under former President George W. Bush -- as well as the positive actions the agency has taken under President Obama.

In addition to providing general oversight, lawmakers say they can help them figure out possible solutions to the problem at hand that they wouldn't necessarily get from simply reading a report. And as a staffer with one of the committees told Hotsheet, "Congressional hearings are not expensive to conduct." While they take up lawmakers' time, the hearings are held in rooms that are already built, on days when officials would be on Capitol Hill anyway. Other than the glasses of water provided to witnesses, there is virtually nothing in the way of expenses.

So do the hearings constitute waste? It depends on your perspective. There's no doubt that there is overlap in what is being asked and what is being said in each hearing, and that lawmakers are sometimes more concerned with offering up camera-ready condemnations than investigating the situation at hand. But the hearings may help lawmakers craft solutions, they don't cost much and the shame visited on the participants could prevent future transgressions. And depending on your views of government, you may or may not think they have something better to do.

[Bigheader]

Trillion dollars for the stupid wars. Haliburton and various contractor other ripping off the government for hundreds of millions and the house is worried about 800K? The house doth protest too much, methinks or much ado about nothing? Maybe the committees are mad because they were not invited?

[Ray4223]

This guy is unreal...Here is a great picture of him in vegas:
http://cubetitans.com/gsa-exec-takes-the-fifth-on-las-vegas-spending-scandal/
Makes my blood boil

[actualit]

I reside in a state known as the "Show Me State", but it should be known as the "Scam Me State". I have been going through the unfair treatment and fraud that has been committed by the state agency in which as a resident I provide their funding thru taxes I pay. I had to result in going to my elected officials to try to get some sort of satisfaction. I have worked with many companies here in St. Louis, the like of Boeing, Citi Group and even the IRS. But, the level of corruption, fraud and deception is like what we have seen and went thru with the banking and mortgage scandal & collapse. I have decide to pursue legal actions in order to get justice, our elected officials claim to be fighting for the people but it seems that all they are for is what the state agencies, that deal in corruption, fraud and deception. I have produced the document that the state has submitted to a court of law, which included its fraudulent amount. If you look at the form 14, included in this email and look at No# 8 is $1,159.00, then No# 9 says multiply line 8 by each parent's line 4 (65.70%) here is the equation is 1,159.00 X 65.70% = 761.463 not 1024.00 as the state has fraudulently provide.
<a href="http://www.banglabarta24.net" title="Banglabarta24.net"> www.banglabarta24.net</a> Next time you run across peanuts of this size I will take them off you hands no questions ask, Maybe we need to work on recovery of the tax payers funds wastefully spent by these Government employees,pay back the money or go to jail.

[starving1968-3]

Four different hearings to cover the same investigation?

That's kind of like the $55 MILLION investigation / witch hunt that the republicans launched against Clinton in the Whitewater scandal, which cost the taxpayers 10X as much as the investors lost in the deal!!

[jd2408]

I thought you may like to know that they were not all day hearings. I watched the first one live on C Span and it was only about 2 hours long. Then you have people coming and going and those just coming at times ask the same question that was already asked. They did seem to have a lot to cover so I don't think it was a witch hunt.

[stormerF69]

Can we just recovery what they spent wastefully on themselves and their friends? Pay it back or go to jail,now is the time to send a message.

[starving1968-3]

Exactly!

[soap-suds]

I believe that most hearings bear little fruit and are a waste of time, except for the showboats. What I would really like is for there to be an equivalent Executive Branch function to oversee Congress: if Congress is so righteous, why not put forth a bill for the President's signature....

[rogget]

What overkill? They need to find out what other Government Agencies are doing the same thing. The money is the taxpayer money. This just doesn't need to go away till it is rectified.

[janeteleanor]

YOU HAVE THAT RIGHT.!!!

[canislupus16]

The waste of 822,000 taxpayer dollars is insane and I'm as miffed as anyone, but Congress (lead by Republican chairmen on House committees) is a joke. $822,000 is peanuts compared with the waste by these clowns - the perks, the health insurance, the earmarks, the "investigative" trips to exotic lands at taxpayer expense (of course, with spouses, staffs, and donars along for the ride).

Congress is a bunch of morons, and these hearings have much more to do (ONLY to do) with politics, not with saving us any money. The hearings themselves will cost many times over the mere $822,000.

Don't you just love the feigned outrage? Bozos.

[stormerF69]

Next time you run across peanuts of this size I will take them off you hands no questions ask, Maybe we need to work on recovery of the tax payers funds wastefully spent by these Government employees,pay back the money or go to jail.

[stormerF69]

Peanuts,next time you find these type of peanuts call me I'll fly across country so you can give them to me.Especially $822,000.00 ,maybe you could just mail me half Since you must pay not taxes being the multibillionaire you are.

[Rugbybrett]

CBS this may be the saddest article I have ever read.... If you care about waste and govt spending why dont you do any articles about the deficit that has gone up 5 trillion in 3 years???? In 2007 I read articles almost daily about the deficit, gas prices and the war in Iraq. Now gas prices are even worse, the deficit has increased at record rates and we are in a war in Afghanistan yet hardly a peep. Hope you are all embarrassed and dont dare call yourselves journalists because you are far from it.

[stormerF69]

Seems Obamas budget does not a thing about the Deficit but Ryans does why is that not the real news story? How come Democrats feel wasting $822,000.00 of our tax money is not worthy of investigation and punishment for those responsible?

[jd2408]

We need these hearings and investigations on every department of the federal government. The BP oil spill would not have happened if people were doing their jobs. Government employees have been found going to porn sites instead of working. Audit and investigate every department. Do some house cleaning.

This article says the committee is scolding as if they are children. Well, I believe they behave as if they are spoiled children. Our company leaders and supervisors worked away from the office and none of us needed a babysitter to do our jobs. This is "funny money" to these people and they behave as if they are getting a free ride.

Our country pays the price for this corruption and its a much bigger price than money.