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A-15 — Congressional Oversight and Executive Accountability

Generalized Institutional Concern

Congressional oversight becomes ineffective when subpoenas, testimony demands, document requests, appropriations controls, and contempt mechanisms depend on voluntary executive compliance or partisan congressional will.

Active Issues

  • CONG-001 — Congressional Information and Subpoena Enforcement
  • CONG-007 — Weak committee investigative capacity

Prior Issue Numbers

These numbers were assigned during preliminary review but did not become separate proposals. They are listed only to explain gaps in the sequence.

  • CONG-002 through CONG-006 — Merged into CONG-001 as privilege, testimonial-immunity, delay, contempt-routing, and expedited-review components of one congressional-access framework.
  • CONG-008 — Retired as an independent proposal because unified-government inaction is principally a political failure. Automatic public notice of judicially established executive noncompliance remains addressed by JUD-005.

Issue Boundaries

  • CONG-001 owns congressional information access, subpoenas, executive privilege, testimonial immunity, contempt enforcement, litigation timing, and expedited judicial review.
  • CONG-007 owns committee staffing, technical capacity, secure facilities, counsel, data systems, and other investigative resources that do not depend on a particular subpoena dispute.
  • The project may create automatic findings, reporting, and public notice that increase political accountability, but it does not compel a chamber or committee majority to conduct oversight.

Notes

CONG-001 is in development; CONG-007 remains an unresolved candidate. Both require source development before drafting.