[Congressional Record Volume 155, Number 132 (Thursday, September 17, 2009)]
[House]
[Pages H9705-H9706]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                       CZARS--SHADOW GOVERNMENT?

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under a previous order of the House, the 
gentleman from Texas (Mr. Poe) is recognized for 5 minutes.
  Mr. POE of Texas. Mr. Speaker, every President has the right to get 
advice from anybody he wants to get advice from. That's a good thing. 
United States Presidents have a tough job. They should have as many 
advisers as they wish. My dad, in fact, would like to be one of those 
advisers to this President and wishes he was an adviser to all the past 
Presidents.
  These czars, as they are now called, are not new to the executive 
branch. But when a person crosses the line from being an adviser to 
being a policymaker and decision-maker for the government, that person 
needs to be held accountable to the people of the United States. 
Someone who gives advice to the President is one thing, but there's a 
difference between an adviser and someone who sets a policy and 
implements that policy. Then that person has direct control over the 
American people. If this occurs, our Constitution requires that person 
be subject to the oversight of Congress to be legitimate.
  The big questions become: are these czars advisers or are they 
policymakers? If they become policymakers, then transparency is 
important, accountability is important, and confirmation by the United 
States Senate

[[Page H9706]]

is mandatory. Our Constitution requires it. Without the confirmation 
process, we don't know who these people are. And are these czars 
nothing more than a shadow government? We don't know.
  The Constitution mandates visibility and oversight by Congress. 
That's how our government works within the bounds of our law. We don't 
know how many czars we have or who they are. How much do they get paid, 
and where does that money come from? What do they do? Who do they 
report to? Are they in control of the executive branch and its duties? 
Well, we don't know.
  What are the Cabinet secretaries doing? Who reports to whom? Do the 
czars report to the Cabinet members? Or do the Cabinet members report 
to these folks? The American public does not know. We don't know 
because there's no oversight and no accountability, and it doesn't seem 
like anybody's talking. Czars haven't gone through the Senate 
confirmation process. Are they a national security risk? We don't know. 
No one knows.
  Now the FBI tells us they go through a background check. But it's the 
same background check that the FBI does for a White House intern. These 
czars do not get a security clearance. That's a much more detailed 
background check for people with more responsibility than a White House 
intern. The FBI gives the information from the czar-intern background 
check over to the White House--that's it. And once the FBI hands the 
information over, they have nothing else to do with the czars. If these 
czars are decision-makers and policymakers, that's not acceptable. Just 
like Cabinet secretaries, they need to be vetted. We have to know who 
the people are that are in control and who controls the levers of our 
government. This is just common sense. The American people don't want a 
shadow government controlling America. Just who are the czars? We have 
the right to know, and Congress has the responsibility to find out.
  And that's just the way it is.

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