Congressional committee oversight: the case of the Office of Saline Water.

Abstract

Congressional committee oversight is conceived of as a continuous process which begins when legislators institute a program to care for a public problem, and persists for the life of the program The process is characterized by the authoritative position of the legislative participants, the specialized knowledge of the executive branch participants, and their mutual responsibility for the development and revision of program policy The study of Office of Saline Water oversight indicates that legislative branch participants are likely to initiate policy only when most of the following conditions are present: minimum negative feedback generated by the program, high legislative participant interest, legislative committee strength in parent chambers, low confidence in agency administrators, weak agency in terms of established clientele and position in administrative hierarchy, Presidential indifference, and presence of the opposition party in the White House. Institutional factors seem to favor -innovation by Senate overseers and review by House overseers In the absence of a cluster of conditions favorable to legislative initiative, House participants are likely to intensify review activities and to place restrictive modifications on administration proposals, while Senate participants are likely to ratify administration recommendations and act as mediators between the House and the administration.