Controlling the bureaucracy 481appointed Michael Mulvaney to run the agency, even though Mulvaney was a long-
time opponent of the CFPB who as a member of Congress had sought to abolish the
agency. Both Trump and Obama’s appointments were intended to shape agency
operations by appointing an individual who was expected to act in line with the then-
president’s preferences.Monitoring
One of the most important ways elected officials prevent bureaucratic drift is
by keeping an eye on what bureaucrats are doing or planning to do. Information
gathering by members of Congress about bureaucratic actions is termed oversight.
Congressional committees often hold hearings to question agency heads,
secretaries of executive departments, or senior agency staff. Similarly, one of
the primary responsibilities of presidential appointees is to monitor how lower-
level bureaucrats are responding to presidential directives. The problem is that
appointees may be unable to fulfill this role. Because they are chosen for their
loyalty to the president, they may lack the experience needed to fully understand
what bureaucrats in their agency are doing (as discussed earlier, this was especially
true for some of Trump’s lower-level appointees). Moreover, given that appointees
typically hold their position for only a year or two, they have little time to learn the
details of agency operations.Advance Warning Members of Congress, the president, and his or her staff
gain advance knowledge of planned bureaucratic actions through the notice-and-
comment procedure described earlier in the chapter, which requires bureaucrats to
disclose proposed regulations before they take effect.^58 This delay gives opponents
the opportunity to register complaints with their congressional representatives, and
it allows these legislators time either to pressure the agency to revise the regulation
or to even enact another law undoing or modifying the agency action. Members of
Congress also pressure bureaucrats to release memos, working drafts, and other
documents as a way of keeping track of what bureaucrats are doing—for example, in
2018 members of Congress demanded release of travel records and related documents
for EPA Administrator Scott Pruitt. In particular, they wanted to know whether Pruitt’s
decision to fly first-class while on government business was due to security concerns, as
Pruitt had claimed.Investigations: Police Patrols and Fire Alarms Congress, legislative staff,
or presidential appointees may initiate investigations of government programs or
offices to scrutinize the organization, its expenditures, and its activities. There are
two types of investigation: police patrol oversight and fire alarm oversight. Ideally,
every agency would be investigated on a consistent basis, with agencies that have large
budgets or carry out important functions being investigated more frequently. These
investigations may involve fact-finding trips to local offices, interviews with senior
personnel, audits of agency accounts, and calls to the agency to see how it responds
to citizens’ requests. This method of investigation is called police patrol oversight.^59
Think of a police officer walking his or her beat, rattling doors to see if they are locked,
checking out broken windows, and looking down alleys for suspicious behavior.
The disadvantage of police patrol oversight is that it is costly in terms of money and
staff time. Moreover, these investigations often find that agencies are doing what they
should be doing. Because of these problems, Congress and the president often follow
a different strategy. Rather than undertaking a series of investigations, they wait untiloversight
Congressional efforts to make sure
that laws are implemented correctly
by the bureaucracy after they have
been passed.police patrol oversight
A method of oversight in which
members of Congress constantly
monitor the bureaucracy to make sure
that laws are implemented correctly.The Senate’s power over the
confirmation of senior agency officials
is often used as a tool to shape
agency policy and operations. Richard
Cordray, the first head of the Consumer
Financial Protection Agency, was
nominated after some senators
objected to President Obama’s first
nominee, Elizabeth Warren, who was a
Harvard Law professor at the time.Full_14_APT_64431_ch13_454-487.indd 481 16/11/18 1:45 PM