Identify a recent example of congressional oversight of an executive agency. (Note: depending on the level of students, professor may wish to provide a list of topics.) What tools did members of Congress use in conducting the oversight? Were they successful in changing the behavior of the agency? How did the proceedings reflect the concept of “two Congresses”?

Question

What will be an ideal response?

Answer 1

Students should use news and government sources to identify and describe a recent example of congressional oversight. In discussing the tools used by members of Congress, they might consider hearings, fire alarms versus police patrols, casework, funding decisions, and so forth. They should then assess whether (or to what extent) Congress was successful in changing agency behavior. Finally, students should consider how constituency interests and institutional interests played out in the process: Was one or the other predominant, or were they more balanced? Were these interests in conflict with one another or in line with one another? The best papers will draw the analysis together into an overarching, well-organized argument.