No One Is Minding the Stimulus Spigot

William YeatmanBefore Congress races ahead with another stimulus, shouldn ’t lawmakers ensure their previous spending hasn’t veered off course?The first round of stimulus, known as the CARES Act, passed in late March, and the legislation provided about $2 trillion in spending and subsidies to defibrillate moribund markets. Weeks later, lawmakers supplemented the CARES Act with another half trillion dollars. Now, congressional leaders are negotiating a third big ‐​bucks bill.All the while, oversight has been out to lunch.As I explained in theNew York Daily News, the original stimulus (the CARES Act) included three layers of supervision. Shortly after signing the bill, President Trump effectively disavowed two of these mechanisms. That left one layer —a Congressional Oversight Commission—which I described as follows:The act creates a Congressional Oversight Commission, comprised of lawmakers selected by party leaders in Congress. The Commission is empowered to obtain information directly from agencies, by subpoena if necessary, and to report to the full Congress.So, how ’s the Commission going? Not well, alas.Three weeks after the passage of the CARES Act, Jennifer Haberkorn of theLos Angeles Timesreported that the Commission had made one hire, who “has so far tried to do the body’s work from his Twitter account and through public comments and op‐​eds.” That’s pathetic!Earlier this week,TheDaily Beast’s Sam Brodeydeliver...
Source: Cato-at-liberty - Category: American Health Authors: Source Type: blogs