Seven weeks after Congress passed $2 trillion in coronavirus aid, a commission to keep track of the money being spent still has no leader. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell haven't been able to agree on a chairman.
Four of the five members of the Congressional Oversight Commission have been appointed, but House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., and Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., have not agreed on a chair, leaving the commission rudderless as the federal government pumps unprecedented sums into the economy.
So far, “it’s a non-oversight, oversight commission,″ added Kimberly Wehle, a visiting professor at American University Law School. Lawmakers trying to oversee the spending law “are surging down the rapids without a raft,″ she said. The failure by Pelosi and McConnell to agree on an oversight head is the latest example of a broken Congress, marked by partisanship and polarization. Even as both sides acknowledge the importance of overseeing the sprawling economic rescue law, lawmakers are immobilized by a larger political fight, with no resolution immediately in sight.
Representatives for Pelosi and McConnell said they had no update on when the oversight position would be filled, although Pelosi has told reporters she and McConnell have been talking “and hopefully we’ll have a decision soon.” Meanwhile, they have engaged in a high-profile war of words over aMcConnell called the bill “an 1,800-page liberal wish list,″ while Pelosi lambasted McConnell and other Republicans who have said they want to hold off on more relief spending.
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