Constitutional Law

House Committee Examines Bush Administration's Take On Executive Power

The House Judiciary Committee today conducted a hearing on executive power and constitutional limitations. The hearing was announced earlier this month by committee chairman, Rep. John Conyers (D-Mich.), to address the ongoing complaints over the Bush administration’s expansion of executive powers.

“Over the last seven plus years, there have been numerous credible allegations of serious misconduct by officials in the Bush Administration,” Conyers said in a statement announcing the hearing. “At the same time, the administration has adopted what many would describe as a radical view of its own powers and authorities.”

Rep. Adam Schiff (D-Calif.) suggested that a bipartisan investigative committee, in the mold of the Church Committee, which was formed in the aftermath of Watergate to investigate intelligence gathering techniques, should be launched to look into the Bush administration’s policy on domestic spying. Earlier in the week, Salon reported on talk emerging on Capitol Hill of launching a Church-like committee.

The hearing featured testimony from current and former members of Congress, among others. Among those testifying were Rep. Dennis Kucinich (D-Ohio), who has called for the impeachment of both the president and vice president, and Vincent Bugliosi, former prosecutor and author of the new book, The Prosecution of George W. Bush for Murder.

Rep. Kucinich argued before the committee that both administration-backed resolutions arguing for war against Iraq were not supported by facts. There is evidence, Kucinich argued, which suggests that several of the resolutions’ representations about the threats Iraq posed to America’s national security were false. Congress needs to discover the truth, and if Congress was knowingly mislead, then consequences must follow, said Kucinich.

White House spokesperson Tony Fratto dismissed the hearing as a “political vaudeville act.”

Full post as published by ACS Blog on July 25, 2008 (boomark / email).