A couple of months ago I published a diary, Congressional Oversight: How To that referenced an article published by John Dean on FindLaw, titled "The Arsenal of Tools Congressional Democrats Can Use To Force the Bush Administration To Cooperate with Their Efforts To Undertake Oversight." One of the tools described in Dean's article and my post was the "Seven Member Rule."
As described in my previous diary, the "Seven Member Rule" allows:
"any seven members" of the House Government Reform committee, or "any five members" of the Senate Government Reform committee to request "every executive department and independent establishment of the government" to provide information. This rule has already been used against the Bush Administration by Congressman Henry Waxman, who was at the time, the ranking member of the House Government Reform committee. Congressman Waxman is now Chair of that committee.
A visit to the House Government Reform and Oversight Committee shows that the Committee has the following information on the Investigations:Seven Member Rule webpage:
The Seven Member Rule is a shorthand term for a federal law that gives members of the Government Reform Committee and its counterpart in the Senate a legal right to information from Executive Branch agencies. United States Code Title 5 Section 2954 states that "an Executive agency, on request of the Committee on Government Operations of the House of Representatives, or of any seven members thereof ... shall submit any information requested of it relating to any matter within the jurisdiction of the committee." (5 U.S.C. § 2954).
Examples in which Committee members requested information under the Seven Member Rule:
May 17, 2004:
All 19 members of the Government Reform Committee minority file suit against the Secretary of Health and Human Services to compel the Administration to release cost estimates prepared by the HHS Actuary during congressional consideration of Medicare reform legislation.
Link to Complaint
Link to Press release
(NOTE: both are pdf files)
and
Wednesday, June 04, 2003
Nine committee members request that the Department of Homeland Security provide information about the assistance the Department provided in tracking down Democratic lawmakers during a dispute among members of the Texas legislature.
Letter to Tom Ridge.
(NOTE: pdf file)
While this rule is not invoked very often, it does provide Congressman Waxman's Committee with a means to get information from the Bush Administration without a subponea.
I think that we may see this rule used again in the near future.