It was only a matter of time before Rep. Darrell Issa (R-Calif.) destroyed the goodwill he extended to the District of Columbia back in May when he proposed expanding D.C. budget autonomy during an Oversight hearing. (That was weird, right?)
Issa was back in character in no time, and yesterday he decided to kick D.C. in the shins, lest we get confused. The Chairman of the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee introduced legislation that would allow Congress to meddle with D.C. government hiring practices.
From the press release:
"This bill will help prevent past failures by ensuring that District of Columbia leaders are held accountable for conducting and reviewing the results of background checks when making hiring decisions," Issa said. "Unless or until District leaders stop apologizing for outrageous abuses in government and adopt measures to address these problems, congressional action is the only way to implement needed standards as a bulwark against cronyism."
As of this afternoon, Issa said he had reached an agreement with D.C. Council Chairman Kwame Brown to “hold off” on Thursday’s scheduled markup of the bill. According to Roll Call, the legislation could still be brought up at a later date.
Here’s the thing: The substance and reasoning behind the D.C. Employee Suitability Act isn’t all that radical. The D.C. Council has acknowledged its hiring practices need an overhaul and — as Councilmember Mary Cheh shot back at Issa on Monday — they proposed a fix back in September.
I realize that us D.C. residents can’t be trusted to spend our own locally raised revenue, let alone hire our own government.* Since the federal government is clearly so morally and ethically superior, maybe Issa is right: We should totally let the feds take over.*
But to make sure we’re being evenhanded about this, I hereby propose the Darrell Issa Suitability Act.
Under the Darrell Issa Suitability Act, the residents of D.C. would get to evaluate Issa’s staffing choices. For example, we would get to decide whether or not we found it appropriate that Issa hired that former Goldman Sachs employee who changed his name to work on banking regulation issues.
Under the Darrell Issa Suitability Act, we’d obviously look into Issa’s own suitability for employment. Just like in Issa’s bill, we’d look into possible “misconduct or negligence in employment; criminal or dishonest conduct.” We’d probably investigate a few things, like if it was appropriate for Issa to deal with policy on Merrill Lynch while being a major Merrill Lynch customer, or seek earmarks that would benefit his personal business interests.
Under the Darrell Issa Suitability Act, we’d obviously subject Darrell Issa to a criminal background check. Oh, ha.
For good measure, under the Darrell Issa Suitability Act, we’d take away Issa’s voting privileges too.
*So, um, are you still into that small government thing, Republicans?