Government Oversight

Sen. David Vitter (R-La.) said Wednesday that he introduced bills that would place term limits on members of Congress and end their automatic pay raises.

“Not allowing individuals to remain in office for an eternity is an important step we need to take to restore confidence in Congress,” Vitter said on the floor Wednesday. “It won’t be the be-all and end-all for good government reform, but it would help us reconnect with the people.”

Freshman Rep. Steve Stockman (R-Texas) on Wednesday introduced a bill that would stop the executive actions President Obama announced last week on gun control.

His bill, the Restore the Constitution Act, would find any executive action to be advisory only in nature if it is found to infringe on the constitutional duties of Congress under Article I, or the 2nd Amendment dealing with the right to bear arms.

House Judiciary Committee member Trey Gowdy (R-S.C.) said this week that the committee will scrutinize the 23 executive actions President Obama signed related to gun violence to make sure they don't violate the Constitution.

Gowdy told the Spartanburg Herald-Journal that the committee would see if the orders meet a "rational basis" test against the Constitution. That's a reference to the principle that rules must have a legitimate and constitutionally based reason for being issued.

"By his executive actions today, President Obama is pushing the government further into the exam room," Rep. Fleming (R-La.) said.

A group of House Republicans introduced legislation on Tuesday that would require all government conferences that cost more than $25,000 to be cleared at the highest level of the relevant federal agency.

The Agency Conferences and Conventions Operating Under Necessary Transparency (Account) Act, H.R. 283, is a response to the discovery of a 2010 General Services Administration (GSA) conference in Las Vegas that cost more than $800,000. That led to a detailed House probe of GSA and the resignation of the GSA administrator.

Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) and Rep. Trey Gowdy (R-S.C.) asked U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder why he decided to challenge South Carolina’s voter identification law.

In a letter sent to Holder on Wednesday, the South Carolina lawmakers pointed out that last week the Washington, D.C., District Court awarded South Carolina possibly up to $3.5 million in litigation costs incurred while defending its voter ID law against a Justice Department challenge. 

The Senate on Friday approved a bill reauthorizing the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) in a 73-23 vote.

The bill would extend for five years U.S. authorities' ability to surveil terrorists overseas without first getting a court's permission.

Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.) wants to protect emails and text messages the same way phone conversations are via an amendment to a bill reauthorizing the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act.

Paul introduced an amendment, The Fourth Amendment Protection Act, to clarify that the Fourth Amendment to the Constitution protects U.S. citizens from unreasonable searches and seizures, even those that result from searches being done by a U.S. intelligence agency monitoring a foreign national overseas.

Sen. Max Baucus (D-Mont.) introduced a bipartisan bill Friday before senators left for Christmas break that would establish a commission to develop a national strategy for reducing child abuse fatalities.

The Protect Our Kids Act would create a special task force dedicated to reducing child abuse and neglect in America.