Government Oversight

House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee Chairman John Mica (R-Fla.) held a field hearing at the site of a new Los Angeles courthouse Friday, keeping the pressure on the General Services Administration (GSA) to stop building new buildings when so many remain vacant.

Economic Development, Public Buildings and Emergency Management subcommittee Chairman Jeff Denham (R-Calif.) chaired the event — Mica was not in attendance. 

House Ways and Means Committee Chairman Dave Camp (R-Mich.) this week asked the Obama administration for documents related to the administration's decision to terminate the non-union pension benefits of workers at auto parts maker Delphi during the auto bailouts.

Camp's request to White House counsel Kathyrn Ruemmler, Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner and the Pension Benefit Guaranty Corp. comes after press reports that Geithner directed the termination of 20,000 pensions for non-union workers at Delphi in order to keep the company alive.

The top Republicans on the House and Senate Judiciary committees said there don't appear to be anti-fraud provisions in place.

Rep. Sheila Jackson Lee (D-Texas) is reportedly asking the Justice Department to investigate the shooting at a Sikh temple in Wisconsin that killed six people.

According to the Houston Chronicle, Jackson Lee wrote to Attorney General Eric Holder to ask him to examine whether "additional law enforcement resources need to be put into place" to protect Sikhs living in the United States. Additionally, she asked Justice to "establish procedures to address incidences impacting targeted communities based on race or religion."

Republicans want emails from staffers' personal accounts that were used to conduct official White House business.

Sens. Sessions, Grassley had complained that the conference could cost $1 million or more at a time of fiscal crisis.

House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee Chairman John Mica (R-Fla.) is using the August break to keep the pressure on the General Services Administration (GSA) to sell off unused federal office space — by holding hearings in some of the empty buildings GSA is managing.

Mica held a hearing Monday in an unused federal building in Miami, which he said is costing taxpayers $1.2 million each year. And next week, he plans to hold another hearing, in Los Angeles, to highlight what he says is the construction of what will become another empty federal building.

The House passed a bill Thursday night that would require the federal government to terminate federal workers who are "seriously" delinquent on their taxes.

Members approved the bill in a 263-114 vote in which dozens of Democrats joined Republicans in supporting the bill. With that vote, the bill cleared the two-thirds majority it needed for passage under a suspension of House rules.

House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee Chairman John Mica (R-Fla.) said Tuesday that there could be as many as 70 more conferences held by the General Services Administration (GSA) that his committee could need to examine for waste and abuse.

"First we saw Las Vegas, then we saw Virginia and now we are told there may be ... more than seventy conferences we are going to have to look at," Mica said in an interview on Fox News.

Sens. Mark Warner (D-Va.) and Ron Johnson (R-Wis.) proposed a bipartisan bill on Monday that would require the federal government to establish customer service standards for federal agencies.

"Government customer service delivery breakdowns appear in the headlines all too often. Many of our veterans wait too long for critical medical services, and federal retirees often wait months before they begin to receive full benefits. That simply is not acceptable," Warner said.