Dan Burton: “Let me say to my colleague who just spoke, the gentleman from Ohio, that I am sorry his amendment will not be made in…”

“Let me say to my colleague who just spoke, the gentleman from Ohio, that I am sorry his amendment will not be made in order because of the Rules of the House. What I would like to do is inform the gentleman that we do have accountability in the Congress. It is not necessary to put it in this particular bill. In every session, an oversight plan has to be filed with the Committee on House Oversight by February 15. Every committee in the House does that. So we already do that. If the gentleman would refer to page 427 of the Rules of the House, and I would like to read it to him, he will find that not later than February 15 of the first session of the Congress, each standing committee of the House shall, and we do, in a meeting that is open to the public, and with a quorum present, adopt its oversight plans for that Congress. Such plans shall be submitted simultaneously to the Committee on Government Reform and Oversight, our committee on which the gentleman and I serve, and to the Committee on House Oversight, the committee of the gentleman from California (Mr. Thomas). In developing such plans, each committee shall, to the maximum extent feasible, and then it goes on and lays out very clearly what we are supposed to do. That changes from time to time with each session of Congress. Let me just say that we have oversight plans from each committee of Congress.”