Political Quotes

“H.R. 811 would specifically require that the Administrative Office of the U.S. Courts provide administrative support and guidance to each independent counsel. This is not a good policy choice because the Administrative Office is an arm of the judicial branch. In other words, we have a separation of powers issue here. It is not the appropriate agency to provide operational support for an executive-branch function, that is prosecution. Further, it is without legal authority to effectively oversee and control the expenditures of these offices, as a GAO audit will explain in a minute. The Director of the Administrative Office of the U.S. Courts made it clear in testimony before the Administrative Law Subcommittee that considered this legislation that they do not want this responsibility, that they are ill equipped to handle this responsibility, and, again, are without authority to properly oversee such expenditures by the independent counsel. This point is underscored in a GAO financial audit to the Congress dated October 9, 1992. I quote from page 1. Five of the nine independent counsels did not provide some of the reports of their expenditures required by law. We found that expenditures were often incorrectly recorded due to serious internal control weaknesses at offices of independent counsel and the Administrative Office of the U.S. Courts (AOUSC), which through agreement with Justice, performs the disbursing and accounting functions for independent counsels.”