One of the targets for Republican investigators in the U.S. House, should they be the majority in the new Congress as election forecasters are predicting, will be bureaucrats.
Originally published at WND News Center. Used with permission.
Rep. James Comer, R-Ky., is lined up to be chairman of the House Oversight Committee, and identified the Homeland Security Department as a focal point.
There, Joe Biden’s nominee, Alejandro Mayorkas, “has worked with a private consortium aiming to censor Americans on social media platforms,” explained a report from Just the News.
Comer was interviewed by Just the News this week, explaining his top three investigative priorities would be the Biden family’s corruption, the open southern border and the COVID-19 pandemic, including those public officials who made money from that.
Pinpointing bureaucrats who are not helping the American public is a responsible goal, he said, suggesting it’s time to “get ride of some of these useless bureaucrats who are just a drain on the American taxpayer.”
The COVID-19 review, Comer said, would include the practices of the National Institutes of Health, including the huge salaries for some officials, and the royalties they collect for “taxpayer-funded drugs and vaccines.”
“We’re seriously concerned about not just the origination of COVID, but also a lot of the COVID spending,” Just the News reported Comer explained. “We’re concerned about the royalties that high ranking government officials were getting for vaccine sales. We’re concerned about the slush fund at the NIH.”
The report explained, “Comer’s comments came after reports indicated the soon-retiring Dr. Anthony Fauci, the NIH’s quarterback for the pandemic, was collecting the largest salary in the federal government at $434,000 a year, and will receive a lifetime pension exceeding $350,000 annually.”
Then, too, there are the 27,000 royalty payments cited by Sen. Rand Paul, R-Ky., that involve payments of $192 million to different NIH staff members for “drug, vaccine and other medical technologies.”
Comer said too many in the federal government operators simply do as they wish, regardless of congressional budget instructions.
“One of the things that just drives me crazy is the lack of respect by these government bureaucrats that continue to do whatever they want, whenever they want. And they spend whatever they want. The Congress orders these agencies to have certain budgets, they put, you know, line items in there, different types of spending. But then these bureaucrats turn around and they do what they want,” he warned.
He suggested that one possible part of a solution would be to dig the “Holman Rule” out of the archives and use it again. That, the report said, allows Congress to defund a federal worker, program or office with a majority vote “if they aren’t following federal law or defying the will of Congress.”
He called that a “useful tool,” even if has been relegated to the archives for years.
“That’s something that I want to use in my toolbox in the House Oversight Committee to try to shrink the size of government and get rid of some of these useless bureaucrats that are just a drain on the American taxpayer,” he told Just the News.
Regarding Mayorkas and plans to censor “disinformation,” he said no federal money should go for “any type of disinformation board or Ministry of Propaganda…”
Disclaimer: This article may contain commentary which reflects the author’s opinion.