The Rise and Fall of Congressional Oversight of the Bureaucracy: The U.S. House Committee on Energy and Commerce, 1969-2018

I describe oversight by the U.S. House Committee on Energy and Commerce from 1969 to 2018, employing data from transcripts of oversight hearings. This approach reveals a substantial decrease in oversight by the Committee, beginning in the late 1980’s. I document that, over time, the Committee has paid less attention to the activities of bureaucrats and more attention to examination of polices under its jurisdiction. The Committee’s agenda in non-legislative hearings has been transformed—and less and less of it focuses on oversight of the bureaucracy. This account raises the question of whether oversight has declined similarly for other committees. Additionally, the documentation of a secular decline in oversight may encourage scholars to focus on theorizing about the basis for this decline.