Oversight and Government Reform

Congressman John Mica has served as a member of the House Committee on Government Reform for more than 20 years representing Florida in the U.S. House of Representatives. He currently serves as Chairman of the Subcommittee on Government Operations and is a senior member of the Subcommittee on National Security.
 
 
The House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform is the chief investigative panel in the U.S. House of Representatives.  Since 1816, this Committee, and other House committees preceding it, has worked to expose and eliminate wasteful government programs and ensure government is responsible to taxpayers.  
 
The Committee’s oversight covers all federal government departments, agencies and programs with an eye toward solutions to eliminate waste, fraud, abuse and mismanagement.  With broad jurisdiction, the Oversight and Government Reform Committee is responsible for ensuring that necessary reforms to government are highlighted and undertaken to ensure transparency, accountability and efficiency.
 
Mica Chairs Government Operations Subcommittee
 
As Chair of the Government Operations Subcommittee, Mica continues his work to support job creation and to cut wasteful and duplicative programs and protect taxpayers’ hard earned money.  To date, Congressman Mica has conducted more than 25 oversight hearings alone in the Subcommittee he chairs.  Topics range from the federal government’s utilization of technology assets to identity theft and tax fraud.
 
Government  Operations is specifically charged with legislative jurisdiction over government management; the economy; the efficiency and management of government operations and activities; procurement; federal property; reorganizations of the executive branch; grant reform and the relationship between the federal government and states and municipalities, including unfunded mandates.  Additionally, this subcommittee has oversight of the National Archives and Records Administration and Presidential Records.  Some of Mica’s past and current efforts focus on the problems of underutilized public assets, empty federal buildings and the misuse of public funds.  Efforts to overhaul GSA, TSA, Amtrak and EPA wasteful spending continue.
 
Taxpayers have realized some recent successes from our oversight work.  In July, construction began on the redevelopment of the Old Post Office Building in Washington, DC.  From headlining a report Rep. Mica authored several years ago titled "The Federal Government Must Stop Sitting on its Assets", the Congressman successfully turned this federal property from a multi-million dollar loss to a multi-million dollar income producing hotel and commercial center, employing nearly a thousand and creating a positive revenue source for the federal treasury.
 
In the previous Congress, Mica served as the Chairman of the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee.  During his tenure as Chairman with limited jurisdictional oversight authority, Mr. Mica began the important work of examining the now infamous wasteful GSA convention junkets, Amtrak’s outrageous losses on service and food service; TSA’s disgraceful spending on administrative overhead and technology procurement.  For more than 20 years, Representative Mica has led the charge against bloated, ineffective, and inefficient government programs and this record continues.
 
From 1999 to 2001, Mica served as Chairman of the Subcommittee on Criminal Justice, Drug Policy and Human Resources.  As Chairman he became a national principal leader in the development of our nation’s counter-narcotics policy.  Appointed by then-House Speaker Dennis Hastert as a Co-Chairman of the Speaker’s Drug Free Task Force from 1999-2006, he has been a respected national voice in advocating drug education, prevention, enforcement, eradication and interdiction programs.
 
As Chairman of the House Civil Service Subcommittee from 1995 to 1999, Mica authored landmark legislation dealing with veterans preferences, expanding healthcare access for military dependents and establishing one of the federal government’s largest employee stock ownership programs.