At its best, a congressional hearing tells a story with friendly witnesses. Victims and whistleblowers should outnumber villains.
But even a well-designed hearing is a bad way to gather facts. Thatās not its purpose. The hearing comes after doing the hard work behind the scenes. That means first scouring reams of documents and questioning key witnesses with trained, professional interrogators who donāt need to play to the cameras for sound bites. Itās not sexy, but itās effective. Unfortunately, too many judge the success of oversight by the amount of press coverage rather than the facts uncovered. The media and Members alike prefer the dopamine of the confrontation over data. . . .Ā
A subpoena is not a magic bullet. In the modern era, Congress has essentially forgotten how to enforce them. It abandoned the historical practice of using its inherent constitutional authority to impose consequences directly on witnesses who are in contempt. Now, it turns to the Executive or Judicial Branches for help rather than standing up for itself and the people itās elected to represent.
Reclaiming the Legislative Branchās proper role as the First Branch of government would mean re-learning the full scope of its own authorities and summoning the political will to use them. It would mean allocating resources to recruit and retain more senior, more experienced staffāor failing that, contracting with top-notch outside professionals to help do battle with the legal talent arrayed against it.
