Storms Show A System Out Of Balance

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/10/04/AR2005100401426.html

Storms Show A System Out Of Balance
GOP Congress Has Reduced Usual Diet of Agency Oversight

By Shailagh Murray
Washington Post Staff Writer
Wednesday, October 5, 2005; Page A21

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Government scholars and watchdog groups say the decline of congressional oversight in recent years has thrown out of kilter the system of checks and balances the Founding Fathers created to keep no one branch of government from becoming too powerful. Whether the Pentagon or the Environmental Protection Agency, if a department does not think Congress is paying attention, it could be more apt to waste money or allow problems to go unaddressed.

"There's a tendency to blame this on the bureaucracy, but this is the leadership of the Congress and the administration," said Joel D. Aberbach, a political scientist at the University of California at Los Angeles who specializes in government accountability.

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