According to Congressional Quarterly, Senator Collins (R., Maine) proposed an amendment, which was promptly rejected, seeking to ensure that White House officials known as “czars” are accountable to Congress. Those in positions without statutory authorization but who are responsible for interagency development of rules would have to testify before Congress upon request.
CongressDaily writes the following about the Collins amendment:
The Senate defeated last week an amendment by Sen. Susan Collins (R-ME) to prevent federal funding of White House Czars. While the Senate defeated on Thursday a Republican sponsored amendment to the $32.1 billion FY10 Interior-Environment Appropriations bill, a proposal that would prohibit funding for so-called White House czars. The “czar” amendment, by Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs ranking member Susan Collins, was defeated after Majority Whip Durbin raised a point of order against the proposal, which was sustained, that the Collins amendment broke Senate rules by changing policy in an appropriations bill. “It is unfortunate that a procedural tactic” was used to prevent an up-or-down vote on the amendment, Collins said. Under the amendment, no funds would have been provided for the White House policy coordinators unless the President allows them to appear before congressional panels and that they submit biannual reports to committees with jurisdiction over their policy issues. (CongressDaily, Sept. 25, 2009)
More importantly, I think that this idea of czars makes no sense whatsoever. It creates a vested interest that didn’t exist before, with which will come large spending increases. And for what? To produce policies that are unlikely to have any good effects and are guaranteed to have bad ones.
As my colleague professor Russ Roberts rightfully explains:
“The whole idea of a czar presumes some mastermind who can direct everyone. But as we know, most of that which is good in life comes from there not being a czar, in letting people make there own choices using the information and knowledge they have access to that no czar could possibly gather or put to use. The unconscious cooperation between strangers beats a czar almost every time, as Hayek understood.”
This is a theme that Roberts has explored in the past. Here is one of his articles called “A Marvel of Cooperation: How Order Emerges without a Conscious Planner,” which everyone sympathetic to the idea of White House czars should read and memorize. It is worth reading even if you don’t buy the idea.