Minority Party Need Not Inquire: Revisiting the Executive Duty to Respond to Congressional Oversight Authority

Ranking members of committees hold unique and important roles in government and congressional leadership, as well as the general oversight structure. However, in 2017, the Department of Justice's Office of Legal Counsel issued a guidance memorandum stating that there are only three entities to which the Executive Branch has the duty to reply: a House of Congress in its entirety, a committee or subcommittee of jurisdiction, or an aforementioned committee or subcommittee's chair. Under this guidance, then, the ranking member of a committee of jurisdiction holds the same authority to investigate and oversee Executive Branch agencies as general members of Congress: none.