Checks and Balances
Enshrined in our Constitution’s text and spirit is the system of checks and balances. Though the three branches of government operate independently in their own spheres, they are also forced to counteract one another. By design, this healthy tension ensures that meaningful limits are put in place and no single branch becomes too powerful. Explaining this fundamental feature of our Constitution, James Madison wrote in Federalist No. 51, “But the great security against a gradual concentration of the several powers in the same department, consists in giving to those who administer each department the necessary constitutional means and personal motives to resist encroachments of the others.”
Unfortunately, this system, as envisioned by our Founding Fathers, has been threatened. During recent years, for example, there has been a troubling expansion of executive branch power and a corresponding decline in effective congressional oversight. Recognizing a “constitutional crisis,” the Constitution Project released a statement in early 2006 noting that committee members were: “deeply concerned about the risk of permanent and unchecked presidential power, and the accompanying failure of Congress to exercise its responsibility as a separate and independent branch of government.”
The Constitution Project continues to promote the proper functioning of our system of checks and balances, particularly in the sphere of national security policy. Our reports and statements in this area seek to safeguard the role of each branch as an independent check on the others, including by advocating structural reforms, encouraging congressional oversight, and promoting the independence of the judiciary.
The Constitution Project and the Project On Government Oversight (POGO) both unveiled handbooks today explaining congressional oversight authority and the respective roles and powers of Congress and the executive branch. The handbooks’ release to the public was accompanied by a panel discussion at the National Press Club. The Constitution Project’s “When Congress Comes Calling: A Primer on the Principles, Practices, and Pragmatics of Legislative Inquiry,” and POGO’s “The Art of Congressional Oversight: A User’s Guide to Doing it Right,” provide practical guidance on the conduct of congressional oversight by explaining the appropriate usage of oversight tools.
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