Rep. James Comer, R-Ky., has been grabbing headlines recently for his bulldog-like approach to alleged corruption in the Biden administration.
As chairman of the House Committee on Oversight and Accountability, Rep. Comer’s toolbox includes issuing subpoenas, conducting thorough interviews, and holding hearings that force executive branch officials to answer for their questionable actions and decisions.
These high-profile investigations during the Biden era have given Chairman Comer his deserved reputation.
However, in the long run, his greatest impact may be felt in his full-on assault against government inefficiency and the swampish culture that has for years enabled insider wheeling and dealing, particularly in relation to the Office of Personnel Management (OPM), which Washington insiders call the epicenter of the federal bureaucracy.
Comer has scheduled a hearing on May 22 for his committee members to scrutinize OPM and call for operational changes.
When that day comes, they’ll certainly be no shortage of questionable matters to unpack.
OPM is the United States’ largest employer. It works with, recruits, and supports almost all the millions of civil servants on the federal government’s payroll.
While most pundits blame the radical left in Congress and the activist administration in the White House for Big Brother’s ever-expanding footprint, OPM is the primary reason why the federal government continues to grow larger instead of smaller.
Over the past year, this agency has proven that it will do anything and everything to increase the size and scope of the federal bureaucracy — because more federal workers means that it obtains more federal power.
The blob-like OPM has been doing everything imaginable to hire radical Biden appointees as career civil servants.
It seemingly plots ways to expand its agency’s tentacles into other areas of the government. And worst of all, it frequently uses the heavy hand of government to hammer its private sector competitors as a means of ensuring the scope of the federal bureaucracy can continue growing.
For example, last year, Rep. Comer found that OPM is effectively threatening government agencies to use its USAJOBS website, which they use to find and hire new workers, instead of working with the private sector to identify the best possible candidates willing to work at the most efficient rates.
As a result, complaints have abounded for years, about USAJOBS' technical glitches and lack of user friendliness.
Yet, OPM doesn’t seem willing to let other agencies use other providers.
The office, which oversees the certification of its competitors, bullies' other agencies into utilizing OPM’s product offerings, suggesting that they will receive increased regulatory scrutiny should they work with outside private entities instead of the OPM.
This is "Mafia-esque" shakedown, and it doesn’t benefit consumers.
By eliminating private sector competition, all it does is ensure that OPM can continue burrowing radical Biden appointees into the federal workforce, even if they’re not the best candidates for the job.
Rep. Comer is correct: OPM’s dual role of hiring and selling human resources services may work well for the radical left, but this clear conflict of interest doesn’t work for anyone else.
Chairman Comer has already uncovered much information about OPM, but with the oversight hearing upcoming, Reps. Andy Biggs, R-Ariz., Nancy Mace, R-S.C., Pete Sessions, R-Texas, and the rest of the members of his committee have their work cut out for them.
They need to ask Acting OPM Director Rob Shriver pointed questions about these conflicts that the chairman has found, setting the committee up for a quick transition from fact-finding to action-taking.
Make no mistake: This hearing represents the best chance House Republicans have had to pop the federal bureaucracy bubble in years. A lot is on the line, so here’s hoping committee members recognize as much and approach this hearing with the seriousness it deserves.
Julio Rivera is a business and political strategist, cybersecurity researcher, and a political commentator and columnist. His writing, which is focused on cybersecurity and politics, is regularly published by many of the most respected news organizations in the world. Read Julio Rivera's Reports — More Here.