Between 2000 and 2006, many major events and scandals in the Bush administration generated few or no subpoenas from the Republican-led committee. These events included the
September 11 attacks; the leaking of classified information identifying
Central Intelligence Agency agent
Valerie Plame; CIA-backed abuses at
Abu Ghraib prison; the Bush administration claim that Iraq possessed
weapons of mass destruction; illegal campaign contributions by lobbyists, including
Jack Abramoff; deaths and damage due to the
Federal Emergency Management Agency's weak response to
Hurricane Katrina; and
Philip Cooney's suppression of data demonstrating the existence of
global warming. After the release of the
Downing Street memo, which contained incriminating information on the buildup to the
Iraq War, Democrats in the minority were refused a hearing chamber and were forced to meet in the basement of the
United States Capitol. However, under Davis as chair from 2003 to 2007, the committee launched two controversial investigations. One of those investigations—triggered by the publication of
Jose Canseco's memoir,
Juiced—concerned the use of
anabolic steroids by
Major League Baseball players. An inquiry was also made into the case of Terry Schiavo. In that investigation, which concerned the removal of a
feeding tube from a woman in a
persistent vegetative state, the committee issued a subpoena requiring Schiavo to "appear" so that members could "examine nutrition and hydration which incapacitated patients receive as part of their care". The objective of this, beyond providing information to committee members, was to delay the pending withdrawal of life support from Schiavo, whose wishes were in dispute, while Congress considered legislation specifically targeted at her case. Members of the Democratic minority opposed the action. Davis said it was "a legitimate legislative inquiry". The committee also investigated
World Wrestling Entertainment's wellness and drug policies, amid speculation about a possible link between steroid use and
the death of WWE performer
Chris Benoit. On July 8, 2009, committee Republicans released an investigative staff report discussing the
2008 financial crisis. The report alleged that the government had caused the collapse by meddling in the United States' housing and lending market in the name of "affordable housing". In February 2012, the committee held a hearing on the
Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act's mandate that would "require all employers to cover birth control free of cost to women". Specifically, Republicans on the committee alleged that the
Department of Health and Human Services's rules governing exemptions for religious institutions violated the
Free Exercise Clause of the Constitution. The chair, Darrell Issa, said the hearing was "meant to be more broadly about religious freedom and not specifically about the contraception mandate in the Health Reform law". After
Aaron Swartz committed suicide on January 11, 2013, the committee investigated the Justice Department's actions in prosecuting Swartz on hacking charges. On January 28, Issa and ranking member
Elijah Cummings published a letter to Attorney General
Eric Holder, questioning whether prosecutors had intentionally added felony counts to increase the amount of prison time Swartz faced. On July 10, 2019, a hearing was held by the
United States House Oversight Subcommittee on Civil Rights and Civil Liberties entitled "Kids in Cages: Inhumane Treatment at the Border" on the "inhumane treatment of children and families" inside child detention centers on the southern US border.
Jamie Raskin (D-MD) chaired the session which included testimony from Yazmin Juarez, the mother of Mariee who died at the age of nineteen months while detained in a
United States Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) center in Dilley, Texas. In his opening statement Raskin said that "hundreds of thousands of people" have responded to the "harsh policies" by deciding to "migrate now before things get even worse". On December 2, 2024, the United States House of Representatives Oversight and Accountability Committee's COVID-19 panel issued its final report ahead of a hearing that week, which, among other things, argues for the highly controversial
COVID-19 lab leak theory, or lab leak hypothesis; the idea that SARS-CoV-2, the virus that caused the COVID-19 pandemic, came from a laboratory. The report is also critical of mask mandates and lockdowns. ==Jurisdiction==