INSIDE WASHINGTON: DHS most overseen department
By ALICIA A. CALDWELL Associated Press
Published: Tuesday, May 17, 2011 at 6:30 a.m.
Last Modified: Tuesday, May 17, 2011 at 3:03 a.m.
WASHINGTON – If congressional oversight is a good thing, then the Homeland Security Department may be suffering from too much of a good thing.

The department, cobbled together quickly out of 22 other agencies after the Sept. 11, 2001, terror attacks, answers to 108 congressional committees, subcommittees, caucuses and the like, about four times as many as the departments of State and Justice combined.

Officials and staff spent about 66 work years responding to questions from Congress in 2009 alone. That same year, Homeland Security officials say they answered 11,680 letters, gave 2,058 briefings and sent 232 witnesses to 166 hearings. All this at a cost to taxpayers of about $10 million. Read full article