Former GOP lawmaker: Congress isn't acting independently of the executive branch

Former Rep. Tom Davis chaired the House Oversight committee from 2003 to 2007.

May 8, 2019, 6:57 PM
Rep. Tom Davis speaks in his Capitol Hill office on Feb. 13, 2007.
Rep. Tom Davis speaks in his Capitol Hill office on Feb. 13, 2007.
Bill Clark/Roll Call/Getty Images, FILE

With oversight wars raging on Capitol Hill, the former chairman of a powerful investigative committee said on Wednesday that one of the problems is that in Congress, the president's party has become an "appendage of the executive branch."

Former Rep. Tom Davis, a Virginia Republican who chaired the House Oversight Committee while Republican President George W. Bush was in office, said he believes that has been the case during the current and previous administration.

"The problem is Congress doesn't act as an independent branch," Davis told ABC News' Chief White House Correspondent Jonathan Karl and Political Director Rick Klein on the Powerhouse Politics podcast on Wednesday.