Legislative Oversight

Pursuant to a congressional request, GAO analyzed the Department of Defense's (DOD) 1985 hearings data, focusing on: (1) the number and identity of congressional committee and subcommittee hearings involving DOD witnesses; (2) the number of hearings according to subject matter; and (3) the number and identity of the DOD witnesses.

GAO noted that DOD officials testified at 412 hearings in 1985. GAO found that: (1) the House and Senate Committees on Appropriations and Armed Services held 261 hearings; (2) the House Committees on Foreign Affairs, Science and Technology, and Government Operations held 52 hearings; (3) the Senate Committee on Foreign Relations held 14 hearings; (4) the remaining 85 hearings were held by various committees, subcommittees, panels, and task forces; (5) the most common hearings subjects were, in order of frequency, fiscal year (FY) 1986 DOD appropriations and authorizations, foreign assistance, the strategic defense initiative, special operations forces, DOD reorganization, and FY 1985 reprogramming; (6) 295 different witnesses appeared at the hearings, 3 percent of whom appeared more than 10 times and 22 percent of whom appeared 6 to 10 times; and (7) the most frequent witnesses, in order, were the Assistant Secretary of Defense for Manpower, Installations and Logistics, the Director, Strategic Defense Initiative Organization, and the Secretary of Defense.