In Congress I'm a proud member of the Oversight Committee. But my oversight work began even before I was elected.
Early in my career, I was a consumer protection attorney. In 2012 I got a call from then Attorney General of California, Kamala Harris. She had secured an $18 billion settlement from Wall Street Banks whose predatory lending practices caused the 2008 mortgage crisis and left 700,000 California families in or near foreclosure. It was my job as California's Independent Monitor to make sure people actually got the money the banks owed them. My team and I held the banks' feet to the fire and made sure California families received the compensation they were entitled to.
Holding power to account to deliver for California families is still a big part of my job. Oversight is an important (but often overlooked) responsibility of Congress:
- I oversee how our tax dollars are spent. It's one thing to pass legislation that creates good programs. It's another to make sure those programs are run effectively and efficiently. If people don't know about a program that could help them, or there are too many hoops to jump through—that program isn't all that effective and becomes wasteful. When our tax dollars are spent subsidizing Big Oil or lining the defense industry's pockets, I call it out.
- I also oversee corporations when they harm workers or consumers, and on the first of this year my new law cracking down on Big Pharma's price gouging went into effect.
- I oversee our government officials. When Louis DeJoy was mishandling the Postal Service, we demanded change. When I learned my colleagues in Congress were trading stocks based on the information they learned in Washington, I introduced legislation to ban Members of Congress from trading stocks.
I'm proud to stand up to CEOs, government officials, and special interest lobbyists who aren't acting in the best interest of California families. The work of holding power to account is so important, and really does affect our everyday lives.
—Katie Porter (proud driver of a minivan whose license plate says 'OVRSITE')
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