House Oversight Committee advances Reorganizing Government Act after heated debate

The House Oversight and Reform Committee on Thursday advanced HR 1295, the Reorganizing Government Act of 2025, after extended debate over the scope of presidential reorganization authority and a series of failed amendment votes.

Chairman James Comer (R-Ky.) offered an amendment in the nature of a substitute and said the bill “would renew and extend the authority of the president to propose a government reorganization plan.” Comer said the measure would require an up-or-down vote on reorganization plans and asserted it would let Congress “have a say in how government reorganization is carried out.”

Ranking Member Gerald Connolly (D-Va.) urged opposition, saying the bill would provide a “filibuster‑proof pathway” for a president to eliminate whole departments and statutory programs. “This is not about reorganizing government,” Connolly said. “It's about dismantling it.”

Committee Democrats offered multiple amendments seeking to limit or constrain the bill’s scope — including proposals to protect inspectors general from summary removal, to require presidential plans to list sensitive databases and limit non‑government access, and to bar plans that would reduce veterans’ services — but recorded votes on those amendments were postponed or failed during markup. The committee recorded a final favorable vote on HR 1295 at the end of the session; the clerk reported the motion to report the legislation favorably with the tally recorded in committee.

Supporters said the bill restores a long‑dormant statutory process that historically allowed presidents to propose reorganizations that Congress could approve or reject, while opponents said the 2025 bill expands executive power and lacks the guardrails that accompanied earlier reorganization authorities.

Beyond the central debate over authority, members pressed on specifics in the bill's statutory edits to title 5 of the U.S. Code and cited sections in the measure amending provisions that were last substantive in the 1980s. Committee discussion repeatedly referenced the Government Accountability Office’s findings on duplication in federal programs and cited the Inspector General Act of 1978 while debating protections for watchdog offices.

The committee’s action advances the bill to the full House, where additional debate and amendments are expected in floor consideration. Supporters say restoring a defined process for presidential reorganization will allow the executive and Congress to address duplication and overlap; critics say the proposal as written would permit sweeping changes to statutory agencies and programs without adequate legislative safeguards.

Votes on related, substantive amendments were not adopted on the committee floor during the markup; several were set for recorded votes and tabled under committee procedure.