Earlier quoted context omitted.
This is actually Standard Operating Procedure for Congress. You have a bunch of non-technically literate people in theory delegating the responsibility for educating them to an agency who is responsible for either rounding-up/hiring experts to educate Congress or to collate whatever required reading is necessary. I have difficulty understanding why this type of research isn't done by Congressional research assets tho…
Congress used to do its own research via the Office of Technology Assessment but because the results often contradicted the positions of lobbyists it was eliminated under Gingrich in the mid 1990s. The drug side of the FDA used to have its own research labs but they were eliminated by the same congress because their results constrained and informed the scientific demands they placed on drug development trials. It's n…
How is the legislature supposed to actually hold the Executive and special interests in check then? It sounds like the entire federal government has been neutered in terms of being able to actually do it's own footwork to guard against encroaching agendas..
This actually explains a lot, now that I think about it.