GOP Funding Bill Includes Anti-Czar Language

The House on Thursday voted to attach an amendment from Rep. Steve Scalise (R-La.) to a major funding bill it hopes to pass in the next two weeks.

Scalise’s amendment, one of roughly 400 that have been offered to the bill, is aimed at ridding the White House of “czars,” or senior policy advisors to the President who are appointed without congressional approval.

Though the measure was criticized by Democrats, Scalise said it was about restoring transparency to the White House.

“These unappointed, unaccountable people who are literally running a shadow government, heading up these little fiefdoms that nobody can really seem to identify where they are or what they’re doing,” he said. “But we do know that they’re wielding vast amounts of power.”