New chairman of the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee, Jason Chaffetz, is reorganizing his subcommittees. He is expanding the number of subcommittees from five to six. Dan Blair is president of the National Academy of Public Administration. In his Top 3 for 2015, he tells In Depth with Francis Rose why new congressional oversight leaders could stir up some big changes.

Dan Blair’s Top 3 for 2015

1. Congressional oversight agenda: With both the House and Senate now in Republican control and new chairs leading the oversight committees, will Congress beef up its oversight agenda? Will it differ from the last Congress? What will it focus on?
2. Government data security: It seems like almost every week we hear of new data breaches. OPM reported that personally identifiable information for almost 49,000 federal employees held by its largest contractor for background checks was hacked. This comes on the heels of the USPS announcing this fall that information for almost 800,000 had been hacked. And DHS had information that it was hacked as well. How will the Executive and Legislative Branches respond to implementing greater safeguards for employee information?
3. Are we going to go through another budget stand-off? Immigration reform, raising the debt limit and moving through the appropriations process are all going to be key battlegrounds for the President and the new Congress.

In our special radio report, Top 3 for 2015, federal experts tell In Depth host Francis Rose what top three concepts, trends or priorities they believe will be important in 2015.

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