Editing Darrell Issa (section)

====Oversight committee====
After the 2010 elections, Issa became chair of the [[House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform]]. He was a vocal advocate for investigations into the [[Obama administration]], including the [[Troubled Assets Relief Program]], the [[Financial Crisis Inquiry Commission]], corruption in [[Afghanistan]], [[WikiLeaks]], and the [[Food and Drug Administration]], among other topics.<ref>{{cite news |url=https://www.usatoday.com/communities/theoval/post/2011/01/republican-plans-investigations-of-corrupt-obama-investigation/1 |title=Republican plans investigations of 'corrupt' Obama administration|date=January 3, 2011|work=[[USA Today]]}}</ref> In 2010 he told the press that he wanted the committee to hold investigative hearings "seven hearings a week, times 40 weeks."<ref name="hearings">{{cite news |url=http://www.politico.com/news/stories/1110/44850.html |title=Darrell Issa plans hundreds of hearings|date=November 8, 2010 |publisher=[[Politico]]}}</ref>

In February 2011, the Watchdog Institute, a nonprofit investigative reporting center based at [[San Diego State University]], published an investigation alleging that as leader of the committee, Issa built a team that included staff members with close connections to industries that could benefit from his investigations.<ref>{{cite news |url=https://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/02/28/darrell-issa-team_n_829046.html|title=Darrell Issa's Team Includes Industry Insiders |last=Snyder|first=Whitney|date=February 28, 2011|publisher=[[HuffPost]]|access-date=December 4, 2011}}</ref>

On February 16, 2012, the committee held a hearing on the [[Department of Health and Human Services]]'s [[contraceptive mandate|regulation requiring insurance plans to cover birth control]], which Issa believed to be a violation of the religious freedom of people who oppose the use of birth control. Democratic members submitted attorney and activist [[Sandra Fluke]] as a witness for promoting women's health, but Issa did not permit her to testify, saying her name was submitted too late,<ref>{{cite news|url=https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/where-are-the-women-dispute-settled-kind-of/2012/03/27/gIQA8tGHgS_story.html |title='Where are the women?' dispute settled. Kind of.|last=O'Keefe|first=Ed|date=March 28, 2012 |newspaper=[[The Washington Post]]}}</ref> a claim Democrats challenged.<ref>{{cite news|url=https://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/ezra-klein/post/meet-sandra-fluke-the-woman-you-didnt-hear-at-congress-contraceptives-hearing/2012/02/16/gIQAJh57HR_blog.html|title=Contraception Controversy Continues: Meet Witness Sandra Fluke|last=Kiff|first=Sarah|date=February 16, 2012|newspaper=[[The Washington Post]] |access-date=March 3, 2012}}</ref>