The General Assembly should repair a self-inflicted wound it incurred in 2017 when it abolished the Program Review and Investigations Committee and lost its ability to carry out extensive investigations of state programs and agencies.

The Program Review and Investigations Committee [PR&I] was established in 1972 to provide the General Assembly with the capacity to carry out “an examination of programs administered by state departments and agencies to ascertain whether such programs are effective, continue to serve their intended purposes, [and] are conducted in an efficient manner” and to conduct “investigations to assist the General Assembly in the proper discharge of its duties.”