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FIRST ON FOX: Conservative think tank Heritage Foundation is launching a new “Conservative Oversight Project” aimed at “exposing” the Biden administration and leftist policies it says are being pushed through government.
Former Department of Homeland Security (DHS) attorney Mike Howell and former acting Commissioner of U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) Mark Morgan are leading the new Heritage Foundation project.
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Howell told Fox News Digital in an interview Wednesday that “recognizing that the biggest battles ahead in the next couple of years are going to be ones of oversight and accountability,” the project is planned to aggressively investigate and provide oversight to both government and nongovernment organizations (NGOs) drawing upon Heritage Foundation resources.
Then-acting Customs and Border Protection Commissioner Mark Morgan talks to reporters in the James Brady Press Briefing Room at the White House Oct. 8, 2019 in Washington, D.C. (Photo by Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images)
“We are going to FOIA (Freedom of Information Act), we are going to sue all these places to make sure we’re getting the information,” Howell said. “We’re going to make sure Congress has everything they need to know so that they can actually hold this Biden administration accountable.”
Howell said the House of Representatives and Senate “haven’t done any meaningful oversight and virtually any attempts have been blocked,” and that many media organizations are “all carrying the water for the Biden administration.”
Morgan told Fox News Digital the project is “about truth, facts, and transparency” and that the Heritage Foundation’s new endeavor will touch on several issues facing America, including a large focus on the ongoing border crisis.
President Biden gestures as he speaks during a news conference in the East Room of the White House in Washington, Wednesday, Jan. 19, 2022. (AP Photo/Susan Walsh)
The former acting CBP commissioner also pointed out the discrepancies between the rigorous oversight Congress and outside organizations gave to the previous administration when compared to the Biden White House.
“I support this, I think this was a good thing,” Morgan said of the oversight of the previous Trump administration. “Part of Congress’ job is to drive the facts, truth, and transparency and oversight and, hopefully, that then equates to accountability.”
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Morgan said America is seeing the “opposite” treatment of the Biden administration oversight-wise compared to the Trump administration and that he “would have been hammered” if he were in charge of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and didn’t produce the end-of-year report on border crossing numbers, like the Biden administration has failed to produce.
Howell said the project will also focus on the “slush fund” multitrillion-dollar infrastructure bill, the “connections with Big Tech and the government,” and the “woke agenda takeover of the federal government.”
Border wall at Abram-Perezville, Texas. The southern border crisis is one of several issues the Biden administration is facing ahead of the 2022 midterms.
The project will also work “chiefly” with “committees of jurisdiction” over government oversight, such as the House and Senate Oversight Committees. Morgan added that they have already engaged with individual lawmakers, but didn’t name which. They plan to work with congressmen on both sides of the aisle.
“But this is a project that, I think, is recognized as a need on Capitol Hill,” the former DHS attorney said. “In terms of coordination, and attention, and resources, and expertise being devoted to this project.”
The Capitol is seen at dawn in Washington, on Election Day, Tuesday, Nov. 2, 2021. (AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite)
Another issue of concern by Heritage is the specific NGOs involved in the border crisis, which they say have become “complicit” in human smuggling schemes.
Morgan accused the Biden administration of paying NGOs to “actually help facilitate illegal immigration. Who’s getting that money? How much is the federal government giving these NGOs? What is the money being utilized for?” Morgan asked. “That needs to be exposed.”
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Howell also said the Heritage Foundation would continue the Conservative Oversight Project should Congress flip in the 2022 midterms and the White House turn red in 2024.
Dr. Kevin Roberts serves as the seventh president in Heritage’s 48-year history. (Heritage Foundation)
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Heritage Foundation president Kevin Roberts said in a press release announcement that the conservative think tank will use this new project to go “on offense to expose the Biden regime and its enablers on Capitol Hill, in the administrative state, and at the state and local level across the nation.”
The project comes as several crises rage across America while the media and Democrats in Congress largely have been giving the Biden administration a pass. The southern border crisis is only one of several issues the Biden administration is facing ahead of the 2022 midterm elections, including compounding inflation and a surge in COVID-19 cases.