New Oversight Roadmap for 120th Congress Outlines Key Accountability Priorities
In the wake of decisive Democrat victory Public Citizen calls on lawmakers to lean into congressional oversight and investigate powerful corporate actors
WASHINGTON, D.C. – After Americans voted decisively for massive change in the 2026 midterm election, and Democrats prepare to take the majority in both the House and the Senate, the new Congress has a mandate to fight back against the lawlessness of the Trump administration and hold bad actors accountable.
To help the incoming Congress prepare for the massive task ahead, Public Citizen prepared an ‘Oversight Agenda Roadmap’ outlining key priorities to root out corruption, strengthen democracy, and address the abuses of Trump and his cronies.
“The criteria in our roadmap is clear. Call in the corporations who have been seated at the table the last two years with the Trump administration and call out the real-world implications of their executives’ capitulation with the President. We should use the gavels to highlight examples of a deeply understood reality of the moment – how clearly Trump corruption overlays with the issues regular people are grappling with across the country,” said Lisa Gilbert, co-president of Public Citizen.
The roadmap outlines investigative priorities centered on accountability, transparency, affordability, and the protection of everyday Americans from abuses of power, corporate misconduct, and harmful public policy decisions, proposing dozens of specific topics across a wide range of issue areas.
It calls on Congress to use oversight “tools to expose corruption and corporate favoritism within this administration, building a public record that lays the groundwork for the policy reforms that will improve daily life.”
“The American people are demanding much more than grandstanding and ritual condemnation of the most corrupt administration in American history. They want serious investigations that show how corruption is enabling corporations to charge more for groceries, profiteer off of war, pollute our air and impose unwanted data centers on communities across the country. And they want those investigations to feed bold policy prescriptions to fight corruption, end corporate price gouging and restrain corporate wrongdoing,” said Robert Weissman, co-president of Public Citizen.