Mark Marin oversees the House panel with among the most sprawling mandates in Congress and one that has been front and center in the GOP battles with the Biden administration.
Oversight is a different beast than many other committees on the Hill, where working on legislation can build some bipartisan camaraderie.
“I view my role as serving the chair and the members of the committee and what their political views and stances and needs are,” Marin said.
“The committee itself is political. It’s where the sort of political fights take place, and we staff the chair and the members in terms of having those fights.”
Marin’s career path is the reverse of many who work on the Hill. He spent about a decade as a lobbyist before switching gears and coming to the Capitol, and he says he still sometimes pinches himself when walking into the building.
Since working on the Hill, he has ping-ponged between Oversight and other panels, but he has always been drawn to oversight work.
Even during stints on the House Science, Space, and Technology Committee, he saw a narrow opening to review then-Secretary of State Hillary Clinton’s use of a private email server.
While he’s worked with several chairs on the panel, he credits current the chairman, Rep. James Comer (R-Ky.), with having both political instincts “among the best I’ve ever seen” and with fostering good relationships with other committees conducting investigations.
“Our oversight jurisdiction is very broad, and it makes other committees frustrated, annoyed and when we’re stepping on the toes sometimes is the view. That’s always been the case and always will,” he said.
“[Comer] sees that you can cooperate and share investigations — that it’s not a zero-sum game.”