Finally! Somebody is showing the backbone the Founders expected of the House of Representatives in its exclusive exercise of the power of the purse. Rep. Frank Wolf is chairman of the House Appropriations Committee panel with jurisdiction over the Department of Justice budget. The Virginia Republican has repeatedly asked the department for documents and information that Congress and the American people inarguably have a right to see. And over and over again, Wolf has been stymied by Attorney General Eric Holder and other high-ranking Obama administration appointees in the Justice Department.

As J. Christian Adams, a PJ Media columnist and former Justice Department attorney, noted Friday, the Omnibus Act of 2013 requires 66 separate reports to Congress by department officials on their activities. Weary of the disrespectful responses he was getting – including materials that clearly were not responsive to what was requested, or documents so redacted as to be useless in oversight – Wolf has come up with a creative and constitutionally sound tactic for dealing with the situation, which he described during a hearing last week: