Boehner backs Issa on subpoena promises

House Minority Leader John Boehner threw his full support behind Rep. Darrell Issa’s (R-Calif.) plan to bombard the Obama administration with subpoenas if Republicans take back the House in November.

“I think Congress has an appropriate role under the Constitution to provide oversight of the executive branch. And I would pledge that it’s going to happen,” he told reporters Wednesday.

Issa, the top Republican on the House Oversight and Government Committee, has said he’ll double the size of his staff if he becomes chairman of the committee next year. He called for an investigation of the Obama administration earlier this year for offering Rep. Joe Sestak an unpaid job if he would drop out of the Democratic primary, and he has promised to investigate the White House in search of similar controversies.

A Chairman Issa would prove a huge headache for Obama, much as Rep. Dan Burton (R-Ind.) was as the committee’s chairman during the Clinton administration. Burton issued 1,052 subpoenas to the White House and other Democrats from 1997 to 2002.

CORRECTED: Issa's party affiliation was incorrect in the original post.