Vice President Biden (left) will discuss stimulus oversight with Rep. Darrell Issa. | AP photo composite by POLITICO Biden to meet with Issa

Vice President Joe Biden welcomes California Rep. Darrell Issa to the White House Tuesday, the White House’s first outreach to the chairman that has vowed to investigate every corner of government.

The meeting, which will be at 3 p.m. in the White House, will focus on tracking stimulus spending, White House and Hill sources say.


Issa is looking to dig into specifics about stimulus oversight: enforcing the law that the spending of stimulus dollars must be reported, empowering inspectors general with subpoena power and potentially some improvements to Recovery.gov.

Elizabeth Alexander, a spokeswoman for Biden, said the meeting will focus on “oversight of the Recovery Act and opportunities to increase transparency in other federal programs.”

In an interview off the House floor Monday evening, Issa said he knew Biden “before he was vice president, and we should’ve been working together” previous to this meeting.

But the extent to which they could work together is to be seen. Issa has been tough on the Obama administration, rhetorically and actually. He called the stimulus “walking around money,” in various ways has indicated that the Obama administration does not work above board and has vowed hundreds of hearings next Congress to keep government in check.

CORRECTION: The name of vice president Joe Biden’s spokeswoman was incorrect in the original version of this story.

CORRECTION: Corrected by: Catherine Cheney @ 11/30/2010 11:40 AM CORRECTION: The name of vice president Joe Biden’s spokeswoman was incorrect in the original version of this story.