Members hit White House over secrecy

The Bush administration’s refusal to cooperate with even the most routine and basic congressional requests for information is infuriating members of Congress and violating congressional rights and responsibilities, members charge.

From Democratic liberals like Sen. Barbara Boxer (Calif.), who calls getting a response from the White House “a nightmare,” to Republican conservatives like Rep. Dan Burton (Ind.), who said he had to use “strong-arm tactics” to get what he needed, there has been a rising tide of congressional complaints in both the House and Senate.

Furthermore, the administration is exacerbating the frustration among lawmakers by failing to acknowledge requests for information — even as a courtesy.

A number of lawmakers are threatening to subpoena the administration — an extreme step reserved by lawmakers as a last resort to elicit cooperation on mundane inquiries.

While power struggles between the executive and legislative branches over information are not new, most of those struggles traditionally have been confined to four areas: national defense, law enforcement, foreign policy and the White House.


Since President Bush has been in office, the battle for information between Congress and the White House has spread to other areas such as environmental, educational and science issues, lawmakers say.


David Walker, the controller general of the Government Accounting Office, the investigative arm of Congress, confirmed to The Hill that the current administration has been slower to respond to congressional inquiries than previous administrations.


But by delaying the release of information that could provide ammunition to its critics, the Bush administration has sidestepped a number of draining political confrontations and kept the country focused on the president’s agenda.


For example, the Bush administration has treated some environmental issues with the same level of circumspection previous administrations have reserved for national security.