Hastings takes aim at Interior over subpoenas

Politico Pro
Andrew Restuccia
September 11, 2014

House Natural Resources Committee Chairman Doc Hastings butted heads with a top Interior Department official on Wednesday, complaining the agency failed to hand over documents the panel had demanded.

Speaking at an oversight hearing, Hastings (R-Wash.) said Interior’s U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service has not adequately complied with the panel’s requests, often releasing incomplete and overly redacted documents.

He said the agency failed to meet the requirements of two separate subpoenas. One of those subpoenas sought documents related to FWS’ decision to list the White Bluffs bladderpod, a plant that grows in Hastings’ home state of Washington, as a threatened species under the Endangered Species Act.

The other sought documents regarding the administration’s implementation and enforcement of wildlife laws like the Migratory Bird Treaty Act and the Bald and Golden Eagle Protection Act.

“In regards to oversight, it’s not only Congress’ right but our responsibility to hold the executive branch accountable for its actions and decisions. In turn, we expect the administration to be honest and transparent,” Hastings said. “The reality is just the opposite. The Obama administration has consistently engaged in a deliberate pattern of slow-rolling its responses and purposely withholding information from Congress.”

The hearing laid bare long-standing tensions between the Interior Department and committee Republicans. Hastings has launched a slew of investigations into the department’s activities, requesting thousands of pages of documents on everything from Interior’s plans to rewrite a 2008 coal rule to its efforts to protect endangered species.

Interior officials have argued that the requests are overly burdensome and Hastings has contended that the department isn’t taking Congress’ oversight responsibilities seriously.

“The Interior Department has dragged its feet on every oversight issue this committee has pursued. It has purposefully sought ways to increase the burden, costs and delays for responding to the committee’s legitimate requests,” Hastings said at the hearing.

The committee alleged that FWS, in response to a March subpoena, provided redacted documents to the committee that had previously been provided in their entirety in response to a prior Freedom of Information Act request.

“Either the administration is incompetent or it is going out of its way to expend time and money to withhold information from Congress,” Hastings said.

But FWS Director Dan Ashe countered that the committee’s numerous requests have been a major burden on his agency. The requests are so numerous and time-intensive that the department has had to divert significant resources to them — resources that could be devoted, he said, to things like an undercover operation aimed at stemming the illegal trade of ivory.

Ashe recoiled at the suggestion that his agency isn’t trying to comply with the subpoenas and document requests. “I believe we are making exceptional efforts to be responsive,” he said at the hearing.

And he said the committee’s investigation had “not uncovered a shred of evidence” that the agency had inappropriately implemented wildlife laws.

“There have been no attempts to politically direct or influence enforcement of these laws,” he said.

Rep. Peter DeFazio, the top Democrat on the committee, defended the agency, and dismissed Hastings’ investigation as a “witch hunt.”

“We’re really searching for a conspiracy where one doesn’t exist,” he said.

The hearing comes one day after Interior Secretary Sally Jewell, in a letter to Hastings, said the department “conservatively” estimated that it has spent $2 million and 34,000 staff hours responding to committee Republicans’ document requests over the last two years.

Since the beginning of the 113th Congress, the committee has sent Interior 37 letters requesting documents on 16 different topics. In response, the department has provided 5,500 documents totaling 60,000 pages, in addition to briefings for the committee and responses to questions, Jewell said.

Hastings is slated to continue his oversight efforts on Thursday with a hearing on the Interior inspector general’s “ongoing failure” to comply with a separate subpoena.