The Bush administration has no intention of complying with a demand by the Government Accounting Office (GAO), Congress’ investigative arm, for information on the administration’s meetings with industry leaders and energy task force members while developing an energy policy, Juleanna Glover Weiss, spokeswoman for Vice President Cheney, told NGI. A deadline passed last night for the administration to respond to the GAO demand.

Comptroller General David M. Walker submitted a GAO report to Congress last month outlining the agency’s months-long failed attempt to obtain records from the vice president related to the workings of the Cabinet-level task force on energy policy. The report was forwarded to House Speaker J. Dennis Hastert (R-IL), and is the final step before the GAO brings a civil lawsuit to gain full access to certain records of the task force, which with Cheney as head, developed President Bush’s national energy policy.

“The White House believes it has a strong and persuasive position and we believe the matter could end right now,” said Juleanna Glover Weiss, a spokeswoman for the vice president. “But it’s clearly up to the GAO Comptroller General. Our position is that the GAO doesn’t have the legal authority to request the documents they are requesting. It’s just that there is no law that grants them the ability to request documents from the energy task force.” She acknowledged, however, that the GAO completely disagrees and might attempt to proceed with legal action. “I don’t know what they are going to do. What I do know is that we are going to work as hard as we can to pass the energy bill in the Senate.”

The comptroller general said last month that he would bring a civil action for judicial enforcement if the records requested were not provided to the GAO within 20 days following the filing of the report. It would be the first time that the GAO would be forced to resort to legal action against the White House or other executive branch officials to compel production of information and records.

The information requested included the names of those who were present at each group meeting of the task force; the names of the professional staff that was assigned to provide support to the task force; the names of people who the task force (including Cheney) and its support staff met with to gather information for the national energy policy, including the date, subject and location of the meetings; and the direct and indirect costs that were incurred while developing the president’s national energy policy.

The GAO launched the investigation in May at the urging of Reps. Henry Waxman (D-CA) and John Dingell (D-MI), who voiced concerns about the conduct, operations and funding of the energy task force. The congressmen claimed that the task force meetings violated the sunshine laws and the “letter and spirit” of the Federal Advisory Committee Act. Their request for the probe was prompted by news reports that the task force had met privately with large campaign contributors, such as Enron Corp. CEO Kenneth Lay, to formulate the president’s energy policy.

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