The head of the General Accounting Office (GAO) says he will pursue a lawsuit against the Bush White House this week if Vice President Dick Cheney does not comply with his demands for the information and records of the Cabinet-level task force, which drafted the administration’s energy policy.

GAO Comptroller General David M. Walker said he plans to notify congressional leaders by as early as Wednesday, unless the administration has a change of heart and decides to produce the sought-after task force documents, according to The Washington Post.

But President Bush refused Monday to identify any business executives whom he, Cheney or White House aides met with when developing his energy strategy, saying that to do so would be an infringement on the authority of the executive branch, the Associated Press reported.

If forced to proceed with this action, it would be the first time the GAO, the investigative arm of Congress, brings legal action against the executive branch to compel production of information and records. Both Bush and White House Budget Director Mitch Daniels had the power to put an end to the GAO inquiry up to Sept. 7, but failed to do so.

The White House already had planned to go to court with the GAO by then, Cheney said on Fox News Sunday. “We’d come to an ultimate showdown, and…concluded that, in fact, we were prepared to go to court if that’s what was necessary,” he said, adding that the GAO backed off at the time. Now, “some of the Democrats on the Hill are trying to re-energize this…and turn it into some kind of political debate with respect to Enron.”

Reps. Henry Waxman (D-CA) and John Dingell (D-MI) sought out the GAO’s help to obtain the task force records from Cheney, who chaired the task force, back in April 2001, long before the Enron Corp. scandal hit the newspapers. Their request for the probe was based on reports that the task force had met privately with large campaign contributors, including former Enron Chairman Kenneth Lay, to formulate the president’s energy policy.

The White House and Cheney all along have asserted executive privilege over the records. Until now, they have been able to dismiss the GAO inquiry as the product of partisan politics by Waxman and Dingell. But, with the daily disclosures about Enron’s irregularities and political influence, a mounting number of Democrats and even Republicans in Congress have called for the White House to accede to the GAO’s request.

Several lawmakers doubt that the White House engaged in questionable behavior in developing the national energy policy, but they believe the Bush administration’s persistent refusal to make records and documents available gives the appearance of impropriety.

Cheney, in interviews on Sunday morning news shows, said he had no intention of turning over the task-force records to the GAO. While the GAO’s jurisdiction extended to federal agencies, he noted, it did not apply to the Office of the Vice President. “As part of the Office of the President and the Vice President of the United States, I’m a constitutional officer…The authority of the GAO does not extend in that case to my office,” he said on Fox News Sunday.

The Bush administration already has turned over an “awful lot” of information on the task force to the GAO, Cheney said. “We’ve given [them] all the financial records, [and] the work that was done by the agencies. All of that’s gone to the GAO.” But, he noted he and the White House have drawn the line at divulging the details of personal consultations involved in drafting the energy policy.

On Meet the Press, White House Chief of Staff Andrew Card indicated that the White House was willing to compromise with the GAO to avoid a lawsuit. “I’m willing to say we’ll talk with people. There are probably ways to address some of the concerns on information.” In the same breath, however, he said it was “very important that we protect the president and his ability to have unvarnished information so that he can make sound policy.”

Waxman and Dingell called on GAO’s Walker last week to move ahead with the lawsuit “at this time,” given that “voluntary cooperation” from Cheney “appears not to be forthcoming.” Despite GAO’s repeated efforts to resolve the matter through negotiation, “it is clear to us…that the vice president has expressed no intention of cooperating with your investigation,” they wrote in a Jan. 24 letter to Walker.

In light of the mushrooming Enron probes on Capitol Hill, lawmakers are eager to know just how much influence Enron’s Lay had in drafting the Bush administration’s energy policy, which was released last May. When asked if parts of the energy policy were developed with Enron in mind, Cheney said, “I can’t say,” but he added “I’m sure they supported many parts of it.”

The energy policy, among other things, called for increased oil and natural gas drilling on public lands, particularly in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge (ANWR), improvements to energy infrastructure, financial and tax incentives for renewable and alternative energy fuel sources, and a rejuvenated nuclear power system.

In a related development, Sen. Barbara Boxer (D-CA) has called on the GAO to explore the connection between Enron and the spiking electric prices in California last year, as well as the company’s influence at the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission in establishing electric policy.

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