Bush's secrets
A BOSTON GLOBE EDITORIAL
3/1/2003
LONG BEFORE Sept. 11, the Bush administration started closing down public access to government records by withholding the names of energy industry executives who spoke to Vice President Cheney's task force on energy policy in early 2001. Congress's investigative arm, the General Accounting Office, sued to get that information but was turned down last December by the first judge to hear the case. Last month the GAO -- despite having argued in court that defeat in this case would be ''extremely damaging'' or ''fatal'' to its ability to do its job -- decided not to appeal the ruling. The GAO's head, Comptroller General David Walker, said he did so because pursuing the case ''would require investment of significant time and resources over several years.'' Walker denied a published report that he gave up after being threatened by Republicans in Congress with a reduction in his office's funding. He said he did confer with congressional leaders and that a majority, including Democrats, advised against an appeal. He would not identify the leaders he spoke with. In any event, it is deeply damaging to the cause of open government for the GAO to drop this case.
The suit that Walker had brought was the first such action in the agency's 81-year history. In all previous attempts by Congress to get information from the White House -- including data on Hillary Rodham Clinton's health task force -- the GAO was able to secure what lawmakers needed without going to court.
The energy issue is not dead, even though the Senate last year rejected the made-in-Houston policy of the White House that was largely rubber-stamped by the House of Representatives. The Senate is now under Republican leadership, and the recent negotiations on the appropriations bill made it clear that the administration has not given up its dream of turning the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge over to the oil companies. Especially if the Bush energy policy is resurrected, the public has a right to know which energy executives made their views known to the task force as well as the short list of conservation or environmental advocates who were contacted.
But the bigger issue is: Will the administration be unchallenged in its attempt to operate in secrecy? Fortunately, other organizations, including the conservative public interest group Judicial Watch, are also suing for energy task force information. But as the GAO argued in court, the administration's sweeping argument in rejecting the GAO suit would be ''literally devastating to the GAO's ability to obtain any information from the executive branch under any circumstances.''
Letting the Bush position go untested is a defeat for Congress's ability to secure the information it needs to pass the nation's laws.
This story ran on page A14 of the Boston Globe on 3/1/2003.
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