Democrats on Wednesday narrowly beat back a Republican attempt co-led by Rep. Rob Bishop to force the Obama administration to turn over the still secret portions of a partially leaked document that showed the administration was considering creating 14 new national monuments, including two in Utah. However, Bishop said the administration did turn over 383 out of 2,399 pages Republicans have been seeking, but that means its batting average is only .149 in providing the documents. "By refusing to turn over thousands of pages of documents to Congress about this administration's potential plans to lock up millions of acres of lands, they have destroyed any remaining illusion about being transparent," Bishop said. Bishop and Rep. Doc Hastings, R-Wash., tried to push through the House Natural Resources Committee a "resolution of inquiry" to force the release of the full document. However, the committee on Wednesday killed a motion to favorably report it on a 22-20 vote. Instead, it reported the resolution by voice vote without recommendation, a sign that it has small chance of making it to the House floor...more
So what happened to the most transparent administration in history?
As Rep. Doc Hastings pointed out, Interior "is withholding over five times as much information as they are disclosing to Congress and the American people."
This has to be an embarrassment to the Committee Democrats who voted against the resolution. They really fell on their sword for Obama and the enviros and in the process kicked the separation of powers into the ditch.
Here is the video of Rep. Hastings' presentation to the Committee:
1 comment:
Are there really 2,399 pages dedicated to this latest Monument land grab? I certainly won't rule it out, but how much can one really say about this sort of thing?
Attempting to stonewall on this issue does not benefit anyone. Folks opposed to more monmument dedications, myself included, will see the failure to release the documents as a harbinger of bad things to come.
For their part, the Administration will ultimately have to come up with a justification for holding this information back. If it is all about monuments and nothing else, it is going to be pretty hard to use National Security as an excuse. Are they going to pull a Cheney and take the separation of powers route, perhaps? Pretty rich to do that after flogging the Bushies for it. Time will tell, but for the moment it just looks silly.
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