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Republicans Silence Democrats & Support Cheney's Continued Secrecy of Energy Documents

September 15, 2004

Washington, D.C. --- In the latest example of Republican abuse of power in the U.S. House of Representatives, House Energy and Commerce Committee Chairman Joe Barton (R-TX) refused today to allow a fair debate on an inquiry into Vice President Dick Cheney's secret energy task force.

In an unprecedented move, the Chairman denied committee members time to give opening statements or offer any amendments during the markup of a resolution asking for the names of the people who participated in Cheney's secret energy task force. Ranking Democrat John Dingell (D-MI), a member and former Chairman of the committee who has served on the committee for more than 40 years, does not remember another time when an Energy and Commerce Committee Chairman abused his power in such a fashion.

The measure was defeated along a party line vote with 24 Democrats voting no and 30 Republicans voting yes. The following is the statement the New Jersey congressman would have delivered had the Republicans allowed him to speak.

"Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I would like to thank my colleagues, John Dingell, Henry Waxman, and Ed Markey for introducing this important legislation.

"Many of us here in Congress believe that openness and transparency are fundamental to the workings of any good democracy. For the people to be able to have confidence in their government, they need to at least have some idea of how we develop policy and whom our leaders turn to for advice. Unfortunately, the Vice President's refusal to turn over information pertaining to his Energy Task Force is emblematic of the entire Bush administration, which has without a doubt been the most secretive of modern times.

"When it comes to the Energy Task Force, the Administration has acted less like a democracy and more like a dictatorship with some dirty secrets that it wants to hide. What could possibly be so embarrassing that the Administration would steadfastly refuse multiple requests from members of Congress, the GAO, and both liberal and conservative organizations?

"Perhaps the Vice President and the rest of the Administration simply don't want the public to know that in developing their ill-conceived energy policy, they chose special interests over the public good -- as they have with virtually every other environmental and energy-related issue.

"For example, when it comes to cleaning up our nation's most polluted sites -- of which New Jersey has more than any other state -- the Bush administration chose polluters over taxpayers by not pressing for a renewal of the Superfund taxes.

"When it comes to developing regulations to protect our nation's children from air pollution -- and New Jersey has some of the worst air quality in the nation -- the Bush administration chose polluting electric utilities over public health by undermining clean air protections like new source review.

"And when it comes to regulating mercury emissions -- which wind up in fish from New Jersey's lakes and rivers -- the Bush administration has chosen polluters over the public, proposing weak rules that would fail to address mercury "hot spots."

"So it's not outrageous to think that the Energy Task Force spent most of its time meeting with corporate special interests, including the industries that do the most damage to our environment. Mr. Waxman's committee staff reported that during the year the Task Force worked, the Administration had at least 112 contacts with Enron -- the company that defrauded its employees and manipulated California's energy market to increase their profits.

"Was the administration just as cozy with other energy industry special interests as they were with Enron? Did that coziness affect the development of the Cheney Task Force's recommendations to the president? Passing this resolution will answer those questions.

"We need to know about the Task Force's meetings because their recommendations were more than just the basis for a legislative proposal. In fact, according to Energy Secretary Abraham, the administration could carry out 80 of the 105 recommendations through executive action. Unlike our deliberations here in Congress, those actions would happen -- and have happened --well out of the public eye.

"In the name of open government, and in the name of putting the public's interest in a clean environment ahead of polluters' interests in padding their bottom lines, I urge my colleagues to support this resolution."