Shutting the door to Democrats

The Bush White House, irritated by pesky questions from congressional Democrats about how the administration is using taxpayer money, has developed an efficient solution: It will not entertain any more questions from opposition lawmakers.

So begins an article in todays Washington Post about how the Bush administration has decided it avoid dealing with queries from Democratic legislators.

A new rule will now require any questions for the House and Senate Appropriations committees to first go through the committee chairmen - who are Republicans. If the chair doesn't think the question is appropriate, it just won't get asked.

This came up after House Democrats tried asking how much it had cost to make and hang the "Mission Accomplished" banner for the President's aircraft carrier landing in May.

The director of the White House Office of Administration, Timothy A. Campen, sent an e-mail titled "congressional questions" to majority and minority staff on the House and Senate Appropriations panels. Expressing "the need to add a bit of structure to the Q&A process," he wrote: "Given the increase in the number and types of requests we are beginning to receive from the House and Senate, and in deference to the various committee chairmen and our desire to better coordinate these requests, I am asking that all requests for information and materials be coordinated through the committee chairmen and be put in writing from the committee."

He said this would limit "duplicate requests" and help answer questions "in a timely fashion."

Despite the White House's attempt to portray this as a move designed to increase efficiency, even a congressional representative at the American Enterprise Institute - a neocon think tank - says "This is obviously an excuse to avoid providing information about some of the things the Democrats are asking for."

The article doesn't indicate if this new methodology will remain a rule just for the Appropriations committees or if it will be expanded to include other committees as well, but I suspect if this change doesn't create too much of an outrage, the White House may try expanding it to include additional committees where they would find it useful to be able to duck questions from their opponents.

Posted by thorswitch at November 7, 2003 10:35 PM | TrackBack