- WASHINGTON (Reuters) -
President
Bush won the backing of Republican leaders on Tuesday in seeking to deny
congressional investigators access to records critics say could show the
role played by Enron Corp. in crafting an energy plan favorable to the
now bankrupt company.
-
- Support from House Speaker Dennis Hastert and Senate
Republican leader Trent Lott will increase pressure on the General
Accounting
Office, Congress' investigative arm, to back away from its unprecedented
threat to take the administration to court to secure the documents on
contacts
between the White House's energy task force and Enron, the president's
biggest financial backer in the 2000 campaign.
-
- The GAO has said it would gauge congressional support
before acting.
-
- "I think it's proprietary information," said
Hastert, an Illinois Republican. "If any elected member of Congress
went down to talk to the president, I think they would be shocked and
chagrined
to know that their information was being disseminated."
-
- Lott, the minority leader from Mississippi, said
congressional
investigators were overstepping their authority and were not entitled to
"get lists and the details and the notes of every private meeting
of the executive branch."
-
- Democrats and a few Republicans rallied behind the GAO's
demand for records that could shed light on the role the bankrupt energy
trading giant may have played in the development of the administration's
energy plan, which critics say was packed with benefits for Enron.
-
- "The GAO is on very solid ground. I think it is
fair to say most American people support the effort," said Senate
Democratic leader Tom Daschle.
-
- Bush, who has sought to distance himself from the
widening
scandal, will not mention Enron by name in his State of the Union address
later on Tuesday. Instead, White House officials said Bush would focus
on the broader issue of protecting workers and shareholders by setting
stricter accounting and corporate disclosure standards.
-
- ENRON MEETINGS
-
- Representatives from Enron, which has made some $623,000
in contributions to Bush's campaigns since 1993, met six times last year
with Vice President Dick Cheney or staff involved in crafting the White
House energy plan. The last contact took place in October, days before
Enron announced a charge against earnings, the first hint of its
spectacular
unraveling which culminated in the largest bankruptcy in U.S.
history.
-
- Some lawmakers allege the White House energy plan
incorporated
many policies advocated by Enron or benefiting Enron. These include
deregulation
initiatives long promoted by Enron, support for trading in energy
derivatives
and proposals to facilitate natural gas projects.
-
- The White House denies campaign contributions by Enron
and its former chairman, Kenneth Lay, influenced the energy task force's
deliberations and have accused lawmakers pursuing the matter of wasting
taxpayers' money.
-
- Bush, in a meeting with Congress leaders on Tuesday,
defended his decision not to release task force records to the GAO, saying
the disclosure would damage the White House's ability to solicit advice
from outside experts.
-
- Administration officials argue that the GAO does not
have the legal authority to demand the documents and warned that their
release would erode the powers of the presidency.
-
- "The GAO continues to ask for information that
oversteps
their bounds," White House spokesman Ari Fleischer told reporters.
He all but ruled out a compromise, saying no negotiations were under way
to avert an unprecedented court fight with the GAO.
-
- TAXPAYER MONEY
-
- Headed by Comptroller General David Walker, the GAO
counters
that Congress has a right to information on the energy task force headed
by Cheney because it was funded with taxpayers' money.
-
- "If we did go to court, it would be the first time
in history that we would have ever taken a federal entity or official to
court," Walker said last week. "We need to try to do everything
we can to avoid it. But we're committed to do our job."
-
- Defending the GAO, Majority Leader Daschle said the
investigators
were "simply asking for who came and when they were there. They aren't
asking for any release of confidential discussions with the
president."
-
- House Democratic leader Richard Gephardt of Missouri
saw the courts resolving the issue. "It's a legal question and it
is an important question, and the courts will have to figure out who's
right and who's wrong," he said.
-
- A few Republicans broke ranks with the Bush on the issue.
Sen. Charles Grassley of Iowa, the ranking Republican on the Senate Finance
Committee, said the White House records should be released, and offered
some unsolicited advice to Bush and Cheney: "Can't you listen to
people
without making notes? ... My attitude is don't put everything on
paper."
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