The Republican chairman of the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee is charging a senior White House official with acting in contempt of Congress for withholding documents related to the Environmental Protection Agency’s contentious clean water rule.
Rep. Jason Chaffetz, R-Utah, accuses Howard Shelanski, director of the Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs at the White House, of not forking over documents outlining his office’s involvement in the EPA Waters of the U.S. rule, despite being subpoenaed.
Chaffetz subpoenaed Shelanski nearly a year ago, four months after the first formal request was made at a hearing.
Shelanski has been cooperative, but not cooperative enough, Chaffetz said. Shelanski sent over thousands of pages of requested documents, but he still hasn’t handed over everything Chaffetz has sought.
Chaffetz introduced a resolution Wednesday night that said Shelanski in contempt of Congress for his “unwillingness and inability to work in good faith to comply with the subpoena interfered with the committee’s investigation” into the EPA’s 2015 regulation. It says the office is “withholding key documents from the committee — the volume of which is unknown except to OIRA, because Mr. Shelanski and his staff refused to provide basic information about the universe of responsive documents.”
The Waters of the U.S. rule is a prime target for Republicans, who continue to try to counter the regulation by inserting policy riders into spending bills. That has become one source of friction in the effort to pass energy and environment budget packages this year.
The water rules designate ditches and gullies on private lands as waterways, placing ranchers and farmers under the enforcement authority of the federal government. The rule is also being highly contested in the courts.
