A local congressman is demanding answers about a White House agency’s apparent violation of the law. Despite repeated attempts, he’s come up empty.
The White House Office of Science and Technology Policy, according to a recent report from earlier this month, violated a provision of this year’s federal government spending law by hosting technology dialogues with the government of communist China. The report prompted Rep. Frank Wolf, R-Va., to question OSTP about the agency’s actions and whether they would come into full compliance with the law.
Originally, OSTP director John Holdren had promised Wolf an answer by the close of business on October 12. Rick Weiss, a spokesman for the office, told The Washington Examiner that “OSTP will be responding to Mr. Wolf.”
“When we spoke on the phone earlier in the day, I asked for a response by the close of business,” Wolf wrote in an Oct. 13 letter, “and you informed me that I could expect to hear back from you or the White House counsel. I heard from neither.”
Wolf told Holdren that he was referring the issue to Attorney General Eric Holder.
“There’s been nothing since then,” Dan Scandling, a spokesman for Wolf, told me yesterday.
OSTP has disputed the GAO finding of lawbreaking. A memorandum written by Assistant Attorney General Virginia Seitz defends the meetings as a constitutional exercise of the president’s diplomatic authority.
When asked if OSTP would report the violation to the Speaker of the House and others as recommended by GAO, Weiss said, “We are going to respond to that as well, we’re not just going to ignore that [GAO] recommendation.” He added that the “letter will express our view of what really happened.”
Wolf and Dr. Holdren will testify during a hearing by the House Subcommittee on Oversight and Investigations, related to “Efforts to Transfer America’s Leading Edge Science to China,” on November 2nd.
