House Republicans subpoenaed federal agencies Wednesday for withholding documents in a congressional investigation into last year’s Gold King Mine blowout caused by the Environmental Protection Agency.
The blowout released 3 million gallons of toxic sludge into the waterways of three states.
The subpoenas were sent by members of the House Natural Resources Committee, requesting documents from the Department of Interior and the Army Corps of Engineers that had been withheld from the committee becaused they posed concerns for the Obama administration.
“Prior to providing the documents to the committee, the Department of Interior counsel expressed the view that some of the documents should be withheld entirely or partially (redacted) as they may ‘represent important executive branch confidentiality interest,'” according to a memo sent by the Army Corps to the Interior Department, obtained alongside the subpoena by the Washington Examiner. The documents withheld from the last batch sent to the committee in response to its investigation were from the Army Corps.
The subpoena was sent Wednesday in response to the missing documents.
The subpoena asks for dozens of emails between the Army Corps, Interior and other officials. It directs Interior Secretary Sally Jewell to produce complete, unredacted copies of all records by Feb. 26.
The committee’s top Democrat, Rep. Raul Grijalva of Arizona, blasted the subpoena as an unnecessary move by Republicans.
“Once again the Republicans have gone out of their way to protect irresponsible corporate polluters and investigate the investigators for doing their jobs,” Grijalva said. “If the majority would agree to so much as a debate about the need for polluter-pays mining laws, we’d be on the road to preventing spills like the Gold King incident. Instead they’re throwing mud at the Obama administration, just like they always do.”
