The House Foreign Affairs Committee sent a subpoena to the Office of Management and Budget Wednesday over the State Department’s plan to build a new facility in Virginia.
The subpoena, sent to OMB Director Shaun Donovan by Rep. Ed Royce, gives the agency until 5 p.m. Tuesday to reply with the requested materials.
Royce, the California Republican who chairs the panel, wants the OMB to turn over information relating to the State Department’s plan to build a Foreign Affairs Security Training Center in Blackstone, Virginia. The center was originally estimated to cost $950 million, but was reduced to $907 million and then $460 million. But the State Department said those costs could balloon again.
“In an increasingly dangerous world, the security of U.S. diplomats abroad is paramount. We must ensure that our diplomats receive improved security training, and a big part of providing that training effectively is making the most of our limited resources,” Royce said in a statement. “That is why for nearly a year, I’ve been asking OMB to provide the Committee with its analysis, which according to OMB officials’ statements to Committee staff, recommended using an existing facility — a course that the Administration has apparently chosen to ignore. I’d like to know the factors considered in this important decision.”
Royce asked then-OMB Director Sylvia Burwell in May 2014 to provide the committee with a copy of OMB’s analysis of whether funding the new facility was justified. In May 2015, Royce reiterated his request to Donovan, expanding it to include all “documents and communications” pertaining to the new facility as well as the old facility in Georgia.
OMB has yet to comply.
“The internal documents underlying this analysis should tell us how and why OMB arrived at its decision. In light of OMB’s continued refusal, I am left with no choice but to issue this subpoena,” Royce said Thursday.
