A new Trump administration policy to ignore information requests from members and senators unless they come from committee or subcommittee chairs has angered Hill Democrats, Politico reports.
According to the Democrats, this is all“a part of a broader pattern by the White House, designed to make the executive branch less responsive to Congress”.
From refusing to release White House visitor logs to scrubbing agency websites of health and safety data and refusing to responding to simple media requests on government operations, the Trump administration has made it harder for Democrats and the press to find out what is going on inside the White House and federal agencies, Politico writes.
“Every member of Congress represents hundreds of thousands of American citizens who expect their representatives in the House and Senate to fulfill their duty under the Constitution to act as a check on the executive branch in order to promote the proper functioning of federal agencies and departments,” said Democrat representative Elijah Cummings, ranking member on the Oversight and Government Reform Committee.
“We cannot do our jobs if the Trump administration adopts this unprecedented new policy of refusing to provide any information to Congress unless a request is backed by the implicit threat of a subpoena. This has never been the standard for responding to congressional inquiries — and it should not take the threat of a subpoena to pry information free from this administration”, he added.
However, White House officials say they are not obliged to respond to any requests from individual lawmakers, or those that do not come through a committee.
“’Oversight’ is a constitutional power which Congress exercises through its established committees and their chairmen. This legal advice provides much needed clarity to the executive branch so that the administration can ensure resources are effectively dedicated to accommodating authorized congressional oversight requests and responding to non-oversight requests, independent of the political party of the requester”, Lindsay Walters, a White House spokeswoman said.
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