The House Natural Resources Committee voted Wednesday to give Chairman Raúl Grijalva (D-Ariz.) the power to subpoena the Department of the Interior after Republicans scored a significant win that limited the chair’s power.
The 21 to 15 party-line vote represents a new chapter in the committee’s ongoing battle to gain a number of documents from Interior, as Grijalva will now be able to compel them.
“This stonewalling needs to end,” Grijalva told members, saying Interior had treated the committee’s oversight authority with a “cavalier attitude.”
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“This committee has to establish itself as a coequal. We’re not here as house plants to be cared for and watered when the administration decides it’s time,” Grijalva said.
Some of the first subpoenas that might be issued by the committee include those seeking documents on the controversial relocation of the Bureau of Land Management and those on Interior Secretary David Bernhardt’s connections to former clients.
But with the adoption of a hard-fought amendment from Republicans, Grijalva will have to alert Ranking Member Rob Bishop
Robert (Rob) William BishopOvernight Energy: Trump credits economic progress to environmental rollbacks | Vote to subpoena Interior delayed by prayer breakfast | Dems hit agency for delaying energy efficiency funds Vote to subpoena Interior delayed by Trump prayer breakfast Overnight Energy: Sanders, Ocasio-Cortez bill would outlaw fracking | Emails show weather service employees frustrated by 'Sharpiegate' | House panel schedules vote to subpoena Interior MORE (R-Utah) about any subpoena he seeks, and members would be able to request a vote on subpoenas before they are issued.
That may matter little to Bernhardt, who tweeted that Interior has already provided thousands of pages of documents to the committee.
“Today’s action by the House Natural Resources Committee demonstrates they won’t let the facts stand in the way of their rhetoric. Going forward, the department will take today’s action into account for every decision it makes to deal with this committee. Godspeed with the witch hunt,” he tweeted.
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While Interior has boasted of its good working relationship with members, the committee says the department has completed just two of its 26 requests, with the rest marked incomplete or nonresponsive.
Members have expressed bipartisan irritation at delays in getting documents, including at a hearing during which monitors flashed heavily redacted documents produced by Interior.
Grijalva has been weighing subpoena power for months, saying in September he would begin to more seriously pursue backing from fellow Democrats.
“To continue the same practice where this committee is essentially ignored, where the majority’s requests are ignored, and when witnesses come ill-prepared and without information and then information that's requested at a meeting in public is not forthcoming, those began to accumulate. We have reached the accumulation point, my friends,” Grijalva said during Wednesday’s mark up.
But Republicans cautioned against approving a subpoena resolution that would place so much power in the chair’s hands, arguing it could trample minority rights and hurt Democrats down the line.
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“Rules aren’t the only things that change. Majorities change. These days they change quite often. ... And a year from now, you may be facing a Republican chairman using this new authority and issuing subpoenas without consulting you,” said Rep. Tom McClintock
Thomas (Tom) Milller McClintockOvernight Energy: Sanders, Ocasio-Cortez bill would outlaw fracking | Emails show weather service employees frustrated by 'Sharpiegate' | House panel schedules vote to subpoena Interior Natural Resources Committee schedules vote to subpoena Interior Overnight Energy: Top EPA political staffer leaves for coal lobby | House committee gears up for vote to subpoena Interior | EPA re-approves key Roundup chemical MORE (R-Calif.).
“You may find subpoenas being issued to every left-wing NGO, green energy crony capitalist, every ideological zealot in the bureaucracy with no opportunity for you to question or protest. I can’t say I find that prospect altogether unappealing,” he said. “But before you vote, you might want to consider Clint Eastwood's famous question: 'Do you feel lucky?' ”
--This report was updated at 1:16 p.m.
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