Interior Department hides witnesses from Congress

Rep. Jon Porter of Nevada wants to know why three scientists working on the Yucca Mountain nuclear waste dump discussed fabricating data and hiding facts from officials. And the Interior Department won't tell him.

Rep. Porter's Government Reform federal work force and agency organization subcommittee has been investigating a series of e-mails, written between 1998 and 2000, in which three scientists with the Interior Department's U.S. Geological Survey appear to indicate that safety data were faked. The subcommittee would like the three scientists to testify before the panel. The Interior Department said Friday it will not permit that to happen.

Oh, really?

Whether the Bush administration likes it or not, the Congress has oversight over the executive branch, and if the Congress wants to talk to the scientists, the Congress has the constitutional authority to talk to the scientists.

The book to read on this subject is Raoul Berger's Executive Privilege: A Constitutional Myth.

Let me give you the short version while you wait for Amazon to ship it to you.

The Constitution gives Congress the power to impeach the president, it doesn't give the president the power to remove members of Congress. Inherent in the power to impeach is the power to investigate.

The Interior Department said Friday it is investigating the scientists itself, and that's why it won't let Congress talk to them.

But if an executive branch department can prevent Congress from investigating it simply by launching its own 'investigation,' then the executive branch has stripped away from Congress a power that the Constitution explicitly granted to Congress.

And if the executive branch can do that, what can't they do?

And if there's nothing the executive branch can't do, we're completely off the notes and living under a government with no restraints at all on its power, which means no guarantee at all of our freedom.



Copyright 2005 by Susan Shelley