The House’s top investigator on Friday subpoenaed the White House for documents regarding the political office’s reopening amid increasing concern from the House oversight committee about the Obama administration’s abuse of tax dollars.
Rep. Darrell Issa, California Republican and chair of the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee, subpoenaed White House Chief of Staff Dennis McDonough to provide all documentation related to purpose and function of the White House Office of Political Affairs, including information regarding President Obama’s trips this summer to Minnesota and Colorado.
Mr. Issa said the concerns of impropriety heightened once former U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius and Department of Labor Secretary Hilda Solis were found to have violated laws intended to prevent the abuse of taxpayer dollars for partisan political efforts.
The White House, he said, has been uncooperative in requests for information regarding these matters, despite the committee’s attempt to accommodate the administration’s concerns about presidential communications privilege between Mr. Obama and his staff.
“The White House has acknowledged that the dialogue has been constructive and that progress has been made,” Mr. Issa wrote in a letter to Mr. McDonough. “Unfortunately, these characterizations represent the total sum of what the White House has provided in response to my good faith proposals to address the White House’s separation of powers concerns.”
• Douglas Ernst can be reached at dernst@washingtontimes.com.
Please read our comment policy before commenting.