WASHINGTON , June 25 —Dick Cheney has declined to identify the people
who met privately with his
energy task force, raising tensions with Congressional investigators
who have repeatedly requested the information.
The General Accounting Office, an investigative arm of Congress, sent
Mr. Cheney's office a letter late last week
complaining that a month had passed since it first submitted an inquiry
about the workings of the task force.
The letter said the vice president had a legal obligation to provide
the information immediately.
Mr. Cheney's office said the letter was sent one day after it submitted
77 pages of documents to the accounting office.
"Our correspondence crossed in the mail," said Juleanna Glover Weiss,
a spokeswoman for Mr. Cheney.
But Ms. Weiss said the vice president had not provided the names of
people, including industry executives, who may have influenced the formation
of the Bush administration's energy policy, which was released last month.
"Our counsel and the G.A.O. will continue to talk about this," Ms.
Weiss said.
The energy task force Mr. Cheney headed spent several months compiling a lengthy energy strategy that contained about 150 recommendations for administrative and legislative actions to address what it termed an energy crisis.
Administration officials have said that they met with a wide variety
of people concerned about energy issues, including executives of oil, natural
gas, electricity, nuclear power and energy infrastructure companies. They
have declined to provide
a list of people who had access to the task force.
Some Democrats have asserted that leading Republican donors had special
access to the task force and that the energy
policy is skewed toward measures favored by major corporations. Two
Democratic representatives, Henry A. Waxman
of California and John D. Dingell of Michigan, asked the accounting
office to report on the officials who served on the
task force, what information was collected by the panel, whom they
met with and how much the task force spent.
The White House provided the G.A.O. with the financial records of the task force. But administration officials have told the investigative body that they are not compelled to provide the names of outsiders who met with the task force.
The accounting office's general counsel, Anthony H. Gamboa, said in a letter to Mr. Cheney's office last week that the investigative body is entitled to more information.
The letter warned that if the White House does not provide the full range of information the G.A.O. is seeking, it may issue a "demand letter," a more formal request. Under the law, the White House would have 20 days to respond.
If the dispute continues, the accounting office could bring a civil
action against the administration.