GAO vs. Cheney
The General Accounting Office files suit.

January 30, 2002 5:20 p.m.

he word in Washington was that David Walker, head of the General Accounting Office, would wait until after the State of the Union address to announce that he plans to sue Vice President Dick Cheney for information about outsiders who were consulted by Cheney's energy task force as it created the national energy policy. The word was right; Walker gave the administration a 16-hour reprieve before announcing the lawsuit.

"All of our attempts to reach a reasoned and reasonable accommodation, including reducing the scope of our request, have been rebuffed," Walker says in a detailed and combative statement released Wednesday afternoon. "This will be the first time that GAO has filed suit to enforce our access rights against a federal official."

Walker's statement confirms that the GAO was preparing to go to court in the days preceding September 11, but decided to hold off to avoid interfering with the administration in the days following the terrorist attacks. Walker also says the recent decision by four Democratic senators to support the GAO's request — among those senators were Government Affairs Committee chairman Joseph Lieberman and Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations chairman Carl Levin, the two lead investigators of the Enron affair — played an important role in the GAO's decision to go ahead. "The recent bankruptcy of Enron has served to increase congressional interest in energy policy, in general, and [task force] activities, in particular," Walker writes. "This, plus the Senate's expected consideration of comprehensive energy legislation this session, reinforces the need for the information we requested concerning the development of the National Energy Policy proposal."

Although Walker insists the GAO is "only seeking limited information" about the task force, recent statements by Lieberman and Levin suggest that much more is at stake. "Who helped shape the administration's energy policy?" the senators asked in a recent letter to Walker. "How did participants get invited and what interests did they represent? What did they recommend? What changes did they request? The American public deserves answers to these questions."

For now at least, there is no indication that Cheney is inclined to negotiate any sort of settlement with the GAO. The vice president, and the president himself, have insisted that there is an important legal principle at stake. "This is part of how you make decisions, to call people in and say, 'What's your opinion,'" the president said on Monday. "And in order for me to be able to get good, sound opinions, those who offer me opinions, or offer the vice president opinions, must know that every word they say is not going to be put into the public record....We're not going to let the ability for us to discuss matters between ourselves to become eroded."

What remains unclear, however, is whether the White House might be inclined to negotiate with a Senate committee, should Lieberman, Levin, or some other chairman move to subpoena the information. So far in its dispute with the GAO, the White House has not asserted executive privilege (rather, it contends that the GAO simply does not have the authority to demand such information). Whether the president would assert the privilege against a Senate committee is not known.

What is clear is that a number of Republicans on Capitol Hill are dismayed by the White House stance. They know that Democrats plan to use the Cheney matter against them in upcoming debate over an energy bill — This bill was written in secret sessions with lobbyists from Big Oil! — and they are not particularly enthusiastic about supporting the White House on the issue of secrecy. In fact, it appears to some observers that Cheney's position is so politically unwise that it must be the result of an actual belief in principles, and not political calculation — something that leaves Republicans on Capitol Hill feeling both refreshed and uneasy.