Not smart, Mr. Inhofe. You could set a precedent.
Quote of note:
The funding, Wheeler said, "goes to who they're speaking for."
I have no problem ceding the committee authority to examine anything legitimately in their purview, but the environment and public works don't involve any process that can be validated or disproved by the balance sheet of its champion. The Environment and Public Works Committee should have no power to examine anyone's finances or taxes at all. There's probably a committee somewhere in the Senate that I could be convinced should have the ability to make such requests. But Mr. Imhofe seems to think such demands are a perk of being a Senator or committee chairman and that's just not the case...if any committee can do anything any committee can do, the Department of Education would have the same powers as authorities as the Department of War. Defense. You know what I mean.
But I'm half inclined to accept this overreach in return for their recognizing "who they're speaking for" is a legitimate concern. In these days of organizations named specifically to mislead constituents about the organization's positions (The Alliance for Worker Retirement Security, Black America's PAC and the Center for the Study of Popular Culture leap to mind) I think probing their financial and tax records would bring all manner of fascinating things to light.
Anyway...
Opponents of 'Clear Skies' Bill Examined
The GOP sponsor of legislation championed by Bush asks two groups to turn over financial records. One official calls it intimidation.
By Alan C. Miller and Tom Hamburger
Times Staff Writers
February 19, 2005
WASHINGTON The chairman of a Senate committee that oversees environmental issues has directed two national organizations that oppose President Bush's major clean-air initiative to turn over their financial and tax records to the Senate.
Sen. James M. Inhofe (R-Okla.), who heads the Environment and Public Works Committee, asked for the documents 10 days after a representative of the two groups criticized Bush's "Clear Skies" proposal before a Senate subcommittee. Inhofe is the leading sponsor of the administration bill, which is deadlocked in his panel.
The executive director of the two organizations, which represent state and local air pollution control agencies and officials, charged that the request was an attempt to intimidate critics of the measure.
Democratic senators on Inhofe's committee also were dismayed by his action, but declined to say so publicly because they were in the midst of sensitive negotiations with the chairman on the legislation, staffers said.
The committee's majority staff director, Andrew Wheeler, said the request for the groups' documents did not stem from their criticism of the legislation. He said the panel wanted to determine whether the groups represented only regulators' views or whether they also were subsidized by outside interests, including environmentalists or foundations.
