In a significant defeat for the White House, a Senate panel yesterday voted to subpoena administration staff for information on contacts with the now-bankrupt energy firm Enron.
The subpoenas are the first served on the administration and are aimed at staff members in President George W Bush's and Vice President Dick Cheney's executive offices.
White House officials disclosed in January that former Enron chief executive Mr Ken Lay made several telephone calls to Cabinet members, including Treasury Secretary Mr Paul O'Neill and Commerce Secretary Mr Don Evans, as the giant energy trading company headed for bankruptcy last autumn.
Democratic Senators want to know why the public was not alerted to possible warning flags raised by Enron executives in the calls. The nine-eight vote by the Governmental Affairs Committee, Congress's investigative arm, followed a bitterly partisan debate.
Democratic chairman, Senator Joseph Lieberman, refused a last-minute plea from White House consul Mr Alberto Gonzales to withdraw the threat of a subpoena until the Senate committee had reviewed information to be supplied by the administration. "The clear message I've gotten from the White House is that they're not going to give us what we want," said Senator Lieberman, who has been seeking the information for two months.
Republicans accused him of unfairly giving the impression that the White House had been implicated in the Enron scandal, which hurt thousands of investors and Enron staff who lost their retirement funds. "Are we doing this to attract the attention of the public?" asked Republican Senator Thad Cochran. "It makes me very suspicious about the motivation of asking for a subpoena."
In response to a request from Senator Lieberman, the administration on April 29th asked 204 White House staffers to fill out a questionnaire on Enron.
Senator Lieberman, a potential presidential challenger to President Bush in 2004, said he wanted to determine the administration's role in the chain of events that led to the biggst bankruptcy in history. Mr Cheney had led a lengthy battle to resist demands for full disclosure of private energy contacts made by a task force he headed last year to formulate energy policy.
Democratic critics said the administration relied too heavily on advice from figures like Mr Lay, who was among President George W Bush's biggest campaign contributers.
The General Accounting Office sued the White House in February for information about contacts made by Mr Cheney's task force, which recommended more exploration and drilling, including in the Alaska wilderness. The White House has resisted the action on the grounds that the office had exceeded its authority.
