WASHINGTON - Sen. David Vitter, R-La., and two GOP colleagues are asking a federal watchdog to look into what they view as an inadequate inspector general investigation into the editing of a report on the 2010 BP oil spill. The report, by the Department of Interior, suggested that a six-month moratorium on deep-water drilling was approved by a panel...
WASHINGTON - Sen. David Vitter, R-La., and two GOP colleagues are asking a federal watchdog to look into what they view as an inadequate inspector general investigation into the editing of a report on the 2010 BP oil spill.
Sen. David Vitter, R-La., walks to a caucus luncheon on Capitol Hill. The report, by the Department of Interior, suggested that a six-month moratorium on deep-water drilling was approved by a panel of outside experts. It wasn't and the Interior Department apologized for the mistake and quickly modified the report.
The inspector general for the Interior department issued a report saying there was no evidence to suggest the mistake was intentional, or designed to mislead the public.
But Vitter, joined by Sens. Jeff Sessions, R-Ala., and John Cornyn, R-Texas, say comments by the report's senior investigator suggest he wasn't able to get documents, or access to key White House personnel, and that references to these deficiencies were left out of the report.
They are asking Kevin Perkins, chair of the Integrity Committee of the Council of the Inspectors General on Integrity & /Efficiency, to investigate the handling of the report.
"The moratorium crushed thousands of jobs - many of which Louisiana is still suffering from - and now we're seeing extremely alarming evidence that the investigation I requested on the job-killing moratorium may not have been independent and could have involved the acting IG tampering with the facts," Vitter said. "It's pretty outrageous and offensive to know that politics seem to be likely influencing the office of the IG in addition to the science."
Aides to the acting inspector general Mary Kendall, say they stand by the investigation and the report on the Interior Department findings. And Rep. Ed Markey, D-Mass., the top Democrat on the House Natural Resources Committee, which has already voted to subpoena documents from the Interior Department and White House, said it's pretty clear the mistaken suggestion that the moratorium was backed by outside experts was a result of an early-morning editing report.
Markey's staff said a White House aide suggesting moving up a paragraph about the moratorium to an executive summary that previously included references to the outside panel of experts consulted by the Interior Department on ways to strengthen deepwater drilling regulations after the massive BP spill.
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