Agreeing To Share

The White House has reached agreement with a Senate committee over access to requested environmental documents, a move that will avert what could have been the first subpoena against the Bush administration, a source close to the negotiations said Friday.

Democratic Sen. Joseph Lieberman, chairman of the Senate Governmental Affairs Committee, is attempting to determine whether there was any undue industry influence in the administration's decision to roll back environmental regulations.

His staff has been locked in negotiations with key administration officials over long-sought documents about the decisions.

The source, speaking on condition of anonymity, said the agreement would allow access to documents involved in decisions made by the Interior and Agriculture Departments and the Environmental Protection Agency shortly after President Bush took office in January.

The Connecticut senator who was the Democratic vice presidential nominee last year said he would seek subpoenas unless the administration dropped its objections and provided requested documents from the Interior and Agriculture Departments and the EPA.

During the presidency of Democrat Bill Clinton, Republicans made frequent use of subpoenas for investigations of his administration.

Lieberman said he was motivated not by politics but a desire to do his job as the head of a government oversight committee.

"I have to do what I think is right," Lieberman said in a brief interview outside the Senate chamber Thursday. "This is a very important matter for Congress and the American people."

His panel has demanded information about the Bush administration's efforts to eliminate or suspend Clinton administration regulations on the permissible level of arsenic in drinking water, road building in national forests and levels of toxic waste by companies mining in public lands.

Lieberman first requested the documents March 22, when he was ranking Democrat on the Governmental Affairs Committee.

He renewed his request June 6, a day after Vermont Sen. James Jeffords defected from the Republican Party, giving Democrats control of the Senate by a one-seat margin.

According to the Washington Post, the agencies handed over some documents to Lieberman's committee, but withheld "high-level correspondence." The White House said it was doing their best to comply.

The dispute with Lieberman's committee is one of several battles the administration is fighting over access to records.

At the request of Democratic lawmakers, the investigative arm of Congress, the General Accounting Office (GAO) has demanded that the White House release details about the task force that developed President Bush's energy policy, including who participated.

In an interview on ABC's Nightline Wednesday, Vice President Dick Cheney said he would not hand over to the GAO a list of names as a matter of principle.

Democratic Reps. John Dingell of Michigan and Henry Waxman of California asked the GAO in April to investigate the task force's members and proceedings.

Cheney said he was making a stand on an "important principle."

"The idea that any member of Congress can demand from me a list of everybody I meet with and what they say to me strikes me as inappropriate," he said.

In a separate but related battle over the task force, the conservative watchdog group Judicial Watch has filed suit against Cheney for allegedly denying the public information about the activities of the task force.

Environmental groups have also been attempting to find out the identities of the shapers of the energy plan.

The Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC) filed a Freedom of Information Act request in late April. The Department of Energy has sent some documents to the NRDC, but so far it has not revealed the identities of the plan participants.

Another dispute over records centers on presidential advisor Karl Rove, who met with energy companies while he held stock in Enron and with Intel officials while they sought merger approval and he had Intel stock. A congressman has requested a Justice Dept. probe into possible conflicts of interests. The White House says it has fully explained the meetings.

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