Bush Staffers Get Enron Quiz

White House Counsel Al Gonzales has asked more than 100 staff members to complete a questionnaire on communications between the administration and Enron Corp. in the months leading up to the company's collapse.

The White House undertook the survey at the request of Sen. Joe Lieberman, D-Conn., chairman of the Senate Governmental Affairs Committee. But his spokeswoman said the survey was "unacceptable."

Lieberman wrote to White House chief of staff Andrew Card on March 27, "The rapid collapse of what was once ranked as the nation's seventh largest company demands public scrutiny." His committee plans to probe how regulators acted in the days leading up to the implosion of Enron Corp., the largest U.S. bankruptcy ever, and what might have been done to avert it.

Before its spectacular failure, the company spent heavily on lobbying efforts to deregulate electricity markets, to limit efforts to regulate financial derivatives trading and to seek government funds and logistics help for various overseas projects.

Lieberman sought information on White House and certain Cabinet agency action regarding Enron dating from just before the end of the first Bush administration in 1992. Lieberman sent similar letters to two Cabinet secretaries and chiefs of agencies dealing with energy and shares trading.

Gonzales' questionnaire fell far short of what Lieberman sought.

Lieberman wanted identities of people who initiated meetings with Enron officials, who was present, the subject matter, dates and a host of other details.

"This is an obvious delaying tactic," Lieberman spokeswoman Leslie Phillips said of the White House action, and "unacceptable" to omit two subjects from the questionnaire: national energy policy and presidential appointments.

"They should at least be searching for the information," she said. "This is an attempt to avoid any meaningful oversight. It continues a pattern of refusing to disclose information to the American public."

Gonzales' three-page questionnaire instructs staff members - assistants, deputy assistants and special assistants to both the president and vice president - for simple yes or no answers.

A third possible answer is "I'd like to discuss."

"We are not asking for further explanation at this time," Gonzales wrote in the cover page. "Instead, depending on your answers, the Counsel's office may contact you to obtain additional information."

Phillips said using yes-or-no answers is "totally insufficient."

Gonzales set a May 10 deadline for returning the completed forms. Lieberman had sought a response from Card by April 12.

Certain individuals from the president's Council of Economic Advisers, Council on Environmental Quality, Office of Management and Budget and U.S. Trade Representative also were sent the survey.

According to a copy of the survey released by the White House, administration officials will be asked whether Enron came to them "for help of any kind in connection with the company's financial difficulties" between Jan. 20, 2001 and Dec. 2, 2001.

The survey also asks officials whether they had "any communications with Enron" regarding the Securities and Exchange Commission, the Commodities Futures Trading Commission, the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission, the Labor Department, the Commerce Department, the Energy Department, the Overseas Private Investment Corp., or the Export-Import Bank of the United States.

The survey also asks whether they had "any communications relating to Enron with any official or employee" of the SEC and other federal departments and agencies.

"The White House is cooperating with the committee, and we intend to provide appropriate and responsive information," Gonzales said in a memorandum.