Waxman Challenges Cheney On Whether VP Has To Turn Over Documents To National Archives

Vice President Dick Cheney has prevented his office records from going to the National Archives, as required by federal law, according to House Oversight and Government Reform Committee Chairman Henry Waxman (D-Calif.). Waxman is now challenging the legality and rationale behind Cheney's decision in a letter sent to the vice president today.

According to Waxman, Cheney's office has refused since 2004 to allow the Information Security Oversight Office, a department within the National Archives, to conduct an on-site inspection of how classified material is handled there, as it is authorized to do under an executive order issued by  President Bush. Cheney's office also stopped supplying data the Information Security Oversight Office on its classification and declassification procedures in 2003.

Waxman said that Cheney's office claims is not an entity within the executive branch and therefore not covered by the executive branch.