House Republicans are accusing the Obama administration of skipping out on a Tuesday hearing by not sending an agency official.
The House Natural Resources Committee had invited the Interior Department’s Bureau of Reclamation to a hearing and expected Estevan López, the agency’s commissioner, to testify at the hearing of the Subcommittee on Water, Power and Oceans.
{mosads}But the regulation on which Republicans asked López to testify — the proposed Waters of the United States rule — is being developed by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and the Army Corps of Engineers, not Reclamation.
The agency and Democrats said Republicans had no reason to ask an official to testify.
Rep. Jared Huffman (D-Calif.), the top Democrat on the subcommittee, called the GOP’s focus on the issue “empty chair theater.”
That didn’t stop Republicans from hitting the administration for skipping the hearing.
“I would again like to express my disappointment and frustration that the Bureau of Reclamation was not willing to provide our committee with a witness for proper questioning,” Rep. John Fleming (R-La.), chairman of the subcommittee, said at the hearing.
The committee mocked Reclamation on Twitter as well, with a tweet featuring a blacked-out figure of a witness with a question mark.
“REPLY with why you think @USBR refused to testify at today’s oversight hearing & watch it live,” the committee wrote.
In a statement, Rep. Rob Bishop (R-Utah), chairman of the committee, called Reclamation’s refusal to testify “stunning” and “unacceptable.”
“I would encourage the Bureau to reconsider this decision, get its head out of the sand, and actually help solve our water problems,” he said.
The lawmakers did not ask the EPA or Army Corps to send witnesses because the regulation and those agencies are not within the Natural Resources Committee’s purview.
Instead of sending a witness, Reclamation, which manages some water resources like irrigation and hydropower in the West, sent in written testimony.
“Reclamation does not have jurisdictional authority in interpreting the Clean Water Act nor implementing regulations thereunder,” it wrote. “We believe that EPA and the Corps are the appropriate entities to discuss the details of their proposed rule.”
Huffman said it would be equally ridiculous to call other agencies to testify.
“It is true that the Bureau of Reclamation, which has no authority or jurisdiction involving the Clean Water Act, which was the stated purpose of this hearing, is not here,” he said. “Neither is the Department of Defense, the Department of Homeland Security, NASA or the Veterans administration.”
A Democratic aide for the committee said that Reclamation told the entire committee last week that it would not send a witness, and accused the GOP of painting the issue as a “last-minute run for the exits.”
The Waters of the United States rule seeks to clarify the EPA’s and Army Corps’s jurisdiction over waterways. Republicans say it’s an attempt to assert federal power over ditches, puddles and many other features on private or state land.