Congressman Doug Lamborn (CO-05) today offered a motion in the House Natural Resources Committee to authorize the Committee Chairman to issue subpoenas for the production of documents relating to two long-running oversight investigations.

The investigations relate to the Obama Administration’s rewrite of a coal production regulation and why an Obama Administration report that recommended a six-month drilling moratorium in the Gulf of Mexico was edited to make it appear as though the moratorium was supported by a panel of engineering experts when in fact it was not.

“The Interior Department has repeatedly missed deadlines and has failed to turn over the vast majority of requested documents.The documents will help us get to the bottom of decisions made by this administration that have directly cost Americans jobs and access to domestic energy resources on public lands.

"I want to know if  the Department of the Interior is trying to mislead the American people about the administration’s disastrous energy policy.  – Doug Lamborn (CO-05)

To read Congressman Lamborn's comments on his motion to authorize a subpoena, click here.

In the investigation, specific document requests have been made to the Department of the Interior.  The Department has not met a single deadline for producing all of the requested information and continues to withhold the vast majority of requested materials.  

This includes over 30 hours of digital audio recordings of meetings and conversations between the Department and contractors regarding rewrite of the coal production regulation.

The Department has also intervened to block the Acting Inspector General from providing 13 separate documents to the Committee that were collected during its investigation into the edits recommending the six-month drilling moratorium.

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