Grassley, Hawley slam DHS for Redactions of Disinfo Docs
‘The people’s business ought to be public’
By
Two Republican senators this week slammed the Department of Homeland Security for what they said were overzealous redaction decisions pursuant to an oversight request made by the senators themselves.
In their letter to DHS Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas, Missouri Sen. Josh Hawley and Iowa Sen. Chuck Grassley criticized the department for its response to a request for documentation the two lodged in June of this year.
Of the two responses the senators received, they wrote, one “did not answer any of the ten questions” they originally posed, while the other consisted of “two documents already in the public domain” and “500 pages of material, approximately half of which are mostly or entirely redacted.”
“We remind you that the oversight letters we send to the Executive Branch are signed in our capacity as sitting members of Congress, a separate and co-equal branch of government,” the senators wrote.
Noting that DHS cited Freedom of Information Act disclosure privileges in making the redaction, Hawley and Grassley pointed out that FOIA provisions “do not apply to the oversight requests we submit in our capacity as constitutional officers and should not be applied to the materials that DHS produces in response to congressional requests.”
“Simply put, Congress controls when to make documents within its possession public, not DHS, and the people’s business ought to be public,” they argued.
The senators demanded that DHS provide “full and complete responses” to its earlier inquiries, as well as “a detailed description of DHS’s policy for responding to congressional oversight requests,” by Dec. 29 of this year.
___________
RELATED
Rift between McCarthy and McConnell widens over next spending bill undercutting House GOP
Congress passes defense bill nearly $45 billion over Biden’s budget request as debt climbs to $32T
House passes bill to move Puerto Rico toward ‘self-governing status’
*********
(TLB) published this article with permission of John Solomon at Just the News. Click Here to read about the staff at Just the News
Header featured image (edited) credit: Grassley, Hawley/Getty Images
Emphasis and pictorial content added by (TLB) editors
••••
••••
Stay tuned to …
••••
The Liberty Beacon Project is now expanding at a near exponential rate, and for this we are grateful and excited! But we must also be practical. For 7 years we have not asked for any donations, and have built this project with our own funds as we grew. We are now experiencing ever increasing growing pains due to the large number of websites and projects we represent. So we have just installed donation buttons on our websites and ask that you consider this when you visit them. Nothing is too small. We thank you for all your support and your considerations … (TLB)
••••
Comment Policy: As a privately owned web site, we reserve the right to remove comments that contain spam, advertising, vulgarity, threats of violence, racism, or personal/abusive attacks on other users. This also applies to trolling, the use of more than one alias, or just intentional mischief. Enforcement of this policy is at the discretion of this websites administrators. Repeat offenders may be blocked or permanently banned without prior warning.
••••
Disclaimer: TLB websites contain copyrighted material the use of which has not always been specifically authorized by the copyright owner. We are making such material available to our readers under the provisions of “fair use” in an effort to advance a better understanding of political, health, economic and social issues. The material on this site is distributed without profit to those who have expressed a prior interest in receiving it for research and educational purposes. If you wish to use copyrighted material for purposes other than “fair use” you must request permission from the copyright owner.
••••
Disclaimer: The information and opinions shared are for informational purposes only including, but not limited to, text, graphics, images and other material are not intended as medical advice or instruction. Nothing mentioned is intended to be a substitute for professional medical advice, diagnosis or treatment.
Leave a Reply