House Panel Subpoenas
Documents On Monument

WASHINGTON — A U.S. House committee has served the White House with a subpoena demanding documents related to the secretive creation of a huge national monument in Utah last year.

President Clinton's decision to create the 1.7 million-acre Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument in Utah's picturesque canyonland has angered lawmakers from Utah, who were deliberately shut out of the process.

The documents, sought by the House Resources Committee, relate to the decision-making within the administration that led up to the president's action during the 1996 presidential campaign.

Environmental activists have long sought protection of the area, and Clinton passed his move off as an environmental decision, but questions still remain about his real motives. Critics have pointed out that the designation prevents mining of rare super-clean coal whose removal from the market would immeasurably boost the fortunes of an Asian mining conglomerate with ties to Clinton’s biggest campaign donors.

"The White House has allowed no public record whatsoever on this decision," Rep. Don Young, R-Alaska, chairman of the House committee, said in a statement.

A Resources subcommittee headed by Rep. James Hansen, R-Utah, for months has had a running battle with the president's Council on Environmental Quality over the release of internal documents related to the monument decision.

The White House has turned more than 100 documents over to the House panel, but the subpoena covers 27 documents which the White House has allowed committee members of see, but not copy. Seven of those documents were recently turned over to the committee, but the White House claims the other 20 are protected communications.

Kathleen McGinty, head of the Council on Environmental Quality, told Young in a letter that committee staff and members could review the 20 documents at "whatever time and place is convenient and for however long is necessary."

Such a hollow offer, said Young, "precludes the in-depth analysis and multiple uses required by the committee."

Joe Lockhart, White House deputy press secretary, said no decision has been made on whether to fight the subpoena.

"There's no issue of trying to hide anything," claimed Lockhart. "These are internal communications and there are issues of confidentiality and executive privilege."