4:38 p.m. | Updated Tension between the top two lawmakers on the House Oversight and Government Reform committee escalated Thursday, after Representative Darrell Issa, the chairman, demonstrated once again that he won’t hesitate on his own to issue subpoenas compelling federal agencies or private companies to cooperate with his growing list of investigations.
Mr. Issa, the California Republican, issued two subpoenas this week to the Department of Homeland Security, ordering officials to answer questions in an investigation he is conducting into possible political inference in the decisions behind when the department decided to make public certain government documents.
Last week, Mr. Issa also issued a subpoena for mortgage documents from Countrywide relating to members of Congress, based on his long-standing suspicion that the company granted favorable loans to certain lawmakers to try to win their support in Washington.
The committee — which is charged with investigating wrongdoing by the federal government or private companies regulated or contracted by the government — has lately only issued subpoenas after both the chairman and the top-ranking member from the minority party agreed, or the panel itself voted, said Representative Elijah E. Cummings, Democrat of Maryland. The goal is to avoid a partisan flavor to the investigations, even before the committee issues any findings.
Mr. Cummings said that Mr. Issa, in January, had agreed to honor that standard and consult with other committee members before issuing subpoenas.
“Despite this promise, your record is now 0 for 3, and this has resulted in confused, rushed and unnecessary subpoenas,” Mr. Cummings said in a letter to Mr. Issa, which Mr. Cummings made public Thursday.
Democrats argue that with rare exception, this standard of consulting with the top minority member has been in place through at least three former chairmen, including former Republican Representative Thomas M. Davis III of Virginia. The last time a committee chairman frequently disregarded the precedent, they argue, was when Representative Dan Burton, the Indiana Republican served as chairman from 1997 to 2002. Mr. Burton issued more than 1,000 subpoenas without minority approval or a committee vote, many of them targeting the Clinton administration.
A spokesman for Mr. Issa, demonstrating the growing animosity between his office and the top Democrat, dismissed the criticism from Mr. Cummings, arguing that the three most recent former chairmen — one Republican and two Democrats — had each issued subpoenas at times without the full consent of the ranking minority member or a committee vote, an argument Mr. Issa put forth in a letter to Mr. Cummings in January.
“Another day, another complaint and more righteous indignation. What else is new?” Kurt Bardella, Mr. Issa’s spokesman, said Thursday.
The subpoenas Mr. Issa has issued, Mr. Bardella said, are critical to completing the committee’s investigations.
“Did Countrywide deliberately create a program to influence public policy by giving certain members of Congress special favors?” he said. “You really can’t answer that question until you know who was involved in that.”
Mr. Issa is not explicitly investigating members of Congress; that is up to the Ethics Committee, Mr. Bardella said. But he said the oversight committee needs to see the Countrywide documents, which is now owned by Bank of America, if it wants to get to the bottom of possible favors provided out in the form of attractive loan terms.
The subpoenas to Homeland Security relate to a suspicion by Mr. Issa that the department’s top political-appointees delayed the release of some sensitive documents requested by news reporters and civic groups critical of the agency.
Homeland Security officials had declined to cooperate with Mr. Issa’s voluntarily requests for documents or access to officials, Mr. Bardella said, issuing a timeline of requests, which included a telephone conversation last Friday with Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano.
“Chairman Issa issued the subpoenas for depositions so that the investigation could continue moving forward and we are expecting D.H.S. to fully cooperate with the committee,” Mr. Bardella said.
(A Homeland Security official Thursday disputed any suggestion that the department was not fully complying with Mr. Issa’s requests — even before the subpoena — saying it has already assigned 15 lawyers and six other staff members to address his queries and delivered more than 3,000 pages of documents).
For now, the three subpoenas still stand, and Mr. Issa, is collecting documents and testimony as he lays the groundwork for the hundreds of hearings he has said he wants to hold while he is chairman.
The dispute between the two members has already resulted in a series of letters back and forth.
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