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Congress to subpoena White House over Enron contacts

A Senate committee on Wednesday authorised the first congressional subpoenas to the Bush White House, part of an effort to obtain information on government contacts with now-bankrupt energy giant Enron Corp.

In a 9-8 vote along party lines, the Senate Governmental Affairs Committee approved a request for subpoenas by its chairman, Sen Joseph Lieberman, a Connecticut Democrat and potential 2004 election challenger to President George W Bush.

A Lieberman aide said the subpoenas, one each to the offices of Bush and Cheney, would go out later on Wednesday.

The White House was "perplexed" by the committee's "confrontational" approach, spokeswoman Anne Womack said. Officials would review the subpoena before deciding how to respond, she said, but the White House still intended to hand over an initial batch of information later on Wednesday.

Lieberman's committee first requested the White House contact information in March, saying it wanted to determine the federal government's role in the chain of events that led to the collapse of Enron, a major Bush campaign donor.

But starting early this month, Lieberman has expressed increasing concern that the White House is dragging its feet in gathering the information despite an exchange of letters and meetings with White House officials.

"This back and forth has continued, which has ultimately frustrated the committee's work and exhausted my patience," Lieberman told the committee ahead of the vote.

The ranking Republican on Lieberman's committee, Sen Fred Thompson, said the subpoena request was premature and overly broad.

"There has been no indication that the executive office of the president has had any involvement in any of these matters," said Thompson. "It did not regulate Enron's business in any way and it was not responsible in any way, shape or form for monitoring Enron's financial condition."

Enron, once the world's biggest energy trader, filed a record bankruptcy on December 2 amid revelations of losses from off-the-books partnerships.

Before its spectacular failure, the company spent heavily on lobbying efforts to deregulate electricity markets and to limit efforts to regulate financial derivatives trading. It also sought government assistance for various overseas projects.

A White House official has said if a subpoena were issued it would be a first for the Bush White House.

The General Accounting Office, the audit arm of Congress, sued the White House in February seeking to learn about energy industry meetings with the energy policy task force headed by Vice President Dick Cheney. The administration has asked a judge to dismiss that case, saying the GAO has overstepped its authority.

White House counsel Alberto Gonzales on Tuesday sent a letter to Lieberman asking him to withdraw the threat to issue a subpoena, saying the administration was working to comply with the committee's request.

Gonzales said the White House was gathering and reviewing documents, electronic mail and visitor records and was willing to expand a survey of White House staff about any Enron contacts.

But Gonzales' letter to Lieberman balked at a committee demand for extensive documents on the issue, calling it "premature" and saying any such documents must be reviewed to ensure they do not compromise protected presidential decision-making processes.

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