GOP chairman tells agencies to exclude info from FOIA requests

A House GOP chairman has instructed a dozen government agencies not to turn over communications with his panel as part of Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) requests, The Associated Press reported Friday.

House Financial Services Committee Chairman Jeb Hensarling (R-Texas) argued in one letter to Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin last month that the communications did not fall under “agency records.”

“All such documents and communications constitute congressional records not ‘agency records’ for purposes of the Freedom of Information Act, and remain subject to congressional control even when in the physical possession of the Agency,” he wrote.

The letter to Mnuchin was first reported by BuzzFeed News. The AP obtained additional letters to agencies under Hensarling’s jurisdiction: the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, the Federal Emergency Management Agency and the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation.

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FOIA requests allow journalists, government watchdogs and others to petition executive branch agencies for documents, communications and other information. Congress is exempt from the law’s disclosure requirements.

But in his letters, Hensarling argued that his committee’s communications with the agencies could contain “sensitive and confidential” information and should remain in Congress’ control, thus excluding them the open records law.

The top Democrat on the Financial Services Committee, Rep. Maxine Waters (Calif.), told the AP that Hensarling has long made “intrusive and aggressive demands of agencies.”

“Anytime he’s called on it, he says that Congress has the right to conduct oversight,” she said. “And while Congress does have that right, it is the height of hypocrisy for him to take such extraordinary measures to shield himself from the oversight of the American public.”

A spokesman for the Financial Services Committee said that the courts have long recognized that Congress’ oversight role may be threatened should agencies not keep congressional records confidential.