Crandall Canyon disaster: Labor Department balks at subpoena

[Omaha Steve]

http://www.sltrib.com/news/ci_7101495

By Thomas Burr

WASHINGTON - The Labor Department on Friday said it would cost millions of dollars and take months of work to comply with a House committee's subpoena seeking records related to the Crandall Canyon mine disaster.

Plus, the department said, providing the requested documents would break a "long-standing" agreement between Congress and the executive branch not to seek internal communications because such disclosures could stifle candid debate.

The Labor Department's acting solicitor general, Jonathan Snare, wrote committee chairman George Miller, D-Calif., on Friday saying the department was "surprised and disappointed" by the subpoena and accusations that the department was stonewalling the committee's investigation.

"This was a disturbing development," Snare wrote of the subpoena issued Sept. 24, adding that the department has turned over nearly 15,000 pages of documents in less than 30 days since the committee's first request.

Miller's committee - which this week heard testimony from family members of the nine miners and rescue crew members killed at the Crandall Canyon tragedy - is conducting one of three congressional probes looking into the disaster in rural Utah and mine safety nationwide. Miller had complained that the Labor Department was not complying with his demands and gave the department until Tuesday to turn over a slew of records.

FULL story at link.

[Hepburn]

1. My bullshit meter went off the scale on this one.

Sooooooo...how any documents are we talking about if it would take $1-million to do the copy work?

Hello????