House Republicans on Thursday issued a subpoena for testimony to a top Department of Health and Human Services official, demanding she answer for claims by agency staff that they lack the administrative capacity to comply with congressional investigations into the origins of COVID-19.
The Oversight and Energy and Commerce Committees are demanding a transcribed interview with Assistant Sec. for Legislation Melanie Egorin, an escalation in the conflict over the panels' efforts to obtain information from the agency.
NOVEMBER TO REMEMBER: TEXAS EYES UP ITS OWN ENERGY FUND
"It is now clear that the Department under the Biden Administration, has made a deliberate decision to create a system that makes it difficult, if not impossible to respond to Congressional oversight requests," wrote the leadership of the committees in a letter jointly sent to Sec. Xavier Becerra.
The Select Subcommittee on the Coronavirus Pandemic, headed by Rep. Brad Wenstrup (R-OH), originally asked for a voluntary transcribed interview with Egorin in Feb. 2023 and renewed this request in a letter jointly sent by both Oversight and Energy and Commerce on Sept. 14.
The Sept. 14 letter truncated several of the committee's requests in the attempt to get more complete information. The committees specifically asked for communication documents between several key players at the National Institutes of Health and grant documents from the NIH and research organization EcoHealth Alliance.
On Oct. 11, nearly four weeks after the deadline, the committees received a response to the clarified inquires from Sept. 14 from the Department, which provided heavily redacted information, including names of non-governmental employees and foreign nationals, including members of the Chinese Communist Party.
Instead of insisting on an individual interview with Egorin, the committees agreed to a bipartisan meeting with HHS staff on Oct. 20 to address congressional investigations regarding COVID-19.
During the meeting, department staff informed the committees that complying with legislative oversight requests would take months due to significantly curtailed capacities in document review and retrieval processes. HHS staff revealed that they no longer use the department's Office of General Counsel to assist with oversight investigations, as was the custom in prior administrations.
The HHS staff also told the committees that the department would have to "cease all other cooperation" while compiling the answers to congressional inquiries to meet the request in the Sept. 14 letter.
"The only conceivable explanation for why the Department would deliberately cripple its ability to respond to oversight requests is that its political leadership wants to obstruct Congress," wrote the committees.
Democratic members of the select subcommittee were aware of the letter and the subpoena, but they have not responded to the Washington Examiner's request for comment.
"We have a Constitutional obligation to conduct thorough and vigorous oversight to inform legislation and improve the performance of the Department and its operating divisions," wrote the committees. "The Department exists because Congress created it and continues to fund it. It is incumbent upon the Department to cooperate with this legitimate oversight, not obstruct it."
CLICK HERE TO READ MORE FROM THE WASHINGTON EXAMINER
The subpoena requires that Egorin be present to testify before the committees on Nov. 16.
HHS has not responded to the Washington Examiner's request for comment.