Jeff Bingaman: “on July 24, the chairman of the Committee on Energy and Natural Resources, brought before the Senate a report on…”

“on July 24, the chairman of the Committee on Energy and Natural Resources, brought before the Senate a report on payments made by the Project on Government Oversight, a public interest group commonly called ``POGO,'' to two federal employees. Unfortunately, the chairman referred to the report in his remarks as a ``committee report.'' It is not, and I think we need to set the record straight on that point. The rules of the Senate give the Committee on Energy and Natural Resources, like all our standing committees, broad authority to ``make investigations into any matter within its jurisdiction.'' But the power to make investigations rests with the Committee as a whole. It is not vested in the chairman or any one Senator. In January, at the chairman's request, the Comptroller General detailed an employee of the General Accounting Office, Mr. Paul Thompson, to the committee to conduct a ``preliminary inquiry'' into the payments. In February, the chairman informed the committee that the inquiry was underway and that he would ``make recommendations'' to the committee ``as soon as we have something tangible.'' The chairman has leapt from ``preliminary inquiry'' to a final report without any intervening action or consideration by the committee. The committee never authorized Mr. Thompson's investigation and it never approved his report. I first learned about it after the chairman posted it on the Internet.”