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In a blow to the commission investigating the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks, House Speaker Dennis Hastert, R-Ill., has told the White House that he will not bring up legislation to extend the May 27 deadline for completing its report, officials said Wednesday, Reuters reported.

Hastert said granting the commission's extension request to July 26 would politicize its final report at the height of campaign season, according to a spokesman.

White House Chief of Staff Andrew Card had personally appealed to Hastert to reconsider, and the lawmaker met Wednesday with President Bush at the White House.

But the Hastert spokesman said the speaker told the White House and fellow Republicans, "It's a bad idea to extend the commission, and ... we're not going to bring any legislation up."

Despite initial objections, Bush backed the 60-day extension, and the Republican-controlled Senate is moving forward with legislation.

"He thinks the [commission's] report is overdue and we need to get the recommendations as soon as possible. He is also concerned it will become a political football if this thing is extended and it is released in the middle of the presidential campaign," said the Hastert spokesman.

Unless Congress acts, House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., warned Hastert in a letter that "important investigative work will not be done, a result clearly not in the national interest."

COMMENTS

• When you have the same party running all three branches of government this is what you get. BAD government and it will only get worse. The Republicans will never admit they did wrong. They only know how to blame Clinton and the Democrats. You voted for them and now you have to live with them. GovExec.com reader Posted March 1, 2004 7:39 AM
• It's funny how that now the White House is supposedly behind an extension that Hastert is blocking it. Politicizing the process? Could he possibly be afraid that there's a smoking gun which will blow up in Republican's faces? It's funny that when the Republicans went after Clinton in the late 90's, it wasn't political, but "for the good of the nation", but any questions that should and MUST BE ASKED of Republican leaders is only partisan tactics by the Democratic minority. I'm thankful that none of my friends or family were injured or killed in New York or at the Pentagon on 9/11. But I'm certain that if I had lost a family member, I'd be camped on the doorstep demanding that the administration comply with requests for documents and provide the non-partisan panel with what they need to conduct their investigation and provide a report to the survivors and all the American people. THIS ADMINISTRATION OWES THEM AND US NOTHING LESS. NO MATTER HOW LONG IT TAKES. GovExec.com reader Posted February 27, 2004 9:43 AM