GovernmentExecutive.com

The House Oversight and Government Reform Committee Wednesday passed a bill that would boost the Government Accountability Office's power to examine the executive branch through steps that include a legislative remedy to a court ruling that said the congressional auditing agency lacks the legal authority to sue for information about Vice President Dick Cheney's energy task force.

Introduced by Oversight and Government Reform Committee Chairman Henry Waxman, D-Calif., and co-sponsored by all of the House's Democratic committee chairmen, the measure repudiates a 2003 district court finding in Walker v. Cheney by giving GAO the right to pursue civil action against federal agencies to obtain information.

In 2001, then-Comptroller General David Walker sought to obtain records on who Cheney's task force met with in formulating the Bush administration's energy policy -- an effort backed by Waxman and Energy and Commerce Chairman John Dingell, D-Mich.

The bill, which passed by voice vote, includes several White House-opposed provisions that Democrats removed last month from a separate GAO bill to allow the House to pass the measure under suspension rules, which require a two-thirds majority.

Those include provisions giving GAO authority to interview federal employees under oath and to obtain information that three agencies assert is proprietary.

Specifically, the bill affirms that GAO can review FTC premerger reviews, records FDA considers trade secrets, and proprietary information on Medicare drug prices held by Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services. Those provisions have drawn opposition to the bill from pharmaceutical companies.

In a nod to industry concerns, the committee approved an amendment offered by Oversight and Government Reform ranking member Tom Davis, R-Va., instructing the comptroller general to create policies to avoid public disclosure of proprietary or trade secret information obtained from the agencies.

With the White House opposing many of the bill's provisions and the absence of any companion bill in the Senate, odds of the legislation becoming law this year appear long, but Democratic staffers said they are pushing for passage in this Congress. A spokesman said GAO had consulted with the committee and "appreciates efforts to enhance the agency's ability to access information that allows us do our work."