Dear Mr. Chairman:

Over the last year, the Department of the Interior has undertaken continual, significant and good-faith efforts to respond to the Committee on Natural Resources' requests for information related to the Department's ongoing Stream Protection Rule rulemaking process to the extent possible. The Department has done this even though the Committee's requests directly implicate the Executive Branch's long-recognized interest in preserving the confidentiality of ongoing deliberations. The Department has provided to the Committee more than 13,000 pages of documents as well as additional information, briefings, testimony, and in camera review of other documents, all of which has been directly responsive to specific Committee requests while preserving the integrity of the Executive Branch's deliberative process. Rather than continuing to work cooperatively with the Department on appropriate accommodations, the Committee has unfortunately issued a subpoena that in large part demands the disclosure of documents central to the Department's ongoing deliberations, including new requests for preliminary drafts of rulemaking documents.

Read the entire letter HERE.