The Washington Free Beacon is reporting this morning that at the last minute, Obama administration officials declined to testify about the Office of Personnel Management (OPM) security breach to the House Armed Services Committee. Why? Because they don’t want to be “on the record.”
Officials from the OPM, Department of Homeland Security, and the Office of Management and Budget cancelled their scheduled appearance before a closed-door session of the House Armed Services Committee, citing issues with the briefing being “on the record.”
The officials were scheduled to provide information about the wide-ranging hack attack, which is considered one of the largest breaches of government data in U.S. history.
The personnel records of at least 21.5 million past and present federal employees were stolen in the attack, including records pertaining to U.S. troops and Defense Department employees.
Officials from all three agencies cancelled their testimony at the “last-minute,” according to Rep. Mac Thornberry (R., Texas), chair of the House Armed Services Committee.
Gee, do you think that they realized that they had better get their stories straight first before testifying, so they canceled?
Thornberry went on to lash out against the Obama administration for blocking Congress from performing its oversight duties.
“There is no excuse at all for being unwilling to explain on the record about how the breach happened and what we are doing to prevent another one,” the lawmaker said. “What could they possibly have to hide? What a disservice to the men and women who placed their trust in these agencies.”
The administration is blocking Congress from taking action to rectify vulnerabilities and prevent a future attack, Thornberry said.
I am sure that the administration is just dying to be held accountable for letting 22.1 million people‘s personal information be breached, along with 5.6 million people‘s fingerprint records. No one has taken responsibility for this, and OPM director Katherine Archuleta was allowed to resign back in July instead of being fired. And now administration officials don’t even want to testify, lest they get stuck under oath.
Exactly where does the buck stop in this administration?
GWB says: Admittedly, a lot of their relevant testimony is likely to be classified. So, I can understand a concern about giving that testimony in an unclassified forum. But that doesn’t seem to be the argument they’re making. They’re arguing it shouldn’t be “on the record” – which seems to mean “we prefer to not be quoted directly anywhere”.
I wonder, will they take the 5th, as pertains to their job duties and legal reporting requirements if Congress demands they appear under threat of subpoena?
I’m beginning to get pretty fed up with executive agencies and their personnel not being held accountable. I’m reaching the point of personally holding them accountable.
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