Politics

House to give Obama oil spill panel subpoena power

Jon Ward Contributor
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House Democrats are planning to vote Wednesday on giving subpoena power to the independent commission established by President Obama to investigate the oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico.

“If we want to get to the bottom of why this happened … we need to have full disclosure of the information,” said House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer, Maryland Democrat.

“In order for them to have the authority look at this and determine what happened, we believe that subpoena power is necessary,” he said.

Obama established the oil spill commission earlier this month.

Hoyer told reporters he expects the measure to pass the House and hopes that it can get through the Senate. He said the apology by Texas Republican Rep. Joe Barton to BP Chief Executive Tony Hayward last week make it more likely to be approved in the House.

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