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| Home Front: Politix |
| GAO: White House broke law in talks with China |
| 2011-10-12 |
| GAO Says White House Broke the Law by Holding Science Meetings With China by Jeffrey Mervis on 12 October 2011, 2:45 PM | 0 Comments Email Print | More Previous Article Enlarge Image Constitutional conflict. White House science adviser John Holdren (left) is under attack by Representative Frank Wolf (R-VA) for meetings with Chinese officials. Credit: (Left to Right) White House Office of Science and Technology Policy; U.S. House of RepresentativesThe watchdog agency for Congress has sided with an influential House of Representatives Republican in his attempt to block bilateral scientific exchanges with China. But the Obama Administration insists that Congress has overstepped its authority. The Government Accountability Office (GAO) issued a report yesterday that says the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy (OSTP) has violated a provision in a 2011 spending bill that prohibits OSTP and NASA from using any money for such exchanges. The appropriations bill became law in April, and the GAO report examines a series of May meetings in Washington, D.C., between U.S. and Chinese officials, including OSTP Director John Holdren, aimed in part at removing barriers to scientific collaboration between the two countries. "OSTP's participation in the Innovation Dialogue and the Strategic and Economic Dialogue contravened the appropriations restriction," concludes GAO General Counsel Lynn Gibson in an 11 October letter to Representative Frank Wolf (R-VA). Wolf, a staunch critic of China, authored the language and chairs the appropriations panel that sets the budget for both OSTP and NASA. Gibson notes that OSTP has also violated a law barring federal employees from exceeding their agency's annual budget—in other words, since OSTP was given no money for such activities, it had none to spend. OSTP doesn't deny that the meetings occurred and, in fact, estimates that it spent $3500 participating in activities that included hosting a dinner for Chinese officials. But ever since the spending bill was passed, it has maintained that Wolf's language unduly restricts the president's ability to conduct foreign policy, one of his duties under the U.S. Constitution. |
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