The Interior Department's inspector general is planning to testify this week before the House Natural Resources Committee on her investigation into the agency's decision to halt deepwater drilling after the Gulf of Mexico oil spill.

The hearing is the latest in the panel's probe into whether officials purposely altered a 2010 report that erroneously stated that a panel of scientists supported the moratorium. Chairman Doc Hastings (R-Wash.) canceled a hearing last week on the issue after he said Interior refused to make five officials available for questioning (E&E Daily , July 25).

But there will be no such problem when it comes to acting IG Mary Kendall. A spokesman from her office said last week that she "definitely" plans on being there.

"She's looking forward to it," he said.

Kendall may be eager to publicly defend her impartiality in the wake of Republican accusations that she helped draft the moratorium report. Hastings and other GOP lawmakers contend that Kendall's involvement has tainted her office's investigation of the report, which found no conclusive evidence that Interior officials intentionally doctored the document.

Republican Sens. David Vitter of Louisiana, Jeff Sessions of Alabama and John Cornyn of Texas asked the Council of the Inspectors General on Integrity and Efficiency to look into Kendall's November 2010 probe into the report. So far, the council has stayed mum on whether it will respond to that request.

In an interview with Greenwire in May, Kendall said she only attended information-gathering sessions, during which she neither intervened nor asked questions. She attended, she said, to learn more about deepwater drilling in preparation for her role on the Outer Continental Shelf Safety Board.

"I felt this was a real opportunity for me to get a lot of information in a very short period of time, and ultimately, the benefits were incredible," she said at the time (Greenwire, May 23).

On Thursday, Republicans intend to ask Kendall about those sessions, as well as the panel's subpoena for more than a dozen documents associated with her office's investigation into the moratorium report.

In a letter last week inviting Kendall to the hearing, Hastings also wrote that she should expect questions on the "independence and effectiveness of an Inspector General in an Acting Capacity" (E&ENews PM, July 26).

Kendall has headed the IG's office since 2009, when former IG Earl Devaney left to oversee the Recovery Accountability and Transparency Board. But like many federal IGs, she has not been confirmed and still performs in a temporary capacity.