House Republicans yesterday vowed to continue their probe into the editing of an Interior Department safety report following the Deepwater Horizon spill, after two agency officials declined to provide documents requested in a congressional subpoena.

Neal Kemkar, special assistant to the counselor to Interior Secretary Ken Salazar, and Mary Katherine Ishee, deputy chief of staff to the assistant secretary for land and minerals management, said they had reviewed documents subpoenaed by the Natural Resources Committee but were not authorized to make them available because they belong to the department.

Both officials testified yesterday at a hearing to determine who may be responsible for edits to the May 2010 Interior report that erroneously suggested a panel of independent experts had supported a blanket halt to deepwater drilling, when it in fact had not.

Committee Chairman Doc Hastings (R-Wash.) said he was frustrated with the officials' response and that the committee would continue pursuing any means to obtain information from the Obama administration, including White House officials.

"The responses we were looking for is what we subpoenaed, so we're trying to go different ways in order to do that," Hastings told E&E Daily. "They haven't followed up with what we're asking. So no, I'm not satisfied."

The subpoenas issued last month asked Kemkar and Ishee to provide copies of "all documents that were created, sent or received by them between April 26, 2010, and June 30, 2010, related to the development, editing, review, issuance, response, or reaction to the Drilling Moratorium Report."

The department in the past has withheld documents that it said constitute "predecisional and deliberative interagency communications," arguing that their release would threaten the confidentiality interests of the executive branch.

Hastings did not say whether more hearings would be scheduled to hear from other Interior or White House officials, including Steve Black, counselor to Salazar; Walter Cruickshank, deputy director of the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management; and Kallie Hanley, senior adviser at the Office of the Assistant Secretary-Indian Affairs.

Separately, Hastings late last month requested an on-the-record interview with former White House aide Joseph Aldy, whom investigators were apparently not allowed to interview as part of an inspector general probe (E&E Daily, Sept. 13).

Hastings also did not say whether he would pursue a contempt of Congress charge, which would cast unwanted attention on the Obama administration in the heat of an election season.

Rep. Tom McClintock (R-Calif.) yesterday said he believed Congress already has grounds to pursue legal action. He said courts have ruled that agency employees cannot ignore congressional subpoenas, even if directed to do so by a superior. But he stopped short of calling for an official motion for contempt.

Rep. Ed Markey (D-Mass.), the panel's ranking member, called Hastings' probe a "track-change investigation" and criticized yesterday's hearing as a "dereliction of duty" by Congress, which he said should investigate and respond to the causes of the BP PLC oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico.

"We also are being counted on to hold BP and its contractors accountable for the damage they've caused," he said. "Unfortunately, this Republican Congress has acted like the BP spill never happened."

He added, "To say this committee's oversight has been underwhelming would be charitable."

Markey slammed Republicans for refusing to issue subpoenas to the CEOs of BP, Transocean and Halliburton, as Democrats have requested. He said the committee should also accept Salazar's offer to testify if it wants additional answers about the moratorium.

"Bring in Secretary Salazar. I think he can explain this," Markey said. "We're ignoring the person who says he issued the moratorium."

Kemkar indicated the error was a "copy editing" mistake and said the report's executive summary had never intended to suggest the peer reviewers had endorsed Salazar's moratorium. An inspector general report found the error was likely the result of late-night White House edits but that there was no indication it was intentional.

When the problem came to light, Interior Deputy Secretary David Hayes sent an apology to the engineers and Salazar spoke on multiple occassions with the experts to express his regret.

Kemkar said he had no role in deciding whether to impose a deepwater moratorium, a decision Salazar made on his own.

Ishee said her role in editing the executive summary was to make sure it was consistent with the technical recommendations contained in the report. She said she also did not recall participating in discussions on the moratorium.

"These efforts commanded a broad, coordinated and concerted response from the department and throughout the federal government under compressed timelines and amid competing priorities and evolving challenges," she said.