Fri Sep 17, 2010 at 04:54:42 PM EDT
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| This is pretty hot stuff. On Monday, during the Senate voting session, Sen. Barbara Buono will introduce a resolution to grant subpoena powers to the committee she chairs - Legislative Oversight - so it can finally receive the documents and testimony required for the Senate to review how and why New Jersey's Race to the Top (RTTT) application was botched so badly.
Buono released a statement this afternoon:
We have been left with no choice but to seek to use the Legislature's subpoena power to compel the handover of vital documents and correspondence and require the attendance of key individuals.
The Legislature holds the primary constitutional responsibility for ensuring every child receives a good education. We also have an obligation to maintain the system of checks and balances that ensures the integrity of state government. This resolution does nothing more than allow our coordinate and co-equal branch of government to fulfill its constitutional responsibilities.
Yesterday, after a standard 7-day period to reply to an Open Public Records Act request, plus a 9-day extension, the NJ Department of Education did not produce the documents sought in Buono's OPRA request. And Buono says key people at the heart of NJ's RTTT application process have either declined her committee's invitation to testify or simply never responded. Given the Christie administration's stonewalling during the Assembly's RTTT hearinglast week, refusing to allow top officials to testify, this really can't be a surprise to Christie's increasingly opaque administration. Buono:
On Monday, I will ask the Senate to take the extraordinary, but not unprecedented, step of granting the Legislative Oversight Committee subpoena power so we can conduct a meaningful hearing next week. This action should come as no surprise given the administration's disturbing pattern of rejecting requests for information and denying the Legislature an opportunity to properly investigate the circumstances surrounding a failed attempt to secure approximately $400 million in federal Race to the Top funding. |
| Rosi Efthim :: Buono will ask Senate for subpoena power in Race to the Top investigation |
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