Dear Mr. Kemkar:

On April 25, 2011, we wrote the Department of the Interior ("Department") to request documents about White House edits to the Executive Summary of the final report entitled "Increased Safety Measures for Energy Development on the Outer Continental Shelf' ("ISM Report"). On the same date, we wrote separately to the Department's Office of Inspector General ("OIG") requesting documents related to its investigation into the editing of the ISM Report. The OIG's November 2010 report of its investigation "determined that the White House edit of the original DOI draft Executive Summary led to the implication that the moratorium recommendation had been peer reviewed by the experts."

Our review of the limited number of documents that have been made available to us by the OIG and the Department has raised a number of questions in this matter that remain unanswered, including questions about your role in the editing of the ISM Report and the response to the peer reviewers' objections. The Committee's majority oversight staff will be conducting interviews of current and former Department officials, including you, who may have knowledge of the activities that are the subject of this investigation. We request your voluntary cooperation in scheduling this interview to occur at a mutually agreeable time during the week of February 27, 2012.

Read the entire letter HERE.