Republican Sens. Chuck Grassley of Iowa and Josh Hawley of Missouri are alleging the Biden administration redacted critical details about the Disinformation Governance Board in documents the pair received.
In a Thursday letter to Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas, Grassley and Hawley said the Department of Homeland Security heavily redacted documents requested by the pair in June regarding the board and its relationship with social media platforms.
"Based on our review of this material, it appears that many of the redactions are applied to pre-decisional and deliberative process material," the letter read. "We remind you that the oversight letters we send to the Executive Branch are signed in our capacity as sitting members of Congress, a separate and co-equal branch of government."
Grassley and Hawley then said they would formally renew their requests to the department, as it is still "impossible to know the full extent to which various DHS components and offices are engaged in DHS's 'burgeoning' counter-disinformation efforts."
"Please provide full and complete responses to all questions contained in our June 7, 2022, letter," the two wrote, adding that they would also like "a detailed description of DHS's policy for responding to congressional oversight requests."
The letter comes months after the White House canned the project due to substantial backlash, officially citing a recommendation from the Homeland Security Advisory Council, according to a press release.
"With the HSAC recommendations as a guide, the Department will continue to address threat streams that undermine the security of our country consistent with the law while upholding the privacy, civil rights and civil liberties of the American people and promoting transparency in our work," the statement read.
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