Clinton Aides Are Focus of Subpoena for Benghazi Talking Points

WASHINGTON â€" Several top aides to Hillary Rodham Clinton, the former secretary of state, are targets of the latest subpoena for information about the drafting of talking points after the siege last fall on an American compound in Benghazi, Libya.

Representative Darrell Issa, the California Republican who is the chairman of the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform, wrote in a letter to Secretary of State John Kerry that the Obama administration’s refusal to cooperate fully with a House investigation left him “with no alternative but to compel the State Department to produce relevant documents through a subpoena.”

Mr. Issa’s move was the latest effort by Congressional Republicans to increase pressure on the Obama administration as they proceed with a series of investigations into two controversies that have ensnared the White House: the handling of the Benghazi attacks and the Internal Revenue Service’s targeting of conservative groups that sought tax-exempt status.

Through hearings on Capitol Hill and other requests for documents, e-mails and other correspondence inside the executive branch, Republicans have sought to determine what Mrs. Clinton knew about Benghazi and whether she might have played a larger role than acknowledged in the administration’s response.

Republicans have accused the Obama administration of misleading the American people by initially focusing on an anti-Islamic video as the impetus for the attacks, which killed four Americans. Later on, administration officials settled on terrorism as an explanation for the attack.

Specifically, Mr. Issa and Republicans in Congress have zeroed in on how administration “talking points” were revised to exclude any mention of terrorism before Susan E. Rice, the United Nations ambassador, went on television to discuss the attacks.

Mr. Issa’s letter says that the State Department is “withholding documents related to the Benghazi talking points,” and that those documents are “crucial to the committee’s investigation.”

The letter goes on to list 10 State Department officials whose correspondence might be relevant to the subpoena, including Mrs. Clinton’s former chief of staff, Cheryl Mills, and other top advisers like Philippe Reines, Victoria Nuland and Patrick Kennedy.

Clinton Aides Are Focus of Subpoena for Benghazi Talking Points

WASHINGTON â€" Several top aides to Hillary Rodham Clinton, the former secretary of state, are targets of the latest subpoena for information about the drafting of talking points after the siege last fall on an American compound in Benghazi, Libya.

Representative Darrell Issa, the California Republican who is the chairman of the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform, wrote in a letter to Secretary of State John Kerry that the Obama administration’s refusal to cooperate fully with a House investigation left him “with no alternative but to compel the State Department to produce relevant documents through a subpoena.”

Mr. Issa’s move was the latest effort by Congressional Republicans to increase pressure on the Obama administration as they proceed with a series of investigations into two controversies that have ensnared the White House: the handling of the Benghazi attacks and the Internal Revenue Service’s targeting of conservative groups that sought tax-exempt status.

Through hearings on Capitol Hill and other requests for documents, e-mails and other correspondence inside the executive branch, Republicans have sought to determine what Mrs. Clinton knew about Benghazi and whether she might have played a larger role than acknowledged in the administration’s response.

Republicans have accused the Obama administration of misleading the American people by initially focusing on an anti-Islamic video as the impetus for the attacks, which killed four Americans. Later on, administration officials settled on terrorism as an explanation for the attack.

Specifically, Mr. Issa and Republicans in Congress have zeroed in on how administration “talking points” were revised to exclude any mention of terrorism before Susan E. Rice, the United Nations ambassador, went on television to discuss the attacks.

Mr. Issa’s letter says that the State Department is “withholding documents related to the Benghazi talking points,” and that those documents are “crucial to the committee’s investigation.”

The letter goes on to list 10 State Department officials whose correspondence might be relevant to the subpoena, including Mrs. Clinton’s former chief of staff, Cheryl Mills, and other top advisers like Philippe Reines, Victoria Nuland and Patrick Kennedy.

One Area in Which Congress Excels: Naming Post Offices

Pillory Congress all you want as do-nothing or dysfunctional, as its critics often have. But in one respect, lawmakers in the Capitol are remarkably productive: they name post offices like nobody’s business.

A new report from the Congressional Research Service, the nonpartisan research division of Congress, found that about 20 percent of laws passed in recent years were for naming post offices.

As Congress has become less and less efficient, the numbers are all the more striking. In the 111th Congress, which met from 2009 to 2010, members passed 383 statutes, 70 of which named post offices. In the 112th Congress, the last Congress to meet before the current one convened in January, members passed 46 measures naming post offices, out of 240 statutes over all.

The report notes that many of the post offices were named for officials of local renown. But others were named for better-known figures like Ronald Reagan (three times), Gerald R. Ford (twice), Bob Hope, Nat King Cole and Mickey Mantle.

Many have been dedicated to soldiers who died in the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. One post office in Louisville, Ky., was named to honor all local residents who have died in those conflicts. It is called the Iraq and Afghanistan Fallen Military Heroes of Louisville Memorial Post Office Building.

The House, where most of the measures naming post offices originate, has evidently become somewhat self-conscious about the amount of time it spends on the issue. So for this Congress, the 113th, the House committee that oversees the issue produced new guidelines that direct members to consider such bills expeditiously “so as to minimize the time spent.”

Passing these bills has become routine, and it is usually done without much debate or dissent. The practice has been to get all members of a state’s delegation to agree on a post office dedication before moving the bill to the floor.

There are other restrictions as well. Post offices cannot carry the names of people who are living, with the exception of former presidents, vice presidents and elected officials over 70.

The process is relatively inexpensive, a fact that helps explain why it has become so common in a Congress that is averse to anything that could be considered remotely wasteful. “There is no change in the way renamed post offices are identified in the U.S.P.S.’s listings of post offices,” the report notes.

Renaming plaques, which cost between $250 and $500, are bought at the expense of the United States Postal Service. The service also has responsibility for any ceremonial costs. Those are also kept tight.

“The protocol includes inviting the honored individual and his or her family,” the report says, “an honor guard, a religious figure for an invocation, media notification, and light refreshments such as cake and punch.”

The Early Word: Calculations

In Today’s Times

• Peter Baker delves into how President Obama’s re-election chances played into his decision to shift the nation’s approach on counterterrorism, a process that resulted in the changes the president announced last week.

• Mr. Obama plans to nominate three judges to the federal appeals court in Washington, despite facing roadblocks to confirmation in the Senate, where Republicans â€" who would rather eliminate the vacant seats at the court â€" wield enough power to stall or kill some nominations, Michael D. Shear writes.

• Despite partisan divisions among the justices of the Supreme Court, Adam Liptak finds evidence in recent rulings of a striking degree of harmony on the bench.

Happenings in Washington

• Economic reports expected Tuesday include home price indices for March and the first quarter at 9 a.m., followed at 10 a.m. by the consumer confidence index for May.

• At 9 a.m., Kathleen Sebelius, the secretary of health and human services, is scheduled to deliver remarks to a conference of physician assistants in Washington. She is expected to lay out strategies for meeting the needs of new patients entering the system under the new health care law.

• Starting at 10 a.m., the Supreme Court will begin issuing orders and opinions.

• The attorney general, Eric H. Holder Jr., will deliver keynote remarks to 70 new citizens at 11:15 a.m. during a special naturalization ceremony in the Justice Department.

• After touring areas of the New Jersey coastline still recovering from Hurricane Sandy, President Obama will return to the White House for a meeting with Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel at 4:30 p.m. in the Oval Office. At 5:30 p.m., he will speak at an event in the East Room for Asian American and Pacific Islander Heritage Month.