WASHINGTON IN BRIEF

GOP Asks Democrats To Ensure Cooperation

Ranking Republicans on several House committees sent letters of protest yesterday to Democrats who will take control of the chamber tomorrow, asking them to live up to campaign promises to share power on Capitol Hill and work cooperatively with their party.

Republicans, who are adjusting to life in the minority, are calling for hearings on measures that Democratic leaders plan to pass without significant GOP input.

"It's disappointing and inconsistent with what they pledged during the campaign," said Jo Maney, spokeswoman for Rep. David Dreier (Calif.), the ranking Republican on the Rules Committee, which determines how business is conducted on the House floor. "We want to work with them and should be given an opportunity."

Leading Republicans on Ways and Means, Homeland Security, and Education and the Workforce echoed Maney's sentiments in letters to the incoming Democratic chairmen of their committees.

Today, a group of GOP lawmakers is scheduled to propose a "Minority Bill of Rights," based on Democratic language written in 2004, which would guarantee the minority the right to offer amendments or substitutes to bills, something the Democrats are not permitting in the first few weeks of the new Congress.

Democrats have said that all of the bills they are introducing in the first 100 hours of the new Congress are measures that lawmakers have previously vetted. Jennifer Crider, a spokeswoman for incoming House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.), said that once the initial agenda is passed, "what Republicans will happily find is they will have a lot more participation and opportunities to offer their ideas than Democrats did."

General Is No Longer Against Gays in Military

The Army general who was chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff when the Pentagon adopted its "don't ask, don't tell" policy regarding homosexuals says he no longer opposes allowing gay men and lesbians to serve openly.

John Shalikashvili, who retired in 1997 after four years as the nation's top military officer, had argued that allowing homosexuals to serve openly would hurt troop morale and recruitment and undermine the cohesion of combat units. He wrote in an opinion piece in yesterday's New York Times that he has changed his mind.

Justice Dept. Refuses To Release Documents

The Justice Department has refused to turn over to the Senate Judiciary Committee two secret documents that describe the CIA's detention and interrogation policies for suspected terrorists.

The Bush administration notified Sen. Patrick J. Leahy (D-Vt.) on the Friday before Christmas that it would not release either a presidential directive authorizing the CIA to set up secret prisons overseas for suspected terrorists or a 2002 Justice Department legal memorandum outlining "aggressive interrogation techniques."

Leahy yesterday called the response "disappointing."

-- From Staff Reports and News Services