WASHINGTON -- Lawmakers on Capitol Hill will have access to secret testimony heard by the Columbia Accident Investigation Board (CAIB), sources tell SPACE.com.
Discussions between congressional staffers and the board are continuing on the mechanics of meeting both the needs of Congress to conduct thorough oversight of federal agencies and the boards pledge to protect the identities of key witnesses who provided important information.
CAIB chairman Harold Gehman, a retired Navy Adm., said the board granted privacy not so much to ensure truthfulness, but to encourage witnesses to volunteer information they might otherwise hold back.
"It cannot be done any other way in our opinion," he told lawmakers concerned about the practice, promising that the end result will be "a better product."
Gehman told reporters after a hearing before the Senate Commerce, Science and Transportation Committee in Washington that the board has promised anonymity to some 200 individuals who have given testimony to the accident investigation board.
While the board intends to honor its agreements with those individuals within the fullest extent of the law, Gehman said he also believes a solution can be reached that will allow lawmakers to exercise their full oversight responsibilities without making the sworn statements public.
Some lawmakers took exception with the idea of privileged testimony in the first place.
"Its not going to be credible with the American people unless it is made public. Secrecy may be policy in military investigations, but NASA is a civilian agency," said U.S. Sen. Bill Nelson, D-Fla., who flew aboard Columbia in 1986.
According to congressional sources, accommodations will be made whereby a limited number of congressional staffers will be permitted controlled access to the complete witness statements.
A staffer assigned to one of the Congressional oversight committees with responsibility for NASA said this week that the details are still be worked out.
Past experience such as when members of Congress need access to classified military information, suggests appropriate staffers will be able to examine the statements, for example, in a central location with controlled access but not be allowed to make copies of the documents.
The option of holding privileged testimony was made possible by putting all CAIB members on the federal payroll, a move that also raised eyebrows and prompted some to question the independence of the five civilian board members who are now being paid with a NASA check.
"NASA does not pay our salaries, you pay our salaries," Gehman told lawmakers, many of whom had voted earlier this year to add $50 million to NASAs 2003 budget to defray the cost of the Columbia accident investigation.
"NASA keeps the books for me but I spend that money, so somehow suggesting that members of this board are influenced by the book, by the way the records are kept, I find to be somewhat naïve," Gehman said.
For the record, Gehman is being paid an annual rate of $142,500 for chairing the board. His check comes from the Office of Personnel and Management.
Seven of the board members were already on the federal payroll when they were assigned to the CAIB.
The remaining five board members -- four professors and one retired business executive -- are now receiving checks issued by NASA. Their annual rate of pay is $134,000.
John Logsdon of George Washington University and Sally Ride of the University of California at San Diego are on unpaid leave from their employers. Douglas Osheroff of Stanford University is not. A spokesman for the Massachusetts Institute of Technology did not return a call asking about Sheila Widnall's employment status.
Jim Banke, Senior Producer in the Cape Canaveral Bureau, contributed to this report.
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