WASHINGTON -- Rep. Peter DeFazio, D-Ore., continued his push to review the classified portion of a White House plan to operate the government after a terrorist attack.

DeFazio and two other key members of the House Homeland Security Committee on Friday wrote a letter to a top Bush administration homeland security official requesting access to the information. The White House refused to provide it to DeFazio last week.

After The Oregonian reported the refusal last Friday, the story spread rapidly around the Internet, causing many to speculate why the White House would not provide DeFazio with the information.

"We can think of no basis for you to deny members of the Committee on Homeland Security the opportunity to review this document in a secure setting," states the letter, signed by DeFazio, Rep. Bennie Thompson, D-Miss., chairman of the committee, and Rep. Chris Carney, D-Penn., chairman of the Homeland Security oversight subcommittee, The letter was addressed to Frances Townsend, Assistant to the President for Homeland Security and Counterterrorism.

DeFazio had requested access to the classified portion after hearing from constituents concerned about a conspiracy. The public portion of the presidential directive lays out general policies for operating the government during a major catastrophe, but it referred to classified portions.

DeFazio received enough phone calls that he decided it was worth looking into, so he requested access to the classified report through the Homeland Security Committee staff.

According to the letter, White House staff had initially said it would provide the document to Homeland Security Committee staff so DeFazio could review it. But on July 18, White House staff, the congressmen wrote, "informed the committee that the request had been reconsidered and rejected. In fact, the committee staff was told the document is 'close hold,' and 'frankly we are not willing to share it.'"

"This response is as troubling as it is shocking," they wrote.

Members of Congress are allowed to view classified material in a secured room in the Capitol, provided they do not disclose the contents.

"In addition to the standard oath of secrecy taken by all members of Congress, members of the Committee on Homeland Security are required to sign an oath agreeing not to disclose any classified information received during the course of their service on the Committee," the congressmen wrote.

In a written statement last week, White House spokesman Trey Bohn would not say why DeFazio was denied access. "We do not comment through the press on the process that this access entails. It is important to keep in mind that much of the information related to the continuity of government is highly sensitive."

DeFazio's dispute points to a broader tension between the White House and members of Congress, who say they are not provided with information they request from the executive branch.

"I'm trying to think of one piece of information this administration has actually supplied to me that it hasn't first put out on CNN," Rep. David Wu, D-Ore., said in a recent interview, citing requests for information about everything from whether helmet liners were being provided to the National Guard to evidence of weapons of mass destruction.

Wu, who served with DeFazio on the conference committee to negotiate the final homeland security bill that passed this week, also was shocked that the White House wouldn't provide the information to DeFazio, a senior Homeland Security member and chairman of the Transportation subcommittee that oversees highways and transit.

"I am surprised that for something of fundamental constitutional importance, that a subcommittee chair or any member of Congress would be denied access," Wu said.

-- Jeff Kosseff

jeff.kosseff@newhouse.com