Sen. Chuck Grassley (R., Iowa), chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, sent a letter this week to President Donald Trump criticizing the new White House policy to exclusively answer oversight requests from congressional committee chairmen.

The new policy instituted by Trump's Office of Legal Counsel, or OLC, allows the White House to answer only Republican oversight requests, as the GOP controls Congress and sets the committee chairmen. Grassley wrote in his letter that this policy disrupts the constitutional functioning of the legislative branch.

"Shutting down oversight requests doesn't drain the swamp, Mr. President. It floods the swamp," Grassley wrote.

Grassley said that congressmen in the minority party or who are not chairmen would be unable to carry out their jobs "without access to information held by the executive branch."

Grassley makes his core criticism of the OLC's new policy on constitutional grounds:

Every member of Congress is a constitutional officer, duly elected to represent and cast votes in the interests of their constituents. This applies obviously regardless of whether they are in the majority or the minority at the moment and regardless of whether they are in a leadership position on a particular committee. Thus, all members need accurate information from the executive branch in order to carry out their constitutional function to make informed decisions on all sorts of legislative issues covering a vast array of complex matters across our massive federal government.

The Justice Department declined to comment to Politico about the letter, while the White House did not respond to the publication's request.

Politico also reported that Democrats were "outraged" about the OLC's policy.

"Every member of Congress represents hundreds of thousands of American citizens who expect their representatives in the House and Senate to fulfill their duty under the Constitution to act as a check on the executive branch," Rep. Elijah Cummings (D., Md.) said.

White House spokesperson Lindsay Walters responded to Democratic criticism of the policy.

"‘Oversight' is a constitutional power which Congress exercises through its established committees and their chairmen," she said.