The nine-member mascot committee — representing the faculty, alumni, students and the athletic department — met weekly for most of a year and kept deliberations secret.
The administration had been considering the decision to go ahead with drilling for about a year but kept deliberations quiet.
As senators sparred in interviews, op-ed pages and television appearances, the Bush administration sought to keep its deliberations over a potential successor to Sandra Day O'Connor out of public view.
Mr. Breaux said that Mr. Kerry was so determined to keep his deliberations under a cone of silence that he did not even hint at who he is eyeing most intensely.
"We would normally keep our deliberations confidential until a particular course of action is determined, but because Dell Technologies owns ~82% of VMware, we are required to make a public filing with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission," the company stated in the filing.
Despite all this, SASC decided to keep its deliberations off-limits to the public.
The department, citing a desire to keep internal deliberations confidential, has denied congressional investigators access to the documents, federal officials said.
Legislative leaders have largely kept their deliberations private.
Mr. Bush has kept his deliberations about a new chairman of the Joint Chiefs extremely quiet, and several close aides said today that they could not confirm the selection of General Myers, which would require Senate confirmation, because they did not know.
He notes that the Nobel Committee also keeps its deliberations secret.
