WASHINGTON — While House Republicans staged a walkout to protest lack of action on a proposed surveillance law, Hawai'i's two House members voted yesterday to hold two presidential aides in contempt of Congress. The contempt resolution passed 223-32, with 173 Republicans and 10 Democrats not voting.

Reps. Neil Abercrombie and Mazie Hirono, both Hawai'i Democrats, voted for the resolution, which authorizes the House Judiciary Committee to go to court to enforce subpoenas against former White House counsel Harriet Miers and White House chief of staff Josh Bolton. Both refused to testify before Congress on the firings of nine U.S. attorneys in 2006, and the White House has backed them.

"No one in the United States of America is above the law, not the president or those who work for the president," Abercrombie said. "Nor do they get to pick and choose which laws they will obey and which laws they can ignore."

The Republican walkout came with House Minority Leader John Boehner, R-Ohio, complaining that Democrats had time for a "partisan political stunt" but no time to finish a reauthorization of the surveillance law.

The law, which expires tomorrow, gives the government leeway to eavesdrop on phone calls and intercept e-mails of suspected terrorists.

The Senate approved its version of the surveillance bill Tuesday, 68-29, with Sen. Daniel K. Inouye, D-Hawai'i, voting for it and Sen. Daniel K. Akaka, D-Hawai'i, voting against it.

Reach Dennis Camire at dcamire@gns.gannett.com.