The chairman of a House Appropriations subcommittee says he was surprised by Chairman Jerry Lewis’ dismissal last month of most of the committee’s investigators and said the team did a “good job.”

Defense Subcommittee Chairman C.W. Bill Young of Florida, who chaired the full committee until fellow Republican Lewis of California took over last year, said he had “no inkling” that Lewis planned to fire 60 contractors, including former officials at the FBI, CIA, Defense Department and Government Accountability Office.

The Surveys and Investigations team did most of its work for Young’s subcommittee, recommending billions of dollars in Defense budget savings each year.

“I thought they did a good job,” said Young. “They really know what they’re doing.”

Appropriations Committee spokesman John Scofield earlier called the dismissals part of a “bipartisan review” undertaken because the team’s recent work “has not been that good.”

But Scofield acknowledged Nov. 1 that Lewis did not seek the approval of the committee’s top-ranking Democrat, David R. Obey of Wisconsin, nor had he consulted with other committee Republicans before the contractors were ordered to stop their work and turn in their credentials.

“He wouldn’t be consulted,” Scofield said of Young. “He didn’t consult people when he was chairman. He wouldn’t be aware, nor should he be aware.”

Scofield said committee Democrats shared the majority’s concerns about the quality of the investigative work.

The committee spokesman said Friday the contractors could be rehired following a review. “We are reviewing them to decide whether we’re going to reup them or not,” he said.

Kirstin Brost, a spokeswoman for Obey, declined to comment Nov. 1.

Sixteen permanent staffers remain on the Appropriations Committee’s investigative team. But investigators report that the dismissal of the contractors stalled probes of Hurricane Katrina relief spending, Iraq War contracts and new weaponry, and eviscerated the panel’s oversight capability.