Today, U.S. Sen. David Vitter (R-La.), top Republican on the Environment and Public Works Committee, along with Sens. Mike Crapo (R-Idaho) and Jim Inhofe (R-Okla.), sent a follow-up letter to Jim Jones, Assistant Administrator of the Office of Chemical Safety and Pollution Prevention (OCSPP) of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), requesting further documentation surrounding the senior manager responsible for a controversial chemical risk assessment.
"Our work to unravel the depth and breadth of mismanagement at the EPA requires forthright and thorough responses, yet at this stage, EPA has failed to provide a satisfactory accounting of what was requested," wrote the Senators. "We are unwilling to accept your assertion that Dr. Barone's transfer from a Branch Chief to a Deputy Division Director was not a promotion, and request your interpretation of how this change was not ‘an appointment' or ‘a detail, transfer, or reassignment.'"
On June 25, 2014, the Senators sent a letter to Assistant Administrator Jones, questioning the science used in OCSPP's workplan chemical risk assessment on trichloroethylene (TCE) and reiterate that EPA has failed to restore credibility to the chemical risk assessment program.
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