Energy and Commerce Democratic leaders wrote to Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) Administrator Scott Pruitt today raising serious concerns over the lack of transparency at the Agency. The letter was signed by Ranking Member Frank Pallone, Jr. (D-NJ), Oversight and Investigations Subcommittee Ranking Member Diana DeGette (D-CO), and Environment Subcommittee Ranking Member Paul Tonko (D-NY).
The members’ letter follows up on reports from the New York Times concerning EPA’s wide-ranging lack of transparency and reports that career staff and scientists, with decades of experience in science and environmental law, have been cut out of the Agency’s regulatory process to the detriment of unbiased scientific expertise. Instead, EPA is reportedly relying on industry representatives, which Pallone, DeGette and Tonko wrote suggested a continued and extreme disregard for scientific integrity.
“We are troubled by reports that the Agency continues to operate with complete disregard for transparency by discontinuing the long-standing practice of posting the calendars of Agency leadership online, taking down Agency websites, and halting certain data collections from polluters," the members wrote to Administrator Pruitt.
“The Agency has even reportedly instituted extreme restrictions on employee movement within the building, locking doors at headquarters and requiring escorts for employees. In certain meetings, employees are reportedly told not to take notes and to not carry their cellular telephones," Pallone, DeGette and Tonko continued in their letter to Pruitt. “Taken together, these actions suggest a troubling pattern of secrecy and distrust at EPA, which serves to undermine the agency’s mission of protecting human health and the environment."
In their letter the Committee Democrats request that Administrator Pruitt respond to several concerning allegations raised in the news reports including:
* Please confirm the accuracy of these allegations and explain how agency processes ensure that the expertise of EPA career employees informs the agency’s decisions, including key regulatory actions.
* According to the New York Times, EPA has even restricted access of EPA employees to certain parts of the Agency’s headquarters, as “[d]oors to the floor are now frequently locked, and employees have to have an escort to gain entrance." Please confirm the accuracy of these allegations.
* EPA has also reportedly curtailed public access to Agency information, halting data collection of oil and gas company emissions and closing over 1,900 EPA webpages. Please confirm the accuracy of these allegations.
