Energy and Commerce Committee 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) sent a letter to full Committee Chairman Greg Walden (R-OR) today requesting that oversight hearings be held on the Environmental Protection Agency's (EPA) concerning actions related to the review and management of toxic chemicals.
The request comes seven months after the three Democratic Committee leaders made an initial request for oversight of EPA’s decisions on the management of the toxic chemical chlorpyrifos. Despite their efforts to raise these concerns with the Chairman, no formal oversight actions or hearings have been held by the Committee.
The letter also calls for additional hearings to probe questionable ethics waivers issued to EPA staff connected to regulated industries - as exposed in a report by The New York Times last month - and to oversee EPA’s implementation of the Toxic Substances Control Act (TSCA) reform legislation passed last year.
“Recent news reports have underscored the need for real, immediate, and expansive oversight of EPA’s activities related to toxic chemicals," the members wrote to Chairman Walden. “The Committee bears a responsibility to the American public to make sure EPA is protecting human health and the environment, and to ensure the effective and impartial implementation of the protections afforded by a reformed TSCA."
The Democratic Committee leaders have twice sought documents pertaining to an ethics waiver issued by the EPA Office of General Counsel authorizing Dr. Nancy Beck, a former chemical industry representative who now serves in a leadership position in EPA’s Office of Chemical Safety and Pollution Prevention, to participate in specific matters involving her former employers. Despite their two requests, they have yet to receive any response.
“A formal document request and hearing is needed to address whether this determination was issued in accordance with applicable ethics regulations, policies and procedures, and whether Dr. Beck’s actions since joining EPA are potentially outside the authorized scope of participation," Pallone, DeGette and Tonko continued in their letter.
Today’s request for a TSCA hearing follows similar requests in June and August, and assurances from the Republican Majority that a hearing would be held in September.
