Washington, DC—U.S. Senator Barbara Boxer (D-CA) today led a group of Senators in a letter to senior members of the Senate Appropriations Committee requesting that the Committee direct the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to restore and maintain public access to its library collections.

Despite an EPA report in 2004 showing that the monetary benefits of operating EPA libraries far outweigh the costs, the agency is shutting down libraries across the country that hold valuable information on important public health and environmental issues. Boxer’s letter, co-signed by 17 of her colleagues, requests that EPA maintain its library services and solicit and consider public and Congressional input on its plans for cuts.

Senator Boxer said, “The Administration's efforts to shut down public access to critical environmental information by closing EPA libraries is just one more attempt by the Administration to cover-up its negligent handling of environmental protection and should not stand.”

Boxer’s letter was cosigned by Senators Frank Lautenberg, Tom Harkin, Richard Durbin, Maria Cantwell, Jack Reed, James Jeffords, Barack Obama, Ken Salazar, Max Baucus, Joe Lieberman, John Kerry, Jeff Bingaman, Edward Kennedy, Russ Feingold, Paul Sarbanes, Mark Dayton, and Hillary Rodham Clinton.

Attached is a PDF of the Senators’ letter.