U.S. House Passes Legislation to Make EPA Science Transparent

WASHINGTON, D.C. – Today the U.S. House of Representatives passed a bill cosponsored by Congressman Kevin Cramer to require the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to base its regulations on scientific data that is public. The Secret Science Reform Act of 2014 requires the EPA to make publically available any scientific information it uses to propose, finalize, or disseminate regulations.

“Time and time again, the EPA has refused to provide the scientific data they claim to be using to justify their regulatory decisions. Even after we voted for a subpoena in the House Science Committee, they have continued to insist on secrecy. If the EPA wants to tell North Dakota how to run our energy industry, operate our farms, and take care of our air and water, then we ought to at least be able to look at the data they’re using to draw their conclusions,” said Cramer.

Congressman Cramer spoke on the House floor this afternoon to underscore the need for transparency in the federal government, and highlight North Dakota examples of federal regulation through secret data.

“In western North Dakota we have a brick plant in Hebron - Hebron Brick - that is subject MACT rule, a rule based on studies that are tightly held, and again, only available to the bureaucrats. We have countless acres of private farm land and ranch land in our state and states around us that have been owned privately for generations. It’s up for grabs if this Waters of the U.S. rule continues to go forward. It took forceful inquiry by the Science, Space and Technology Committee to find, to get, to reveal the secret maps the EPA was creating as part of this massive land grab” Cramer said in his speech.

Last year, Congressman Cramer voted to issue a subpoena to the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) for scientific data it uses to justify regulations, yet refuses to release publically. The House Committee on Science, Space and Technology filed the subpoena after continually asking the EPA to provide the data and receiving no response from the agency.

Many of the EPA’s most costly regulations including standards for air quality and for coal-fired power plants are based on two government-sponsored studies: the Harvard Six Cities Study and the American Cancer Society’s Cancer Prevention Study II. This taxpayer-funded data has never been made available to Congress or to the public for independent analysis. Both the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) and the National Academy of Sciences have expressed significant concerns with the EPA’s continued use of this decades-old data. In a 2013 report to Congress, the OMB states “some of the scientific and economic questions are not resolved… significant uncertainty remains” regarding the numbers.

The legislation passed today has received letters of support from over 80 scientists and experts, 30 trade associations, the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, the former head of the Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs, and the former head of EPA’s Clean Air Scientific Advisory Committee.