Congressman Smith Subpoenas EPA, Announces Regulation Roundtable with Texas Ag Commissioner Sid Miller
Congressman Lamar Smith (R-Texas) today announced he is subpoenaing the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). As chairman of the House Science, Space, and Technology Committee, Smith has led recent efforts to increase transparency and accountability at the EPA, fight costly new EPA ozone regs, and put a check on the agency’s plans for sweeping new water rules. Smith also today announced a public event with special guest Texas Agriculture Commissioner Sid Miller, “Reining in the EPA: A Regulation Roundtable.” The event will be held at the Cailloux Theater on Wednesday, April 8th, from 7 to 8:30 pm.
Smith issued today’s subpoena after the agency refused to hand over information related to almost 6,000 deleted text messages linked to the agency’s top official, EPA Administrator Gina McCarthy. This is not the first time the agency has come under fire for lack of openness: in 2012, former EPA Administrator Lisa Jackson was caught using a fake email address alias, and Smith has previously subpoenaed the agency for failure to turn over information related to costly ozone regulations. On March 2, 2015, a federal court issued an opinion raising concerns about the agency’s process for responding to Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) requests and calling the EPA’s handling of a 2012 FOIA request “suspicious.” And the Center for Effective Government gave the EPA a grade of “D” in its most recent report for poor performance in giving access to information.
Congressman Smith: “As chairman of the House Science, Space, and Technology Committee, I will continue to do everything in my power to ensure that agencies like the EPA are operating in the most efficient, effective, and accountable manner possible. We all want clean air and clean water. Yet the EPA has avoided transparency at every turn, while attempting to impose costly regulations on Americans. The EPA’s pattern of withholding, concealing and possibly destroying records must come to an end. The American people deserve an open and honest government.
“That is why I am subpoenaing the EPA, and that is why I am hosting the Regulation Roundtable in Kerrville on April 8th. I invite Texans to join me at this event to share their stories and hear how we are working at the local, state, and federal level to rein in the EPA’s overreach. We need policies that serve the taxpayer, not an extreme political agenda.”
Texas Agriculture Commissioner Sid Miller: “I applaud Chairman Smith for calling this regulation roundtable. As Texans, we must stand together to stop EPA from enacting rules to unnecessarily regulate certain waters on our farms and ranches. This overreach will result in a total erosion of state and individual property rights. It will cripple our economy and damage the free enterprise system. Plus, it will burden our farmers, ranchers and private landowners with undue hardship. Texans understand that clean water is important. Farmers and ranchers are the original conservationists and best stewards of the land. That’s how they earn their livelihood, and they know how to protect the land far better than some bureaucrats in Washington. I look forward to hearing from Texans in the Hill Country on how we can build a coalition to protect our freedoms."
WHO: Congressman Lamar Smith (R-Texas), Chairman of the House Science, Space, and Technology Committee
Special guest Texas Agriculture Commissioner Sid Miller
WHAT: Reining in the EPA: A Regulation Roundtable
WHEN: Wednesday, April 8th, 7-8:30 PM CT
WHERE: Cailloux Theater
910 Main Street
Kerrville, TX 78028
Earlier this month, the House approved Smith’s Secret Science Reform Act to increase transparency and accountability at the EPA. Smith’s legislation would require the EPA to base all regulations on scientific data that is open to the public – something the agency has refused to do up to this point. A 2013 poll from the Institute of Energy Research found that 90 percent of Americans agree that studies and data used to make federal government decisions should be public. Last year, Smith exposed extensive maps of U.S. waters and wetlands that the EPA commissioned – and tried to keep hidden – while working to update its controversial Waters of the U.S. Rule.
Additionally, tomorrow at 10:00 a.m., the Science Committee’s Subcommittees on Oversight and Environment will hold a hearing titled, Destruction of Records at EPA – When Records Must Be Kept. The hearing will clarify when the Federal Records Act applies to certain information and how it has been implemented at the EPA.
Those wishing to attend the Regulation Roundtable are encouraged to RSVP through Smith’s website.