Leahy Cancels Hearing After EPA Administrator Declines To Testify

 

WASHINGTON (Thursday, July 24, 2008) – The Chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee today canceled a hearing scheduled for July 30 at which the administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) was invited to present testimony about the EPA’s refusal to provide Congress with documents related to the public health risks associated with global warming. 

 

In a letter to Sen. Patrick Leahy dated July 22, the EPA signaled that Johnson would decline the Committee’s invitation to appear.  Leahy and Sen. Barbara Boxer (D-Calif.), who chairs the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee (EPW) last week invited Johnson to appear before the Judiciary panel to testify about President Bush’s executive privilege claims over many documents related to the health risks connected to global warming.  Leahy and Boxer were joined by Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse (D-R.I.), who sits on both Senate Committees, at a press conference today on Capitol Hill.

 

Under Boxer’s leadership, EPW has been investigating why the EPA denied a request by California officials for a Clean Air Act waiver that would have allowed the state to enforce tougher emissions standards.  During his administration, President Bush has claimed executive privilege to avoid answering questions about a variety of issues, including warrantless wiretapping, the leak of a the name of an undercover CIA agent, and the improper firing of U.S. Attorneys at the Justice Department. The claims have stymied congressional oversight efforts.

 

Leahy issued the following comment.

 

 

Comments Of Sen. Patrick Leahy (D-Vt.),

Chairman, Senate Judiciary Committee,

On Cancelling Senate Judiciary Committee Hearing

After EPA Administrator’s Refusal To Testify

July 24, 2008

 

Last week, Senator Boxer and I sent a joint letter to EPA Administrator Stephen Johnson asking him to testify at a Judiciary Committee hearing next week.  I called the hearing to examine whether EPA’s decisions are being made in accord with the technical and legal conclusions of EPA’s own staff and whether the White House improperly interfered with EPA decision making or the information provided to Congress.  These matters arise from the risks from global warming, especially to public health.  That is what we asked the EPA Administrator to come and testify about.

 

I took this step after an investigation in the Environment and Public Works Committee, which Senator Boxer chairs, uncovered what appears to be an effort by the Bush-Cheney administration to shield the truth about the effects of global warming from Congress and the American people by interfering with scientific conclusions and regulatory decisions that Congress intended to be answered by the science experts at EPA.  This is only the latest skirmish in what has come to be called the Bush-Cheney administration’s war on science, in which powerful and well connected special interests get their way, at the expense of ordinary Americans.    

 

There are serious questions whether the White House improperly influenced EPA to deny California’s request for a Clean Air Act waiver.  This waiver would not only have allowed California to enforce tougher emissions standards, it would have allowed other states, including Vermont, to do the same.   

 

Administrator Johnson declined our invitation.  The letter we received from the EPA this week gave no reasons for his refusal to appear before the Committee.  Like Karl Rove’s refusal to appear before the Judiciary Committee in response to a congressional subpoena, and Josh Bolten’s refusal to appear to provide documents we subpoenaed, this is more high-handedness and unaccountability from an administration that refuses to acknowledge or respect the other two equal branches of our government.  The Constitution sets up a system of checks and balances to protect our democracy.  This administration follows, instead, its own imperial executive style.  They do not answer to anyone. 

 

That the Bush-Cheney administration has claimed ‘executive privilege’ in response to questions about whether the White House improperly influenced EPA’s decisions speaks volumes.  It lends further credibility to the reports that it was political interference by the White House that has stalled EPA action on behalf of the American people.  This is too reminiscent of the political interference with law enforcement at the Department of Justice during the Gonzales era.  

 

As I wrote last week to the Attorney General, the President and this administration have turned executive privilege on its head, using it not to encourage open and candid advice to the President, but rather as a defense against responding to the public’s right to know what their government is doing and, in particular, about decisions the White House is wrongfully trying to influence. 

 

President Bush has claimed executive privilege to avoid answering questions about issues after issue, from warrantless wiretapping, to the leak of the identity of an undercover CIA agent, to the improper firing of U.S. Attorneys at the Justice Department, and now with regard to its intervention in EPA decision making.  Their stonewalling undermines Congress’ legitimate oversight efforts.  Their stonewalling has made them less accountable to the American people.  Their stonewalling has contributed to bad policies and poor performance that directly affect the public and the public’s health.

 

In this instance, Administrator Johnson has refused even to come before the Judiciary Committee to testify about what he can and to provide the factual predicate for the President’s claim of executive privilege.  I noted in our invitation that to the extent information has been withheld from Congress, we wish to explore the basis for that withholding and, in particular, the basis for any claims of executive privilege.  

 

The lack of any demonstrated basis for a blanket claim of executive privilege is what led me to find the purported claims in connection with our U.S. Attorney firing investigation unfounded and invalid in my ruling for the Judiciary Committee last year.  The Committee ended up reporting contempt citations for Mr. Rove and Mr. Bolten.    

 

I am disappointed that the Bush administration has again chosen secrecy over accountability.  They are preventing the Environmental Protection Agency from giving Congress information about its policies, and preventing us from learning what they are doing to enforce — or not enforce – vital laws meant to protect the water we drink and the air we breathe.

 

Administrator Johnson’s refusal to testify before the Committee is a missed opportunity and yet another in a long line of examples of the Bush administration hiding behind a thick veil of secrecy. 

 

Because of his refusal to appear, I am cancelling the hearing.  I intend to refer this matter to the EPA’s Inspector General and will consider whether there are additional steps the Judiciary Committee should take.  The American people are poorly served by an administration whose head of environmental protection cannot appear before a Senate Committee and honestly discuss what he did and why he did it.

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