FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Contact:
Kyla Bennett (506) 230-9933 kbennett@peer.org
Jeff Ruch (510) 213-7028 jruch@peer.org
GOP Sees Scientific Integrity Policies as Anti-Trump
House Chair Says EPA Scientific Integrity Program Will “Usurp” Agenda
Washington, DC — The bipartisan consensus in support of federal scientific integrity policies appears to be fraying, according to a fiery letter from a Republican House committee chair released today by Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility (PEER). The letter charges that the scientific integrity policy of the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) will “enable career bureaucrats who favor one set of scientific viewpoints to undermine politically accountable agency leaders who seek to base agency actions on differing science…”
The November 14, 2024, letter from House Committee on Oversight and Accountability Chair James Comer (R-KY) demands that EPA Administrator Michael Regan turn over reams of information on the agency’s scientific integrity program by November 27, 2024. In it, he expresses concern that EPA’s internal standards for the reliability, objectivity, and accuracy of scientific information will enhance “the power of unelected federal officials to influence or stymie policy decisions” and “hamstring the incoming Trump Administration’s ability to implement their own executive agendas and discredit scientific information and views that are not in keeping with the mainstream consensus…”
“Representative Comer’s letter reads like a manifesto for the rule of alternate facts,” commented Pacific PEER Director Jeff Ruch. “His concerns are overblown because these scientific integrity policies are creations of the Executive Branch and could be wiped out with the stroke of a pen.”
Notably, the first Trump administration did not repeal or disturb a single one of the scientific integrity policies adopted under the Obama administration. Within days of his inauguration, President Biden directed all federal agencies to strengthen their scientific integrity policies in order to “restore public trust.” That effort has largely run its course but resulted in no significant change in the strength or scope of these policies.
Ironically, EPA has yet to finalize an update of its 2012 policy. However, both its current and still pending proposed new policy lack any application to political appointees, carry no penalties for violations, and lack procedures for investigating reports of misconduct.
“EPA’s scientific integrity policy is pathetically weak and cannot be defanged because it has no teeth,” stated PEER Science Policy Director Kyla Bennett, a scientist and attorney formerly with EPA, noting that the agency’s own Inspector General has recently issued a scathing assessment of its scientific integrity program. “At EPA, reliance on less than rigorous science puts public health and the environment at risk.”
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Look at the lackluster Biden scientific integrity initiative
