Whereas, for most of its nearly 4-decade history, people
of the United States could look to the Environmental Protection Agency for
independent leadership, grounded in science and the rule of law, with a sole
mission to protect our health and our environment;
Whereas, since Stephen L. Johnson was sworn in as
Administrator, the Environmental Protection Agency has failed to carry out its
mission, and has issued decision after decision that fails to adequately
protect public health and the environment;
Whereas, on the issue of pollution from ozone, the
Environmental Protection Agency under Administrator Johnson rejected the
recommendations of agency scientists, public health officials, and the agency’s
own scientific advisory committees, and instead established an ozone standard
that fails to protect the public, especially children and the elderly, from the
harmful effects of ozone pollution, such as lung disease and asthma;
Whereas, on the issue of pollution from soot, known as
particulate matter
, Administrator Johnson bowed to pressure from
industry and failed to strengthen an outdated standard limiting the annual
average levels of soot pollution, despite calls from the agency’s own
scientific advisory committees and health and medical experts to strengthen
that standard to protect public health;
Whereas, on the issue of pollution from lead,
Administrator Johnson failed to heed the Environmental Protection Agency’s own
scientists and proposed a standard that would leave children in harm’s
way;
Whereas, on the issue of the Toxic Release Inventory, the
Agency’s decision to weaken the community right-to-know rules for toxic
chemicals used and released in communities across the country will quadruple
the quantity of toxic pollutants that companies can release before the
companies are required to provide to the public detailed information about the
releases;
Whereas the Environmental Protection Agency went forward
with those changes to the Toxic Release Inventory despite objections from 23
State agencies and attorneys general, and despite concerns raised by the
Agency’s own science advisory board;
Whereas, on the issue of the toxin perchlorate, the
Environmental Protection Agency promulgated a rule revoking the requirement for
testing of tap water for perchlorate, a contaminant that has been found in the
drinking water of millions of people in 35 States, and which interferes with
the thyroid and is especially risky to pregnant women and newborns, and as a
result, people in the United States will lack up-to-date information on whether
their tap water is contaminated with that toxin;
Whereas, on the issue of vehicle tailpipe emissions,
Administrator Johnson denied a waiver that would have allowed California and up
to 18 other States to enact strict restrictions on global warming pollution
from automobiles, despite the reportedly unanimous recommendations of his
professional staff in favor of granting the waiver at least in part, and
finding that denying it would very likely be successfully challenged in
court;
Whereas, on the issue of global warming pollution, in
defiance of the Supreme Court’s decision in Massachusetts v. E.P.A. (549 U.S.
497), Administrator Johnson has failed to take action after the Court’s ruling
that the Environmental Protection Agency has the authority, under the Clean Air
Act (42 U.S.C. 7401 et seq.), to regulate greenhouse gas emissions that pollute
our air, instead bowing to pressures from the Bush White House to punt the
issue to the next administration;
Whereas, under Administrator Johnson, the Environmental
Protection Agency has offered legal arguments for its insufficient standards
that have provoked ridicule by the courts, which, for example, have accused the
agency of employing the logic of the Queen of Hearts
and living
in a Humpty-Dumpty
world in attempting to evade the intent of
Congress and the clear meaning of the Clean Air Act (42 U.S.C. 7401 et
seq.);
Whereas, Administrator Johnson has allowed the
Environmental Protection Agency’s scientific advisory panels to be infiltrated
by the very industries they are meant to regulate and control, while at the
same time removing from those panels without justification qualified scientists
who opposed industry positions;
Whereas a report issued on April 23, 2008, by the Union of
Concerned Scientists, entitled Interference at the EPA
,
uncovered widespread political influence in the Environmental Protection Agency
decisions, noting, for example, that 60 percent of the Environmental Protection
Agency career scientists surveyed had personally experienced at least 1
incident of political interference during the past 5 years;
Whereas the Environmental Protection Agency under
Administrator Johnson has altered administrative procedures of the agency to
allow the White House Office of Management and Budget and Pentagon secret
influence over agency decisionmaking, such as through the Integrated Risk
Information System process, an action which the Government Accountability
Office has found to be inconsistent with the principle of sound science
that relies on, among other things, transparency
;
Whereas Administrator Johnson’s response to widespread
criticism that his agency is in crisis, and that he allows White House
political operatives and polluting industries to dictate his decisions rather
than the law and science, has been to label those who have raised those
concerns, many of whom are dedicated career employees of his agency, as
yammering critics
;
Whereas, in defiance of his charge under the Constitution
of the United States, Administrator Johnson has personally and repeatedly
refused to cooperate with Congress in its efforts to conduct regular oversight
of the Executive branch, refusing to produce documents as part of legitimate
oversight investigations, refusing to appear before committees of Congress,
and, when he has appeared, refusing to answer questions in a forthright
manner;
Whereas there is strong evidence to believe that
Administrator Johnson, at a minimum, provided misleading and intentionally
incomplete statements to congressional committees regarding the California
waiver issue and, at worst, has given false testimony before those
committees;
Whereas, for example, Administrator Johnson on numerous
occasions testified before the Committee on Environment and Public Works of the
Senate that he based his denial of the California waiver request on
California’s failure to meet the compelling and extraordinary
circumstances criterion under section 209(b) of the Clean Air Act (42 U.S.C.
7543(b)), and that he reached this decision independently;
Whereas, testimony by a former senior Environmental
Protection Agency official, Jason Burnett, reveals that in fact Administrator
Johnson had determined that California met the requirements for a waiver under
that Act and had communicated his plan to partially grant the waiver to the
Administration in a meeting at the White House, only to reverse course and deny
the waiver after White House officials clearly articulated
President Bush’s policy preference
for a single regulatory
system, even though the Clean Air Act clearly contemplates a dual system in
cases in which the statutory criteria for the waiver are met;
Whereas Mr. Burnett’s testimony was that Administrator
Johnson was prepared to grant the California waiver until it was clearly
articulated
to him that the President preferred a different
approach;
Whereas Administrator Johnson’s sworn testimony before the
Committee on Environment and Public Works of the Senate appears to have been
designed to mislead Congress and the people of the United States regarding the
extent to which the White House intervened in the decision to deny the
California waiver, despite the conclusion of career staff at the Environmental
Protection Agency, and evidently of the Administrator himself, that the
statutory criteria for granting the waiver under the Clean Air Act had been
met; and
Whereas the Environmental Protection Agency is an agency
in crisis and is in need of leadership dedicated to tackling the enormous
public health and environmental issues faced by our country and our planet, in
an independent manner that comports with science and the law and is immune from
political interference: Now, therefore, be it
That it is the sense of the Senate
that—
(1)the Senate has
lost confidence in the Administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency,
Stephen L. Johnson;
(2)Administrator
Johnson should resign his position immediately; and
(3)the Department of
Justice should open an investigation into the veracity of his congressional
testimony regarding the California waiver decision and to pursue any
prosecutorial action the Department determines to be warranted.