[Congressional Record Volume 154, Number 127 (Tuesday, July 29, 2008)]
[Senate]
[Pages S7639-S7640]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




  SENATE RESOLUTION 631--EXPRESSING THE SENSE OF THE SENATE THAT THE 
 SENATE HAS LOST CONFIDENCE IN THE ADMINISTRATOR OF THE ENVIRONMENTAL 
 PROTECTION AGENCY, STEPHEN L. JOHNSON, THAT THE ADMINISTRATOR SHOULD 
  RESIGN HIS POSITION IMMEDIATELY, AND THAT THE DEPARTMENT OF JUSTICE 
  SHOULD OPEN AN INVESTIGATION INTO THE VERACITY OF HIS CONGRESSIONAL 
   TESTIMONY REGARDING THE CALIFORNIA WAIVER DECISION AND PURSUE ANY 
     PROSECUTORIAL ACTION THE DEPARTMENT DETERMINES TO BE WARRANTED

  Mrs. BOXER (for herself, Mr. Whitehouse, Mr. Lautenberg, Ms. 
Klobuchar, and Mr. Sanders) submitted the following resolution; which 
was referred to the Committee on Environment and Public Works:

                              S. Res. 631

       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     pressure from industry and failed to strengthen an outdated 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;

[[Page S7640]]

       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
       Resolved, 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.

                          ____________________