[Congressional Record Volume 161, Number 48 (Monday, March 23, 2015)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Pages E375-E376]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                   SECRET SCIENCE REFORM ACT OF 2015

                                 ______
                                 

                               speech of

                         HON. DAVID SCHWEIKERT

                               of arizona

                    in the house of representatives

                       Wednesday, March 18, 2015

       The House in Committee of the Whole House on the state of 
     the Union had under consideration the bill (H.R. 1030) to 
     prohibit the Environmental Protection Agency from proposing, 
     finalizing, or disseminating regulations or assessments based 
     upon science that is not transparent or reproducible:

  Mr. SCHWEIKERT. Mr. Chair, I would like to submit the following 
quotes and excerpts:
  Representative Pete Welch in a press release dated February 14th, 
2008 stated ``President Bush needs to dust off this copy of the 
Constitution. Congress has a constitutional obligation to conduct 
oversight of the executive branch and we will not shrink from this 
responsibility'' in regards to his yes vote of contempt against George 
W. Bush's administration officials, Harriet Miers and Josh Bolten.
  Representative John Conyers (D-MI), then chairman of the Judiciary 
Committee, after announcing the committee vote on contempt on February 
13th, 2008 stated ``if the executive branch can disregard Congressional 
subpoenas in this way, we no longer have a system of checks.'' He goes 
on further to pose a question during an oversight hearing with Mr. 
Gonzales, the senior Senator from Pennsylvania on July 24th, 2007, ``Do 
you think the constitutional government in the United States can 
survive if the president has the unilateral authority to reject 
Congressional inquiries?''
  In a letter dated June 13th, 2008, Henry A. Waxman, then chairman of 
the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee informed the 
Honorable Susan E. Dudley, then the Administrator of the Office of 
Information and Regulatory Affairs, ``I regret that your failure to 
produce responsive documents has created this impasse, but Congress has 
a constitutional duty to conduct oversight of the executive branch. 
Therefore, unless the documents are provided to the Committee or a 
valid assertion of executive privilege is made, the Committee will meet 
on June 20 to consider a resolution citing you in contempt. I strongly 
urge you to reconsider your position and comply with the duly issued 
subpoena.''
  Henry A. Waxman further goes on to state in a letter dated June 13th, 
2008, on behalf of the Committee on Oversight and Government Reform to 
the Honorable Stephen L. Johnson that ``the documents reviewed by the 
Committee also indicate that the rulemaking was drafted through an 
insufficiently open process, that regional technical staff were given 
only the briefest opportunity to comment, and that even the strongest 
objections of the staff were disregarded.'' Furthermore, Representative

[[Page E376]]

Waxman in the conclusion states that ``Congress needs to be able to 
rely on the technical and scientific information provided by federal 
agencies. It is hard to do so, however, when technical and scientific 
data that has been carefully assembled over several years is suddenly 
cast aside as soon as it becomes inconvenient or embarrassing.''
  Senator Barbara Boxer during the 110th Congress hearing before the 
Committee on Environment Public Works dated January 24th, 2008, on the 
Oversight of EPA's Decision to Deny the California Waiver stated, 
``There remains much work to be done as we work to uncover the facts 
behind this decision. EPA has failed to fully respond to our request 
for information, which I will go into in the question time. I have 
never seen anything like it. We asked for the documents. First we 
didn't get them when they were promised.'' She then says that ``the 
mission of the EPA is to protect human health and the environment. The 
Administrator's decision does neither. The people who pay the 
Administrator's salary have a right to know how he came to a decision 
that is so far removed from the facts, the law, the science, the 
precedent, States' rights and all the rest that goes with it.''

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