EPA Advisory Board Chair Pressured to Change Congressional Testimony

Silencing Science Tracker

EPA Advisory Board Chair Pressured to Change Congressional Testimony

The chair of the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA)’s Board of Scientific Counselors Deborah Swackhamer was reportedly pressured by the agency’s chief of staff to change her testimony before Congress to downplay the Trump administration’s decision not to reappoint half of the board’s members.

Emails show that EPA Chief of Staff Ryan Jackson asked Swackhamer to stick to the agency’s stance that the decision on appointments had not yet been made in her testimony at a May 23 hearing. In her testimony, she noted that EPA Administrator Scott Pruitt did not renew half of the board’s eighteen executive committee members for second terms, and that an agency spokesman had called for more industry representation on the board. Jackson sent Swackhamer two emails the day before the hearing — after she had already submitted her embargoed testimony — with a page of official talking points meant to counter “stories in the newspapers” about the appointments. He said that a decision “has not yet been made,” underlining that phrase for emphasis.

 

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