For Immediate Release
Contact: Luke Bolar / Vitter (202) 224-4623 Becca Watkins / Issa (202) 225-0037
January 29, 2013
Vitter, Issa Investigate EPA’s Transparency Problem, More Suspicious E-mail Accounts
EPA Region 8 Administrator violates e-mail rule, uses private e-mail accounts to conduct official business
(Washington, D.C.) – In a joint letter sent today, Senator David Vitter (R-La.), the top Republican of the Senate Committee on Environment and Public Works, and Congressman Darrell Issa (R-Calif.), Chairman of the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform, questioned James Martin, Region 8 Administrator of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), regarding his use of a non-official e-mail account to conduct official business, potentially violating federal transparency laws.
In documents obtained by Senate EPW and House OGR committees, Administrator Martin used a non-official, me.com, e-mail account, which may have been an attempt to circumvent the Federal Records Act, the Freedom of Information Act, and Congressional oversight.
“We’ve seen EPA Administrator Lisa Jackson’s ‘Richard Windsor’ e-mails, and now we have a regional administrator who appears to be dodging the agency’s mandatory recordkeeping policy,” said Vitter. “The American people have to be wondering where this will stop. The EPA owes us all some answers about their absolute disregard for transparency.”
“This administration took office promising to be the ‘most transparent’ in history, but repeated actions have undermined this ambitious goal,” said Issa. “Investigations have revealed widespread disregard for transparency and record-keeping laws in multiple agencies and even in the White House. We need to get this administration beyond just cleaning up the mess after they’re caught red-handed in flagrant violations of transparency laws and to address the root causes of failures to conduct public business transparently.”
EPA instructs its employees to “not use any outside e-mail account to conduct official Agency business.” However, the documents obtained by the Committees suggest that Administrator Martin regularly used a non-official e-mail account to conduct official business, and it does not appear to be an isolated incident.
The Committees are investigating whether Administrator Martin’s use of multiple e-mail accounts is symptomatic of a broader problem at the EPA.
The text of Vitter and Issa’s letter to EPA Region 8 Administrator Martin is below:
==========================================================
January 29, 2013
Mr. James B. Martin
Administrator, Region 8
U.S. Environmental Protection Agency
1595 Wynkoop Street
Denver, CO 80202
Dear Administrator Martin:
We write to inquire about your use of Apple’s me.com, a non-official e-mail account to conduct official business as the Region 8 Administrator for the Environmental Protection Agency. In particular, documents released pursuant to litigation recently obtained by the Committees confirm that you have used this non-official e-mail account to conduct official business.[1] We are concerned that your use of the me.com e-mail account may be an attempt to circumvent the Federal Records Act, the Freedom of Information Act, and Congressional oversight. Accordingly, we are writing to request your cooperation as the Committees investigate whether this is an isolated incident or symptomatic of a broader problem at EPA.
In the limited production obtained by our respective Committees, it appears that on at least one occasion you used an Apple me.com address, a non-official e-mail account, to schedule an official business meeting. Specifically, an email from Vickie Patton, the General Counsel for the Environmental Defense Fund to this private e-mail said, “Hi Jim, Next Monday or Tuesday December 12/13 at 9am depending on which is best for you.”[2] In response, you replied from this private e-mail account with, “January 13 at 9:00 am works for me if that works for you. (Lost your original note – is that the date and time you proposed?).”[3] It is our understanding that this meeting did in fact take place at the EPA regional office. Moreover, it is unclear whether you attempted to preserve the correspondence as an EPA record, as is required by law.
The use of personal, non-official e-mail accounts raises concerns that you could be attempting to insulate this and other e-mail correspondence from a Freedom of Information Act[4] request. Moreover, your actions may also constitute violation of the Federal Records Act.[5] In accordance with the Federal Records Act and guidance from the D.C. Circuit, federal agencies must preserve e-mail messages if they are:
made or received by an agency of the United States Government under Federal law or in connection with the transaction of public business and preserved or appropriate for preservation by that agency or its legitimate successor as evidence of the organization, functions, policies, decisions, procedures, operations, or other activities of the Government or because of the informational value of data in them.[6] (emphasis added).
To be clear, it does not appear that this transaction was an isolated incident. Rather, the body of emails suggests that you regularly used this personal email account to stay informed on matters relating to your official duties. For example, not only did Ms. Patton regularly send updates to the me.com account, according to one document, you used this non-official account to request contact information for another government employee, which was provided as a private e-mail address.[7]
As the Region 8 Administrator, I expect you would have knowledge of EPA’s policy that explicitly prohibits use of non-EPA e-mails for business purposes. In 2008, EPA wrote to the Government Accountability Office that “EPA has a clear and consistent policy framework against the use of nongovernmental e-mail systems for official EPA business.”[8] During EPA’s briefing on Records Management to incoming political appointees in 2009, EPA instructed, “[d]o not use any outside e-mail account to conduct official Agency business.”[9] More recently, in October 2012, EPA sent an agency-wide e-mail reminding employees of this policy. Specifically, the email stated: “[t]his is a reminder to all EPA Employees that EPA prohibits the use of non-EPA E-Mail Systems when conducting agency business. This guidance is stated in Agency Records Training, New Employee Orientations and Briefings for Senior Agency Officials.”[10] (emphasis added).
In both the agency-wide e-mail and the Frequently Asked Questions about E-Mail and Records webpage, EPA states that employees are prohibited from using “any outside e-mail system to conduct official Agency business. If, during an emergency, you use a non-EPA e-mail system, you are responsible for ensuring that any e-mail records and attachments are saved in your office’s recordkeeping system.”[11] (emphasis added) It does not appear that there were any emergency circumstances surrounding the use of your personal email, but even if there were, it appears that you still failed to preserve the e-mails in the proper recordkeeping system. Thus, under all plausible circumstances, your private e-mails demonstrate a clear violation of EPA policy and federal law.
In an effort to better understand whether or not the emails provided to our Committees are an unfortunate, but isolated incident, or if they are part of a larger scheme to defeat federal transparency laws, we request that you provide all emails sent or received from any private email account from April 1, 2010, through present day that refer or relate to your responsibilities as an EPA official. This request includes all emails sent or received by you, whether or not they are currently in your “inbox.” Moreover, I request that you make yourself available for a transcribed interview with both Committee staffs the week of February 11, 2013.
Thank you for your prompt attention to this matter. If you have any questions, please contact Kristina Moore with the Committee on Environment and Public Works at (202) 224-6176 or Tyler Grimm with the Committee on Oversight and Government Reform at (202) 225-5074.
Sincerely,
David Vitter Darrell E. Issa
Ranking Member Chairman
Environment and Public Works Oversight and Government Reform
Cc: Chairman Barbara Boxer, Senate Committee on Environment and Public Works
Ranking Member, House Oversight and Government Reform
[1] See Michael Bastasch, Top EPA official used private email account to correspond with environmental groups, Daily Caller News Foundation (Jan. 10, 2013), available at http://dailycaller.com/2013/01/10/top-epa-official-uses-private-email-account-to-correspond-with-environmental-groups/.
[2] See http://www.scribd.com/doc/119719232/CEI-v-EPA-Region-8-Martin-Reply-Declaration (last accessed Jan. 16, 2013).
[3] Id.
[4] See 5 U.S.C. § 552
[5] See 44 U.S.C. § 31
[6] Armstrong v. Executive Office of the President, 1 F.3d 1274, 1278 (D.C. Cir. 1993).
[7] Note 2 supra.
[8] GOV’T ACCOUNTABILITY OFFICE, FEDERAL RECORDS: NATIONAL ARCHIVES AND SELECTED AGENCIES NEED TO STRENGTHEN E-MAIL MANAGEMENT, 61, GAO008-742 (June 2008).
[9] Records and ECMS Briefing, EPA Incoming Political Appointees 2009 [On file with Committee].
[10] NRMP Alert: Do Not Use Outside Email Systems to Conduct Agency Business [On file with Committee].
[11] ENVTL. PROT. AGENCY, Frequent Questions about E-Mail and Records http://www.epa.gov/records/faqs/email.htm (last accessed Jan. 16, 2013).
==============================================================
The actual letter is attached also, you can view it here:
Region 8 joint letter final VitterIssa 01292013 (1) (PDF)
It should also be noted that this has come to light thanks to the work of Chris Horner and ATI, who forced production of these documents by EPA in their FOI litigation.
Related articles
- Senator Vitter calls EPA FOI release “fishy” (wattsupwiththat.com)
- GOP House Warns EPA – “formal action” if Richard Windsor Continues to Hide Communications (theconservativetreehouse.com)
- EPA Doubles Down on ‘Richard Windsor’ Stonewall (wattsupwiththat.com)
- Monday is D-Day – Delivery Day – for Richard Windsor’s Emails (wattsupwiththat.com)
- New FOIA lawsuit filed against the EPA (wattsupwiththat.com)
jack morrow,
The US is still not the most corrupt, I haven’t had to bribe the local constabulary to get them to leave the precinct house, or to keep them from torching my business or home and spraying the survivors with bullets. There are places like that to our south that still have the title of most corrupt, but we are sliding ever closer to that precipice in a grass woven handled basket.
Chuck Nolan says:
January 29, 2013 at 11:52 am
Maybe we’re not a nation of laws after all.
cn
>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>
We haven’t been since 1913.
Congressman McFadden Quotations from several speeches made on the Floor of the House of Representatives, 1934
We are serfs to the bankers, we just don’t realize it. In 2012:Q3: 1,645.3 Billion Dollars in US debt was held by the Federal Reserve. That does not include the debt held by private banks. All but three percent of the US money supply (the physical currency) is in the form of loans from banks. Those loans, made out of thin air, are paid back with interest with your labor.
The EPA is a rogue agency, and if it wasn’t for the rogue administration there’s a small chance they could be cleaned up.
For now, that’s not going to happen. They’ll play “musical bureaucrats” until the next scandal draws the harsh glare of public interest away. They’ll make one if they have to.
“Sen. Dick Durbin, on a local Chicago radio station this week, blurted out an obvious truth about Congress that, despite being blindingly obvious, is rarely spoken: “And the banks — hard to believe in a time when we’re facing a banking crisis that many of the banks created — are still the most powerful lobby on Capitol Hill. And they frankly own the place.” ”
Hey, it’s not only socialism that uses other people’s money. All the money in banks are “other peoples money”. They don’t own your money, some banks over the years think they own my money. I’ve seen it time and time again.
Reporters, Lawsuits and OBUMMER
Well there went the Constitution straight down the toilet.
Even the ACLU is up in arms about OBUMMER
I never though I would side with the ACLU but I am really cheering them on this time. Seems like some of the US citizens in The Innocents’ Club are starting to wake up.
“The EPA owes us all some answers about their absolute disregard for transparency.”
Nuts!
These criminals need to be thrown in jail. EOFS
evanmjones says:
January 29, 2013 at 10:46 am
When they try to subpoena this, they’ll get rejected — for prying into private email accounts!
Once they used the private account to conduct official business, the account ceased to be a private account.
I use a yahoo account to conduct US Government business since I do not have access to my .mil account on a 24/7 basis. I suspect full well that that DIA and NCIS know what kind of email I get.
If you would bother to read the EPA email FAQ on reference 11 you would see that many routine emails do not have to be saved. If the message does not “explain, justify or document an action or decision” is does not have to saved. Picking the date of a meeting hardly meets that requirement.
undermined this ambitious goal my hiney. This administration never had the slightest intention of letting its hands show above the table. It was born in cover-up and survives by cover-up. The Big Lie Machine in full spate.
As promised:
john says:
January 29, 2013 at 2:34 pm
here it is….http://dailybail.com/home/the-real-obama-climate-plan.html
So we have this high level investigation over a meeting scheduled over me.com. Hmm how long ago was me.com shut down?
Any one like to guess how much this investigation is costin the US taxpayer? Is any result of significance to government likely to result from this investigation? In short are you getting your money’s worth.
It looks to me that this investigation is suspiciously like political manovering with some very dubious insinuations being concocted.
What level of corruption has to take place before you consider it no longer acceptable? Which laws should we (American citizens) allow our government overlords to violate and which should we insist be enforced?
The root cause of our once-great nation’s demise is an overabundance of lazy teenagers (of all ages) who wink at corruption. If we cast aside notions of honor and persist in defining corruption as “whatever our political opponents do”, we will eventually find ourselves ruled by gangsters. Oh, wait…
@Lazyteenager: Perhaps you should take this dialogue between Sir Thomas More and Will Roper into account when you think nothing of the law – an I see you here in the part of Roper::
Roper: So now you’d give the Devil benefit of law!
More: Yes. What would you do? Cut a great road through the law to get after the Devil?
Roper: I’d cut down every law in England to do that!
More: Oh? And when the last law was down, and the Devil turned ’round on you, where would you hide, Roper, the laws all being flat? This country’s planted thick with laws from coast to coast– man’s laws, not God’s– and if you cut them down—and you’re just the man to do it—do you really think you could stand upright in the winds that would blow then? Yes, I’d give the Devil benefit of law, for my own safety’s sake.
CLIMATEGATE!!
Someone needs to hack that bitch.
LazyT: This has nothing to do with partisan shit. If this had been done by Bush you’d never hear the end of it in the media.
The current admin is, moreover, one of THE most ABSOLUTELY hypocritical, lying POSes in US history, and, after Clinton, that’s really saying something.
“The Most Transparent and Ethical Administration in US History”**
** The One himself: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OXWTdTnhebs
Ahhhh, yeah. Ah-huh. Want to buy some LAND?
Hi,
Look at that awesome stuff I’ve found on the web, it’s so cool)) Check it out here
gerjaison