A House committee Wednesday subpoenaed Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Gina McCarthy for her cell phone billing records and emails.
The subpoena by the Committee on Science, Space and Technology was issued at 1 p.m. Wednesday and seeks the records after the agency failed on at least 10 prior requests from the panel for documents on whether an estimated 5,000 text messages were improperly deleted from McCarthy’s device.
“The EPA, however, has yet to produce all requested documents and information in un-redacted format,” said committee chairman Rep. Lamar Smith, R-Texas, in a letter to McCarthy.
EPA officials provided the content of only one text message, from League of Conservation Voters President Gene Karpinski. The league is an environmental special interest group that supports aggressive regulation by McCarthy’s agency.
“Great job on the EPA comments on keystone. I feel like the end is very near…” Karpinski said. McCarthy responded: “Gene — I received your text message earlier today but I do not use text messaging for work purposes. Please make sure in the future to use my email address.”
Five days later, McCarthy asked an assistant to preserve the Karpinski text as a federal record.
“EPA would have the committee believe that of the more than 5,000 texts sent or received by you on your agency phone, the only one that related to official business and required consideration for archiving was received less than 10 days after the committee wrote to the agency requesting information about your text messages and archiving practices,” Smith said.
The letter also questioned McCarthy’s ties to Karpinski, noting his support for her Senate confirmation in a Huffington Post article. Smith also pointed out that the environmental agency sent a letter to the State Department claiming the Keystone XL pipeline risked inflicting environmental damage. Karpinski’s league issued a similar statement the following day.
“Coincidentally, this committee sent you a letter the following week regarding the independence, integrity, accuracy and independence of EPA’s letter citing risks of Keystone,” Smith said. “EPA has yet to produce the committee any documents responsive to that request.”
Smith threatened a subpoena on March 9 if the agency did not submit documents by March 13.
“We have provided [the committee] with the information they asked for and we’re happy to work with them to answer their latest questions,” agency spokeswoman Liz Purchia told the Washington Examiner on March 13.
Agency officials told the committee that telephone records were delayed because phone numbers of McCarthy’s friends were being redacted.
“EPA insists that the committee’s oversight obligations are satisfied by the production of heavily redacted phone records that do not allow the committee to verify the agency’s claims,” Smith said. “Excluding phone numbers of ‘friends’ raises serious concerns and is insufficient for the committee’s oversight purposes.”
