In an article published on April 28, 2015 in the newspaper The Hill, journalist Timothy Cama reports that the U.S. Senate Environment and Public Works (EPW) Committee voted to prohibit the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) from using “secret science” to support its regulations. The “Secret Science Reform Act, S544” was introduced in February 2015 by Senator John Barrasso, with Senate EPW Committee Chairman James Inhofe and Senators David Vitter and Deb Fischer, among the seven cosponsors. If the bill were to become a law the EPA would only be allowed to finalize, or disseminate regulations or assessments that are based on scientific studies whose detailed results are publically available. “EPA has a long history of relying on science that was not created by the agency itself. This often means that the science is not available to the public, and therefore cannot be reproduced and verified,” says Barrasso. In opposition to the bill, Democrats said the bill would cut in half the studies that the EPA can actually use, as research data are often proprietary, health-related or otherwise restricted. The White House opposes the reform and President Obama was advised to veto the bill.
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Timothy Cama (April 28, 2015). “Senators vote to block EPA’s use of ‘secret science’.” The Hill
