Republicans seek probe of alleged lobbying by EPA officials

Two House Oversight and Government Reform Committee Republicans Tuesday asked the panel to probe possible lobbying by EPA officials last year for a waiver that would have allowed California to set its own auto-emission standards.

The request by House Oversight and Government Reform ranking member Tom Davis, R-Va., and Rep. Darrell Issa, R-Calif., appeared to be aimed at countering an investigation by committee Democrats into alleged Transportation Department lobbying against the waiver sought by California officials.

In a letter to House Oversight and Government Reform Chairman Henry Waxman, D-Calif., Davis and Issa cited press reports and findings by committee staff indicating that senior EPA officials responsible for evaluating California's waiver request advised "a private individual to assist in his lobbying effort to persuade the EPA administrator to grant the waiver."

Davis and Issa said those actions raise questions whether the EPA employees violated a ban on lobbying by federal officials or "otherwise misused their positions to surreptitiously influence EPA's position."

The letter compares the career EPA officials' actions to steps by Transportation Secretary Mary Peters and her aides that triggered a continuing investigation by Waxman into allegations that department officials coordinated with the auto industry to encourage lawmakers and others to press EPA for a denial of the waiver request.

EPA Administrator Stephen Johnson has declined to answer questions by committee Democrats about whether he approved the effort.

"These actions are at least as serious as those already investigated by the committee regarding" the Transportation Department, Davis and Issa wrote Waxman. The Republicans' request is the latest shot in an apparent dispute between Johnson and his career staff over the California waiver.

Citing senior EPA employees, Waxman and Senate Environment and Public Works Chairwoman Barbara Boxer, D-Calif., have said Johnson ignored the unanimous advice of his staff in rejecting the California waiver request and in other decisions opposed by environmentalists.

Davis and Issa said the head of EPA's Office of Transportation and Air Quality, which was responsible for evaluating California's request, worked with a subordinate to prepare talking points for former EPA Administrator William Reilly, a supporter of California's proposed standards, to lobby Johnson.

In a statement, Waxman said that "although the committee has found no evidence that EPA career staff lobbied members of Congress with respect to the California waiver, I will give careful consideration to the minority's request."

An EPA spokesman said the agency will cooperate with any committee investigations.