Today, House Committee on Natural Resources Chairman Bruce Westerman (R-Ark.) and House Committee on Oversight and Accountability Chairman James Comer (R-Ky.) led a letter to U.S. Department of the Interior (DOI) Secretary Deb Haaland investigating the Biden-Harris administration’s establishment of government-wide scientific integrity committees with the intent to interfere with the executive authority of future presidential administrations. In part, the members wrote:

“It is likely that the goal of these scientific integrity efforts is less to ensure the best science is considered when making policy decisions and more to buttress support for and entrench far-left progressive policies in the administrative state. Indeed, recent reporting indicates that the Biden-Harris administration is using “scientific integrity” to proactively respond to and hamstring the incoming Trump administration’s ability to implement its own executive agendas and discredit scientific information and views that are not in keeping with the mainstream consensus or are based on emerging research challenging the status quo. This would be a subversion of the idea that agency leaders appointed by a President accountable to the electorate should execute the will of the people consistent with the law, and not implement the individual policy agendas of career bureaucrats.  

“The Committees are deeply concerned by recent reports of violations of DOI’s own scientific integrity policy, whistleblower retaliation, and fraud.  For example, DOI’s Office of the Inspector General recently released a report finding that the U. S. Geological Survey (USGS) “lacks sufficient internal controls in laboratories to identify vulnerabilities and prevent losses associated with breaches of scientific integrity and misconduct.”  Worse yet, the agency had years to respond to these issues and failed miserably, according to the same report. In addition to failing to maintain sufficient controls over scientific integrity policies, DOI is currently dealing with an onslaught of investigations regarding retaliation and fraud across its various bureaus. Over the last two years, a number of senior-level officials at the DOI have been found in violation of the department’s own ethics policies, including the former DOI Deputy Secretary Tommy P. Beaudreau and Principal Deputy Director of the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) Nada Culver.”

Read the full letter here.

Background

Together, the House Committee on Natural Resources and the House Committee on Oversight and Accountability are continuing an investigation into the Biden-Harris administration’s establishment of scientific integrity committees and concerns around these committees’ intent and activity. The House Committee on Oversight and Accountability previously sent similar letters, as part of the initial investigation, to Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Michael Regan and U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Secretary Xavier Becerra.

The Biden-Harris administration issued a Presidential Memorandum directing the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy to establish a Task Force on Scientific Integrity and publish a report on federal agencies’ scientific-integrity policies. In this memorandum, each agency head was directed to establish agency-specific scientific integrity policies, designate chief science officers and scientific integrity officials and form scientific advisory committees. The memorandum’s approach politicizes science by increasing political involvement in processes and improperly empowering federal bureaucrats to advance their own agendas, regardless of the science or leadership in charge.