World Trade Center environmental data report, 2001-2002

NYC 9/11 Public Portal Document

(27) Other comments from Congress:

Rep. John Dingell, Ranking Democrat on the House Energy and Commerce Committee, stated. The White House was wrong when it told EPA to ‘add reassuring statements and delete cautionary ones’ in their report on the air quality in Lower Manhattan. This put the heroes and victims of September 11th at further, and needless risk. We need to investigate what EPA knew, and what it didn’t know. And we need an objective look at how the White House influenced EPA’s report. We can then see what needs to be done to ensure that the American public is not misled again.”

Rep. John Conyers, Ranking Democrat of the House Judiciary Committee, stated, "From providing the American public with faulty assurances to downplaying significant environmental and health risks, the EPA's IG report clearly documents a pattern and practice of corruption and cover-ups that has placed the lives of countless emergency responders, rescue volunteers and New York city residents in harms way. What's most disturbing is a majority of the actions undertaken by the Administration were carried out all in the name of political gamesmanship."

Rep. George Miller, Senior Democrat of the House Education and Workforce Committee, stated, "The men and women who put their lives on the line day and night for weeks in the Ground Zero pit and at the Pentagon have a right to know who at the White House Council on Environmental Quality whitewashed the EPA reports on the hazards at the rescue sites, as documented by the EPA inspector general; a right to know their health and safety was paramount in the minds of those federal officials charged with protecting them; and a right to compensation for the equipment they brought to protect their health, especially in light of the serious underestimations of risk by the EPA and OSHA."

Rep. Waxman, Ranking Democrat on the House Government Reform Committee, stated, "While political meddling in EPA's work is a hallmark of this Administration, it is outrageous that the White House would gag EPA from keeping the public adequately informed after a terrorist attack on our country."

In a letter to Speaker Hastert, the congress members asked that Congressional hearings be convened immediately in relevant House committees, including the Committees on Energy and Commerce, Education and the Workforce, Government Reform, and the Judiciary, to know what further action must be taken to safeguard the health and lives of those affected by the EPA's response to the terrorist attacks.

httn://www.house.gov/nadler/EPA 0917O3.htin

98

NYC-WTC_000145016