Senate Republicans keep watchful eye on environment agency

Republicans on the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee have vowed to follow up promises to increase transparency at the Environmental Protection Agency made by Gina McCarthy, President Barack Obama’s nominee to head the EPA, during her 11 April confirmation hearing.

At a committee hearing, ranking Republican David Vitter, from Louisiana, and his Republican colleagues expressed repeated concerns that EPA lacks transparency, often fails to provide background scientific data supporting its regulatory decisions and has tendency to create costly new rules for industry.

"McCarthy did make some promises, like providing cost-benefit analysis for rulemaking and producing the data behind EPA’s science, which has long been kept a secret, and I intend to follow up with her immediately," Vitter said in a statement released on 12 April.