{"database": "press", "table": "releases", "rows": [["https://newhouse.house.gov/media-center/press-releases/five-months-after-epa-distressed-what-s-upstream-campaign-still-no", "Five Months after EPA Distressed by Whats Upstream Campaign, Still No Answers from EPA", "2016-09-20", "2016", "2016-09", "Republican", "House", "WA", "Dan Newhouse", "N000189", "newhouse.house.gov", null, null, "legacy", "WASHINGTON, D.C. \u2013 Today, Rep. Dan Newhouse (R-WA), led a letter to Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Gina McCarthy requesting an update on the agency\u2019s review of the anti-farmer \u201cWhat\u2019s Upstream\u201d campaign in Washington State. EPA Region 10 funded the What\u2019s Upstream website and advocacy campaign that attempts to influence legislators for greater regulation of farmers and ranchers.\u00a0The letter requests an update on the agency\u2019s progress assembling facts and enacting reforms to ensure appropriated funds are not being used in contravention of the law. In April of this year, Administrator McCarthy acknowledged that the EPA was \u201cdistressed by the use of the money and the tone of [the What\u2019s Upstream] campaign\u201d and called for a full review of the use of taxpayer funds for the campaign. The letter sent today was signed by House Agriculture Committee Chairman Mike Conaway (R-TX), Rep. Rick Crawford (R-AR), Rep. Bob Gibbs (R-OH), Rep. Collin C. Peterson (D-MN), and Rep. David Scott (D-GA).\nThe Members wrote in the letter:\n\u201cIn light of the Government Accountability Office\u2019s (GAO) finding that EPA violated the Antideficiency Act and federal appropriations law by promoting the Waters of the Unites States (WOTUS) rule, followed so closely by the revelation of misuse of funds to lobby state legislators through the \u2018What\u2019s Upstream\u2019 campaign, we are growing increasingly concerned about EPA\u2019s use of taxpayer dollars. As we await the Office of Inspector General\u2019s (OIG) report on the \u2018What\u2019s Upstream\u2019 campaign and discuss the need for and scope of potential legislative reform, an update from EPA on what proactive steps have been taken to address this disturbing trend could help better direct our conversations.\u201d\nBackground:\nIn April, the EPA admitted that it should not have funded a campaign\u00a0in Washington State known as\u00a0What's Upstream, due to that campaign\u2019s brazen lobbying of state legislators in contravention of federal law. The What's Upstream\u00a0campaign, which was wholly funded by the EPA, used grant awards to fund a website, radio ads, and billboards depicting dead fish and polluted water, urging individuals to contact their state legislators and, \u201chold the agricultural industry to the same level of responsibility as other industries.\u201d A large, red button on the website labeled, \u201cTake action! We\u2019ve made it simple,\u201d allowed visitors to easily send an email to their state legislators advocating for 100-foot stream buffer zones and other policies. An\u00a0EPA Inspector General\u2019s report from 2014\u00a0had warned that the EPA region responsible for awarding the grant had insufficient protections in place to ensure awardees were not using funds for advocacy, propaganda, and/or lobbying efforts.\nAccording to a December\u00a02015 report by the Government Accountability Office (GAO), the\u00a0EPA violated federal lobbying and advocacy\u00a0laws by funding social media campaigns supporting EPA\u2019s Waters of the United States (WOTUS) Rule.\nLast week, Rep. Newhouse voted to pass legislation he joined in introducing with Rep. Tim Walberg (R-MI): H.R. 5226, the Regulatory Integrity Act of 2016, would direct each federal agency to provide transparency into the proposed rule process by requiring agencies to post, in a central location, all the public comments they issue during the proposed rule stage. The bill prohibits agencies from lobbying or campaigning in support of proposed rules and establishes clear standards of what that type of activity would include.\nTo read the full text of the letter to the EPA, click here.", 1, "2026-03-30T12:14:52Z", "2026-03-30T12:14:52Z"]], "columns": ["url", "title", "date", "year", "month", "party", "chamber", "state", "member_name", "bioguide_id", "domain", "scraper", "source", "date_source", "text", "has_text", "collected_at", "updated_at"], "primary_keys": ["url"], "primary_key_values": ["https://newhouse.house.gov/media-center/press-releases/five-months-after-epa-distressed-what-s-upstream-campaign-still-no"], "units": {}, "query_ms": 0.7868502289056778, "source": "dwillis/congress-press", "source_url": "https://github.com/dwillis/congress-press", "license": "MIT", "license_url": "https://github.com/dwillis/congress-press/blob/main/LICENSE"}