{"database": "press", "table": "releases", "rows": [["https://newhouse.house.gov/media-center/press-releases/newhouse-demands-epa-halt-federal-grants-during-ongoing-investigation", "Newhouse Demands EPA Halt Federal Grants during Ongoing Investigation into Whats Upstream", "2016-12-06", "2016", "2016-12", "Republican", "House", "WA", "Dan Newhouse", "N000189", "newhouse.house.gov", null, null, "legacy", "WASHINGTON, D.C. \u2013 Today, Rep. Dan Newhouse (R-WA), expressed his extreme concern to Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) Administrator Gina McCarthy regarding the agency\u2019s decision to continue awarding federal grants despite an ongoing investigation into the misuse of taxpayer dollars in the anti-farmer \u201cWhat\u2019s Upstream\u201d campaign in Washington State. In a letter sent today, Rep. Newhouse urged the EPA to prohibit subgrant awards to \u201cWhat\u2019s Upstream\u201d in a recent National Estuary Program grant of $25 million over five years made to the National Indian Fisheries Commission \u2013 of which organizers of \u201cWhat\u2019s Upstream\u201d were subgrant recipients \u2013 until the completion of the investigation by the EPA Office of Inspector General. Rep. Newhouse released the following statement:\n\u201cIt is unconscionable that before farmers in Washington State receive answers on how taxpayer dollars were used improperly to smear them and to lobby lawmakers, the EPA is continuing to shell out taxpayer dollars with zero accountability,\u201d said Rep. Newhouse. \u201cThe EPA has not fulfilled its promise to complete a full review of how anti-farmer propaganda was funded by the taxpayer before making additional grants. I urge Administrator McCarthy in the strongest terms to halt any further awards to subgrantees that participated in the \u2018Whats Upstream\u2019 campaign until EPA gets to the bottom of the misuse of taxpayer funds.\u201d\nRead the full text of Rep. Newhouse\u2019s letter here.\nBackground: \nEPA Region 10 funded the What\u2019s Upstream website and advocacy campaign that attempts to influence legislators for greater regulation of farmers and ranchers. 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 \u201cbefore additional monies are spent.\u201d\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, 2015 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.", 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/newhouse-demands-epa-halt-federal-grants-during-ongoing-investigation"], "units": {}, "query_ms": 1.0632118210196495, "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"}