{"database": "press", "table": "releases", "rows": [["http://lamarsmith.house.gov/media-center/in-the-news/noaa-officials-finally-surrender-staff-emails-to-lawmakers", "NOAA Officials FINALLY Surrender Staff Emails To Lawmakers", "2015-12-16", "2015", "2015-12", "Republican", "House", "TX", "Lamar Smith", "S000583", "lamarsmith.house.gov", null, null, "legacy", "The battle between National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) officials and congressional investigators may be winding down as bureaucrats have finally handed over emails to lawmakers after months of refusing to do so.\nI am encouraged by NOAAs acknowledgment of its obligation to produce documents and communications in response to the Committees lawfully-issued subpoena, Texas Republican Rep. Lamar Smith said in a statement after NOAA handed over its initial batch of records to the HouseCommittee on Science, Space, and Technology. I am also glad to see that NOAA has committed to produce additional items as they are identified. We will carefully review these documents and expect additional productions from NOAA, Smith said.\nFor months, Smith and NOAA have been locked in a battle over email records between agency officials regarding a June study by government scientists claiming toeliminate the hiatus in global warming from the temperature record. Smith quickly requested agency records related to the highly controversial study by NOAA scientist Tom Karl.\nNOAA gave Smith some of the records he asked for, like the methodology and data behind the agencys study, but officials refused to hand over email records from its staff. Smith eventually issued a subpoena in September, demanding the records NOAA was withholding from elected officials.\nNOAA refused and launched a vicious media push to make Smiths request about trying to force scientists to give up emails about their research. Smith slammed NOAA for spreading a false narrative about his committees investigation.\nNOAA told a reporter in October that [w]e stand behind our scientistswho conduct their work in an objective manner. It is the end product of exchanges between scientists that are key to understanding the conclusions reached. NOAA said it wanted to protect the confidentiality of deliberative scientific discussions.\nSmiths NOAA investigation sparked a massive media backlash. Liberal news outlets attacked Smith for demanding emails from taxpayer-funded scientists. Vox said Smiths investigations are Orwellian attempts to intimidate some of the nations leading scientistsand scientific institutions.\nScience groups also attacked Smiths investigation  though a Daily Caller News Foundation story exposed that one major science groups letter to Smith wasdrafted by an environmental activist.\nNOAA eventually agreed to allowing House science committee staff to interview officials about the June climate study, though the agency still refused to hand over emails to the committee.\nSmith, however, then came out and saidagency whistleblowers told the committee NOAAs major hiatus-busting studywas rushed and was published before all appropriate reviews of the underlying science.\nNow NOAA has handedover the first tranche of emails to Smiths staff, except for emails from agency scientists responsible for Junes study  Republican staffers opted to get non-scientist emails from NOAA.", 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": ["http://lamarsmith.house.gov/media-center/in-the-news/noaa-officials-finally-surrender-staff-emails-to-lawmakers"], "units": {}, "query_ms": 0.8232630789279938, "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"}