WASHINGTON â The Internal Revenue Service isnât the only government agency dealing with missing emails or faulty hard drives.
Environmental Protection Agency administrator Gina McCarthy on Wednesday cited a similar cyber snafu during a House Oversight Committee hearing.
âAnother missing hard drive?â Rep. Mark Meadows, R-NC, asked McCarthy.
She responded, âWe are having trouble acquiring the data.â
Wednesdayâs hearing was called in response to allegations of rampant employee misconduct as well as a pattern of obstruction of oversight efforts by the committee.
Rep. Darrell Issa, R-Calif., threatened to hold the EPA in contempt of Congress over subpoenaed documents he claimed her agency was purposely withholding.
âYou have not complied with the subpoena,â Issa charged. âIâm informing you today that it is my intention to hold the Environmental Protection Agency in contempt.â
The EPA is being accused of slow-walking several requests by the House committee to provide lawmakers with documents involving alleged employee misconduct on a number of thorny issues, including conflicts among the EPA, the Office of Inspector General and agency management as well as the EPAâs action related to the veto of the controversial Pebble Mine project in Alaska.
Lawmakers at the hearing wanted McCarthy to address lost emails from a hard-drive crash at the agency that wiped out some emails from former employee Philip North to his bosses at the EPA over the controversial Alaska mine project.
Complicating matters, North has gone off the proverbial grid, making it difficult for lawmakers to issue a subpoena for him to testify.
Rep. Kerry Bentivolio, R-Mich., asked McCarthy if she knew where North was.
âNo sir, I donât know that,â she responded.
Bentivolio pressed McCarthy about claims Northâs hard drive crashed, making some of his emails unavailable.
McCarthy said the EPA has submitted all the documents it has been able to find and will âcontinue the search.â
âThere are some gaps, but we have submitted significant amounts,â McCarthy said.
Emails from North, now retired, recently surfaced that seemed to show the Alaska-based biologist tried to get the Pebble Mine project killed as far back as 2008.
Those emails -- and memos indicating government officials worked early on with tribal leaders and environmental groups to oppose the venture -- raised questions about the agency's claims that when it ultimately vetoed the gold-and-copper mine project, it did so based on scientific evidence.
Emails from Northâs account show that he âappeared to have played a key role in the EPAâs decision to pursue a veto,â Caitlin Carroll, a spokeswoman for the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee, told FoxNews.com.
When he was still reachable, North was asked multiple times to come in and talk to lawmakers about the project. He offered up a list of complications that prevented him from meeting with the government, including a pre-planned, one-year boat ride around the world with his school-aged children.
North Carolina Rep. Mark Meadows asked McCarthy whether North had backed up his emails and suggested there might be a violation of federal record-keeping rules.
McCarthy said she notified the National Archives of the matter Tuesday, adding, âI am still hoping we recover all the emails.â
The Internal Revenue Service has been at the center of a controversy over allegations that it unfairly targeted conservative groups applying for tax-exempt status. On Tuesday, the nationâs top archivist told Congress that the agency did not follow the law when it failed to report the loss of records belonging to former IRS official Lois Lerner.
In June 2011, Lernerâs computer crashed, taking with it records that were sought in the investigation. The IRS said it tried to recover the lost data but ultimately could not.
http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2014/06/25/more-missing-emails-crashed-hard-drives-this-time-at-epa/
Environmental Protection Agency administrator Gina McCarthy on Wednesday cited a similar cyber snafu during a House Oversight Committee hearing.
âAnother missing hard drive?â Rep. Mark Meadows, R-NC, asked McCarthy.
She responded, âWe are having trouble acquiring the data.â
Wednesdayâs hearing was called in response to allegations of rampant employee misconduct as well as a pattern of obstruction of oversight efforts by the committee.
Rep. Darrell Issa, R-Calif., threatened to hold the EPA in contempt of Congress over subpoenaed documents he claimed her agency was purposely withholding.
âYou have not complied with the subpoena,â Issa charged. âIâm informing you today that it is my intention to hold the Environmental Protection Agency in contempt.â
The EPA is being accused of slow-walking several requests by the House committee to provide lawmakers with documents involving alleged employee misconduct on a number of thorny issues, including conflicts among the EPA, the Office of Inspector General and agency management as well as the EPAâs action related to the veto of the controversial Pebble Mine project in Alaska.
Lawmakers at the hearing wanted McCarthy to address lost emails from a hard-drive crash at the agency that wiped out some emails from former employee Philip North to his bosses at the EPA over the controversial Alaska mine project.
Complicating matters, North has gone off the proverbial grid, making it difficult for lawmakers to issue a subpoena for him to testify.
Rep. Kerry Bentivolio, R-Mich., asked McCarthy if she knew where North was.
âNo sir, I donât know that,â she responded.
Bentivolio pressed McCarthy about claims Northâs hard drive crashed, making some of his emails unavailable.
McCarthy said the EPA has submitted all the documents it has been able to find and will âcontinue the search.â
âThere are some gaps, but we have submitted significant amounts,â McCarthy said.
Emails from North, now retired, recently surfaced that seemed to show the Alaska-based biologist tried to get the Pebble Mine project killed as far back as 2008.
Those emails -- and memos indicating government officials worked early on with tribal leaders and environmental groups to oppose the venture -- raised questions about the agency's claims that when it ultimately vetoed the gold-and-copper mine project, it did so based on scientific evidence.
Emails from Northâs account show that he âappeared to have played a key role in the EPAâs decision to pursue a veto,â Caitlin Carroll, a spokeswoman for the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee, told FoxNews.com.
When he was still reachable, North was asked multiple times to come in and talk to lawmakers about the project. He offered up a list of complications that prevented him from meeting with the government, including a pre-planned, one-year boat ride around the world with his school-aged children.
North Carolina Rep. Mark Meadows asked McCarthy whether North had backed up his emails and suggested there might be a violation of federal record-keeping rules.
McCarthy said she notified the National Archives of the matter Tuesday, adding, âI am still hoping we recover all the emails.â
The Internal Revenue Service has been at the center of a controversy over allegations that it unfairly targeted conservative groups applying for tax-exempt status. On Tuesday, the nationâs top archivist told Congress that the agency did not follow the law when it failed to report the loss of records belonging to former IRS official Lois Lerner.
In June 2011, Lernerâs computer crashed, taking with it records that were sought in the investigation. The IRS said it tried to recover the lost data but ultimately could not.
http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2014/06/25/more-missing-emails-crashed-hard-drives-this-time-at-epa/
