In a move that appears to break her department’s policy, Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Gina McCarthy deleted text messages from her agency phone, which left U.S. Rep. Lamar Smith (R-Texas) wondering if she had something to hide.
“Why delete thousands of text messages unless you have something to hide?,” Smith asked. “Americans deserve transparency from their government officials. Administrator McCarthy should either stop deleting text messages or stop texting.”
Smith, the chairman of the House Science, Space and Technology Committee, sent a letter to EPA Inspector General Arthur A. Elkins Jr. on Monday requesting a review of the EPA’s records management policies, stating federal guidelines clearly say text messages between agency heads and their colleagues must be preserved.
“Despite promises to create an ‘unprecedented level of openness in government,’ this administration routinely withholds information from the public,” Smith said. “Particularly at the EPA, there appears to be a pattern of behavior directed at subverting transparency and accountability.”
At the time it notified the National Archives that the text messages were lost, the EPA stated that text messages aren’t records and there is no evidence McCarthy’s messages should have been preserved as official documents.
The text messages were requested in a Freedom of Information Act request filed by a researcher at the Competitive Enterprise Institute who wanted to detail McCarthy’s work with the EPA’s coal regulations.