Letter to President George W. Bush

August 26, 2003

President George W. Bush
The White House
1600 Pennsylvania Avenue, N.W.
Washington, D.C. 20500

Dear President Bush:

We write with great concern regarding the recent revelations disclosed by the Inspector General of the Environmental Protection Agency that EPA officials were prevented from disseminating their best professional advice regarding the risks from air pollution and air quality around Ground Zero. While we have before noted our discomfort with the lack of clarity in EPA communications in the days following September 11, we are outraged by the apparently conscious decision by your White House to provide more reassuring advice to the public than was merited by the facts. We therefore request, in the name of public health, that you both take immediate action to ensure that New York's air quality is as safe as promised and provide an expeditious and thorough response to our inquiries in this letter.

On February 11, 2002, we convened a field hearing of the Senate Clean Air, Wetlands and Climate Change Subcommittee to inquire into issues of air quality in New York City after the September 11 attacks. As members of the committee charged with overseeing EPA, as well as representatives of the citizens of Connecticut and New York, we were troubled by the confusing and contradictory messages that the federal government was sending regarding the quality of air in downtown New York City. In particular, we sought to establish the reason for Administrator Christine Todd Whitman's statement on September 18, 2001 that the air in New York was "safe to breathe," when various other government sources were producing conflicting information. At that hearing, we were told that the unclear announcements from the government were largely due to bureaucratic miscommunication.

With the release of the EPA Inspector General's report, however, it appears that the true reason for the government's confusing announcements may be somewhat darker. In her August 21, 2003 report, the Inspector General concluded that:
EPA's early statement that the air was safe to breathe was incomplete in that it lacked necessary qualifications and thus was not supported by the data available at the time. CEQ influenced the final message in EPA's air quality statements. Competing considerations, such as national security concerns and the desire to reopen Wall Street, also played a role in EPA's air quality statements. The "safety" of the air in Lower Manhattan after the collapse of the WTC towers is still being debated and studied. However, given the current lack of health-based benchmarks, the lack of research data on synergistic effects, and the lack of reliable information on the extent of the public's exposure to these pollutants, the answer to whether the outdoor air around WTC was "safe" to breathe may not be settled for years to come.

The most disturbing conclusions of the Inspector General's report concern the role of your White House in controlling this information. In particular, the IG stated that:

[B]ased on the documentation we reviewed and our discussions with numerous environmental experts, both within and outside of EPA, we do not agree that the Agency's statement on September 18, 2001 that the air was safe to breathe reflected the Agency's best professional advice. In contrast, based on the circumstances outlined in Chapter 2 of the report, it appeared that EPA's best professional advice was overruled when relaying information to the public in the weeks immediately following the disaster. (emphasis added).

For example, the Inspector General's report notes that White House officials:

(1) removed EPA recommendations that all area residents obtain professional cleaning of their homes and offices;
(2) removed any reference to the increased risks from the air pollution posed to sensitive populations such as young children or the elderly;
and
(3) removed cautionary statements from a September 16, 2001 press release and added reassuring statements.

If the allegations contained in the Inspector General's report are true, as they appear to be, then the conduct of this White House with regard to this issue was galling and beyond comprehension. As we were told at our hearing on February 11, 2002, EPA's communications were relied upon by workers to decide whether or not to go back to their offices and job sites and by residents to decide whether or not to move back into their homes. We particularly recall the plight of parents of school children that were struggling with the question of whether to send their kids back to schools in the area of Ground Zero. For EPA to have provided anything but their best professional advice to those parents is inexcusable; for the White House to have edited out that advice - including information regarding the heightened risks that the air pollution might pose for young children - is nothing but malfeasance.

White House representatives have argued against the Inspector General's findings in recent days by stating that the editorial choices made by the White House were necessary for national security reasons. While no one could dispute that the September 11 attacks created a national security crisis, we do not believe such a crisis could justify misleading the public on such an essential issue as the quality of the air they breathe. To say otherwise would essentially tell the public that, in the times when citizens need their government the most, they should believe it the least.

As a result, we request a thorough and expeditious accounting of what transpired in the White House that resulted in the editing of EPA's press releases. In particular, we request the following:

(1) the identification of the White House officials, referred to in the Inspector General's report, that exercised editorial control over EPA's press releases;
(2) the rationale for all editorial choices made by those White House officials, including but not limited to the editorial changes referenced in the Inspector General's report; and
(3) all communication between the White House and EPA regarding air quality in downtown New York City, including but not limited to all communication between those offices concerning the editorial changes made to EPA press releases.

We also believe that you must immediately undertake efforts to assure the New York City public that the air quality surrounding Ground Zero is as safe as was advertised in September 2001. In particular, we call upon you to implement the following steps outlined by the Inspector General in her proposal:

(1) implement a post-cleaning testing program to ensure that the indoor cleanup program has reduced residents' risk of exposure,
(2) implement a post-cleaning verification program to ensure that residences cleaned by the program have not been re-contaminated, and
(3) work with FEMA and OSHA to assess whether ongoing residential testing and cleaning program should be expanded to address potential contamination in workspaces in Lower Manhattan, or whether other measures need to be taken to ensure that workspaces are not contaminated with WTC dust.

Given the severity of the allegations contained in the Inspector General's report, we must request that you respond to this request by September 5, 2003. If you have any questions regarding this request, please contact Tim Profeta with Senator Lieberman at 224-4041 or Tamera Luzzatto with Senator Clinton at 224-5694.

Sincerely,

Hillary Clinton
United States Senator

Joe Lieberman
United States Senator