Washington, DC — U.S. Senators Barbara Boxer (D-CA) and Frank Lautenberg (D-NJ) yesterday called on Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) Administrator Stephen Johnson to protect vital records currently held in EPA libraries.

In a letter co-signed by 11 other senators, Boxer and Lautenberg asked Administrator Johnson to ensure that EPA does not destroy public health and environmental information held in any EPA library. The letter also asked that reference materials describing the location and content of all library material be compiled and preserved for future access.

The letter states, “Over the last 36 years, EPA has accumulated a vast and invaluable trove of public health and environmental information…Each one of EPA’s libraries also had information experts who helped EPA staff and the public to access and use Agency information.” The letter goes on to say, “Now, EPA officials appear to be rushing to dismantle the foundation of the Agency’s accumulated knowledge.”

The Senators sent a letter on November 3 of this month calling on Senate appropriators to direct EPA “to restore and maintain public access and onsite library collections and services…while the Agency solicits and considers public input on its plan to drastically cut its library budget and services.”

The GAO is currently investigating EPA’s library closures.

Attached is a PDF of the Boxer/Lautenberg letter.