{"id":856794,"date":"2021-10-07T14:28:31","date_gmt":"2021-10-07T18:28:31","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=856794"},"modified":"2021-10-07T14:28:35","modified_gmt":"2021-10-07T18:28:35","slug":"fired-epa-official-sues-biden-administration-over-alleged-purging-of-top-officials","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/fired-epa-official-sues-biden-administration-over-alleged-purging-of-top-officials\/","title":{"rendered":"Fired EPA Official Sues Biden Administration Over Alleged Purging Of Top Officials"},"content":{"rendered":"<aside class=\"mashsb-container mashsb-main mashsb-stretched\"><div class=\"mashsb-box\"><div class=\"mashsb-count mash-medium\" style=\"&quot;\"><div class=\"counts mashsbcount\">24<\/div><span class=\"mashsb-sharetext\">SHARES<\/span><\/div><div class=\"mashsb-buttons\"><a class=\"mashicon-facebook mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/sharer.php?u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.conservativenewsdaily.net%2Fbreaking-news%2Ffired-epa-official-sues-biden-administration-over-alleged-purging-of-top-officials%2F\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Facebook<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-twitter mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/intent\/tweet?text=&amp;url=https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=856794&amp;via=ConservNewsDly\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Twitter<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-subscribe mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"#\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Subscribe<\/span><\/a><div class=\"onoffswitch2 mash-medium mashsb-noshadow\" style=\"display:none\"><\/div><\/div>\n            <\/div>\n                <div style=\"clear:both\"><\/div><\/aside>\n            <!-- Share buttons by mashshare.net - Version: 4.0.47--><ul>\n<li><strong>A former Environmental Protection Agency official who was fired shortly after President Joe Biden took office alleged that the agency is illegally purging its ranks in a lawsuit filed Thursday.<\/strong><\/li>\n<li><strong>\u201cYoung vs. EPA is a hugely important lawsuit. The law requires that EPA seek scientific advice from an independent and balanced panel of qualified scientists as part of its policy-making process,\u201d Energy &amp; Environment Legal Institute Senior Policy Fellow Steve Milloy said in a statement shared with the Daily Caller News Foundation.<\/strong><\/li>\n<li><strong>The lawsuit alleged that the EPA\u2019s actions violated the Federal Advisory Committee Act of 1972, which requires federal advisory committees to be \u201cfairly balanced in terms of the points of view represented.\u201d<\/strong><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>A former Environmental Protection Agency official who was fired shortly after President Joe Biden took office alleged that the agency is illegally purging its ranks in a lawsuit filed Thursday.<\/p>\n<p>Stanley Young served a 3-year term on the Environmental Protection Agency\u2019s (EPA) Science Advisory Board (SAB) between 2017 and 2020, and Young was reappointed for another term set to expire in 2023, <a href=\"https:\/\/storage.courtlistener.com\/recap\/gov.uscourts.dcd.236288\/gov.uscourts.dcd.236288.1.0_1.pdf\">according<\/a> to the complaint. But after EPA Administrator Michael Regan took office in March, Young\u2019s tenure was cut short and he was fired along with every other SAB member.<\/p>\n<p>The complaint alleges that the EPA\u2019s actions violated the Federal Advisory Committee Act of 1972 (FACA) which <a href=\"https:\/\/www.gsa.gov\/policy-regulations\/policy\/federal-advisory-committee-management\/legislation-and-regulations\/the-federal-advisory-committee-act\">requires<\/a> federal advisory committees to be \u201cfairly balanced in terms of the points of view represented.\u201d&nbsp;<strong><a href=\"https:\/\/dailycaller.com\/2021\/06\/23\/republicans-oversight-financial-service-committee-joe-biden\/\">(RELATED: EXCLUSIVE: More Top Republicans Pressure IG To Probe Biden\u2019s Hiring Practices)<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n<p>\u201cYoung vs. EPA is a hugely important lawsuit. The law requires that EPA seek scientific advice from an independent and balanced panel of qualified scientists as part of its policy-making process,\u201d Energy &amp; Environment Legal Institute Senior Policy Fellow Steve Milloy said in a statement shared with the Daily Caller News Foundation. \u201cThe Biden EPA has turned the law on its head by first deciding what its policy is and then stacking the panel with its cronies.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cDr. Stan Young and other applicants were rejected by EPA from panel membership not because they are unqualified, but because they have points of view that might jeopardize EPA\u2019s pre-determined policy plans,\u201d he continued.<\/p>\n<p>After Young and his colleagues were promptly fired, Regan filled the SAB with dozens of academics who are \u201cfinancially beholden to EPA for multi-million dollar research grants,\u201d according to the lawsuit. This allegedly violates a second FACA provision which orders agencies to take measures to ensure advisory committees \u201cwill not be inappropriately influenced by the appointing authority or by any special interest.\u201d<\/p>\n<div id=\"attachment_7297567\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" readability=\"33\">\n<p id=\"caption-attachment-7297567\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">EPA Administrator Michael Regan testifies during a Senate Appropriations hearing on June 9. (Kevin Dietsch\/Getty Images)<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p>Young had also been nominated to serve on the EPA\u2019s seven-member Clean Air Scientific Advisory Committee (CASAC) before Regan was sworn in. The EPA chose not to select him for the committee.<\/p>\n<p>The EPA never argued that Regan or the other fired officials had been unqualified for the positions they held, the lawsuit stated. After the mass firing, Regan said the EPA would be able to ensure it \u201creceives the best possible scientific insight,\u201d CNN <a href=\"https:\/\/www.cnn.com\/2021\/03\/31\/politics\/environmental-protection-agency-trump-appointees\/index.html;\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">reported<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIt\u2019s outrageous that the Biden-Harris EPA fired the existing CASAC board and then scuttled conflict-of-interest rules so that it could stack what should be an independent panel with reviewers who will essentially be reviewing their own EPA-funded work,\u201d said Myron Ebell, the director of the Center for Energy and Environment at the Competitive Enterprise Institute.<\/p>\n<p>Young\u2019s lawsuit further alleged that the Biden administration violated the Administrative Procedure Act (APA) when it reconstituted the two committees. The APA requires federal agencies to provide good enough reasons for regulations they put in place.<\/p>\n<p>In June, Republicans <a href=\"https:\/\/dailycaller.com\/2021\/06\/18\/pat-toomey-joe-biden-consumer-financial-protection-bureau-banking-committee\/\">raised the alarm<\/a> after a Government Executive&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.govexec.com\/management\/2021\/06\/biden-employs-aggressive-strategy-sideline-top-career-officials-consumer-protection-bureau\/174711\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">report<\/a> laid out how the Biden administration allegedly used dubious means to force senior Consumer Financial Protection Bureau officials to retire.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe Biden Administration using potentially unlawful actions to force out career staff simply because they\u2019re not liberal enough should be concerning for all members of Congress,\u201d House Committee on Small Business Ranking Member <a href=\"https:\/\/dailycaller.com\/2021\/06\/23\/republicans-oversight-financial-service-committee-joe-biden\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Blaine Luetkemeyer<\/a> told the DCNF at the time.<\/p>\n<p>The EPA didn\u2019t immediately respond to a request for comment.<\/p>\n<p>Content created by The Daily Caller News Foundation is available without charge to any eligible news publisher that can provide a large audience. For licensing opportunities of our original content, please contact <a href=\"mailto:licensing@dailycallernewsfoundation.org\">licensing@dailycallernewsfoundation.org<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>A former Environmental Protection Agency official who was fired shortly after President Joe Biden took office alleged that the agency is illegally purging its ranks in a lawsuit filed Thursday. &#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":2315279,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mo_disable_npp":"","fifu_image_url":"","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-856794","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/856794","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=856794"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/856794\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2315279"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=856794"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=856794"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=856794"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}