Brooks joins effort to impeach EPA chief Gina McCarthy: She must be held accountable

EPA Administrator Gina McCarthy and Alabama Congressman Mo Brooks

WASHINGTON — Alabama Congressman Mo Brooks (R-AL5) has signed on to a resolution calling for the impeachment of Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) Administrator Gina McCarthy, sponsored by Congressman Paul Gosar (R-AZ5).

In recent months the EPA and its leadership have come under heightened scrutiny as several high profile mistakes and increasingly intrusive regulations unable to be checked by Congress threaten to put in jeopardy the property rights and environmental safety of millions of Americans.

Brooks and the 19 other members of the U.S. House who have signed on as cosponsors of Gosar’s resolution believe McCarthy has knowingly misled Congress during her tenure.

“According to the best available evidence, in order to support the EPA’s job-killing agenda that undermines America’s economy while driving up the cost of living for struggling American families, Administrator McCarthy made false statements under oath to implement the EPA’s misguided and overreaching federal agenda,” said Brooks in a release. “The EPA’s expansive policy changes inflict unnecessary economic harm on our communities and increase costs on American families, all with little or no scientific basis to validate these pursuits.”

The resolution for impeachment centers around three specific instances of alleged perjury and making false statements during congressional hearings regarding the highly controversial expansion of the Waters of the United States Rule, “WOTUS.”

The new rule seeks to extend the EPA and Army Corps of Engineers’ regulatory reach to an indefinite number of small bodies of water, including roadside ditches, temporary streams or “any waters located within the 100-year floodplain of a traditional navigable water.”

The rule has been blocked by a federal judge in at least 13 states, with 17 others, including Alabama, filing suit against it as well.

Brooks says McCarthy must be held accountable by Congress, as the Justice Department’s allegiances lie with the Obama administration.

“McCarthy’s false statements to Congress have misled both the American people and Washington policy makers. Administrator McCarthy’s reprehensible conduct cannot be ignored and must be dealt with accordingly. Inasmuch as the Justice Department has become a political tool of the White House, wherein political allies of the White House are all-too-often protected while political foes are targeted, it is up to Congress to impeach Administrator McCarthy because that is the only way to hold her accountable for her false statements under oath.”

Though Brooks is the only member of Alabama’s delegation to cosponsor the resolution thus far, several other of the Yellowhammer State’s representatives have been outspoken about the Agency’s overreach during McCarthy’s tenure.

This Summer, Congressman Gary Palmer (R-AL6), joined twelve other members of the Science, Space, and Technology Committee in signing a letter to EPA Administrator Gina McCarthy calling claims she made during testimony before the Committee in July about the impact of the EPA’s regulatory agenda “false and misleading.”

“During the hearing, Administrator McCarthy appears to have made false and misleading statements regarding the slate of new rules and regulations being pursued by the EPA,” said Palmer. “These statements underscore my concerns about the lengths that the EPA is willing to go to in order to justify regulations not supported by science, but that will have an enormously negative impact on individuals, families, and the economy as a whole.”

Representative Bradley Byrne (R-AL1) has often echoed concerns over new EPA regulations, writing in an op-ed published by Yellowhammer News Monday, “This proposed rule would have an especially harmful impact on our farmers and foresters. Here in Alabama, we know how important the forestry and agriculture industries are to our state’s economy. Studies show that farming, forestry, livestock and crop production, and associated industries have an annual economic impact of more than $70 billion, making agriculture the top industry in Alabama. In the First District alone, agriculture employs more than 102,000 people and has an impact of over $12 billion.”

“I’ve heard from countless farmers, foresters and families in Alabama who are under threat of being aggressively and unnecessarily penalized by federal water regulators,” said Rep. Martha Roby (R-AL2) after every Alabama U.S. House Republican voted to block the WOTUS rule. “Trying to expand the definition of navigable waters to include puddles and ditches has never made sense. It reeks of a radical environmental agenda being forced on Americans, and Congress is right to take steps to stop it.”