The lawmakers on multiple House committees have asked EPA why an internal report that found the widely used weed killer glyphosate probably doesn't cause cancer was taken offline after the agency briefly posted it.
Questions are being directed at senior EPA leadership and career EPA employees, who are being summoned to congressional offices for on-the-record interviews.
When it released and then removed the glyphosate documents, EPA said it and other documents were posted inadvertently and were not final. Critics noted that the title page and every subsequent page of the report is marked with the word "FINAL."
Late in 2015, EPA signaled that it wanted to release the CARC glyphosate report this spring. However, the chemical is no longer listed on EPA's review schedule for the remainder of this fiscal year.
"EPA's removal of this report and the subsequent backtracking on its finality raises questions about the agency's motivation in providing a fair assessment of glyphosate," House Science Committee Chairman Lamar Smith, R-Texas, wrote in a May 4 letter to EPA. In that letter Smith requests copies of "documents and communications" relating to the CARC report on glyphosate.
Republican and Democratic leaders of the House Ag Committee asked EPA questions about the release of the glyphosate report on May 11, and what happened to the files taken back offline.
On June 7, Smith sent another letter to EPA Administrator Gina McCarthy. In the letter, he asks for "transcribed interviews" with four EPA employees who were involved in a World Health Organization (WHO) report on glyphosate, which concluded that glyphosate was a probable carcinogen.