{"id":5248,"date":"2017-11-03T11:24:42","date_gmt":"2017-11-03T16:24:42","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blogs.law.columbia.edu\/climatechange\/?p=5248"},"modified":"2023-02-28T10:55:02","modified_gmt":"2023-02-28T15:55:02","slug":"scott-pruitts-attack-on-scientists-serving-on-advisory-boards-is-illegal","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.law.columbia.edu\/climatechange\/2017\/11\/03\/scott-pruitts-attack-on-scientists-serving-on-advisory-boards-is-illegal\/","title":{"rendered":"Scott Pruitt\u2019s Attack on Scientists Serving on Advisory Boards Is Illegal"},"content":{"rendered":"<div style=\"margin-top: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px;\" class=\"sharethis-inline-share-buttons\" ><\/div><p><em>By Michael Burger<\/em><\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/blogs.law.columbia.edu\/climatechange\/files\/2017\/11\/Pruitt.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-5250 alignright\" src=\"https:\/\/blogs.law.columbia.edu\/climatechange\/files\/2017\/11\/Pruitt.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"340\" height=\"226\" srcset=\"https:\/\/blogs.law.columbia.edu\/climatechange\/files\/2017\/11\/Pruitt.jpg 1024w, https:\/\/blogs.law.columbia.edu\/climatechange\/files\/2017\/11\/Pruitt-300x200.jpg 300w, https:\/\/blogs.law.columbia.edu\/climatechange\/files\/2017\/11\/Pruitt-768x512.jpg 768w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 340px) 100vw, 340px\" \/><\/a>Earlier this week EPA Administrator Scott Pruitt issued a <a href=\"https:\/\/www.epa.gov\/sites\/production\/files\/2017-10\/documents\/final_draft_fac_directive-10.31.2017.pdf\">directive<\/a> that prohibits scientists from serving on the EPA&#8217;s independent scientific advisory committees if they are currently a principal investigator or co-investigator on a research project that receives grant funding from the agency, or \u201cif they are otherwise in a position to reap substantial direct benefit from an EPA grant.\u201d Pruitt justified this unprecedented ruling on the eligibility of certain members of the public to serve on federal advisory committees by titling his directive \u201cStrengthening and Improving Membership on EPA Federal Advisory Committees\u201d and stating that committee members \u201cshall be independent from the agency.\u201d The problem, here, is that Pruitt\u2019s policy runs counter to existing conflict-of-interests law, and is on its face arbitrary and capricious, in violation of the Administrative Procedures Act.<\/p>\n<p><!--more--><\/p>\n<p>The law on conflicts of interest for \u201cspecial government employees\u201d (SGEs), such as scientists, serving on federal advisory committees is well-established.\u00a0 The Ethics in Government Act prohibits all federal employees (including SGEs) from participating in any particular matter that will have a direct and predictable effect on their financial interests. (See 18 USC \u00a7208.) The U.S. Office of Government Ethics has defined what these statutory terms mean:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>A \u201cparticular matter encompasses only matters that involve deliberation, decision, or action that is focused upon the interests of specific persons, or a discrete and identifiable class of persons.\u201d It \u201cdoes not extend to the consideration or adoption of broad policy options that are directed to the interests of a large and diverse group of persons.\u201d (5 CFR 2635.402(b)(3).) By way of example, OGE explains that \u201cparticular matters\u2026include a judicial or other proceeding, application, request for a ruling or other determination, contract, claim, controversy, charge, accusation or arrest.\u201d<\/li>\n<li>A direct and predictable effect is one that has \u201ca close causal link\u201d between the decision made and a financial effect, and where there is a \u201creal, as opposed to a speculative possibility that the matter will affect the financial interest.\u201d (5 CFR 2635.402(b)(1).) Importantly, \u201ca particular matter that has an effect on a financial interest only as a consequence of its effects on the general economy does not have a direct effect within the meaning\u201d of the regulation.<\/li>\n<li>The term \u201cfinancial interests\u201d includes ownership, such as \u201ccontingent ownership, equity, or security interest in real or personal property or a business and may include an indebtedness or compensated employment relationship.\u201d (See 5 CFR 2635.403(c).) By way of example, the regulations list \u201cinterests in the nature of stocks, bonds, partnership interests, fee and leasehold interests, mineral and other property rights, deeds of trust, and liens, and\u2026any right to purchase or acquire any such interest, such as a stock option or commodity future.\u201d<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>Here, rulemakings establishing toxicological or environmental standards \u2013 the sorts of things on which EPA\u2019s scientific advisory committees give non-binding advice \u2013 might qualify as particular matters, in some circumstances, to the extent that they regulate a discrete industry. Similarly, a standard coming out of EPA might have a direct and predictable effect on regulated entities, and those that own stock in or are employed by them. They don\u2019t have a \u201cclose causal\u201d link to scientists working in universities or in independent centers. And a scientist may be said to have a \u201cfinancial interest\u201d in a particular standard to the extent that they are employed by someone subject to it. But it is an untenable stretch of logic to say that a scientist who receives grants from EPA to study air pollution has a financial interest in any individual air pollution standard.<\/p>\n<p>However, let\u2019s just say that, for instance, an epidemiologist on a 5-year grant from EPA to study the effects of particulate matter on children\u2019s health \u2013 from which their university takes 50%; 30% goes to fund their team of researchers, their lab, operations costs, and so on; and 20% goes to fund some percentage of their salary \u2013 does somehow qualify as having a \u201cfinancial interest\u201d in the \u201cparticular matter\u201d of air pollution. Pruitt\u2019s directive still fails, for at least two reasons.<\/p>\n<p>First, a scientist serving on an advisory committee can only be prohibited from holding or acquiring such a \u201cfinancial interest\u201d if the interest would \u201ccause a reasonable\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.law.cornell.edu\/definitions\/index.php?width=840&amp;height=800&amp;iframe=true&amp;def_id=0942999f74615a77bcdb5193556c77ba&amp;term_occur=1&amp;term_src=Title:5:Chapter:XVI:Subchapter:B:Part:2635:Subpart:D:2635.403\">person<\/a>\u00a0to question the impartiality and objectivity with which\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.law.cornell.edu\/definitions\/index.php?width=840&amp;height=800&amp;iframe=true&amp;def_id=56962db691ace4f3f60fa4cb7c516d42&amp;term_occur=8&amp;term_src=Title:5:Chapter:XVI:Subchapter:B:Part:2635:Subpart:D:2635.403\">agency<\/a>\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.law.cornell.edu\/definitions\/index.php?width=840&amp;height=800&amp;iframe=true&amp;def_id=e6cf2fe6a56ed7d3141d77c748acd5b6&amp;term_occur=1&amp;term_src=Title:5:Chapter:XVI:Subchapter:B:Part:2635:Subpart:D:2635.403\">programs<\/a>\u00a0are administered,\u201d or else by an individual determination that the financial interest creates a \u201csubstantial conflict.\u201d (See 5 CFR 2635.403.)\u00a0 Here, there is no way a reasonable person would question the impartiality and objectivity of EPA\u2019s programs based on EPA-funded scientists participating in advisory committees which make nonbinding recommendations to the agency. Indeed, the whole point of the committees is to enhance the impartiality and objectivity of the programs by including just these kinds of scientists in the process. What\u2019s more, there has apparently been a collective determination, under the guise of Pruitt\u2019s directive, that advisory committee members holding grants from the agency have a \u201csubstantial conflict,\u201d but there has been no process, no notice given or comment taken, no hearing held, no record compiled, no reasoned explanation.<\/p>\n<p>Second, these scientists would qualify in almost every instance for an exemption articulated <em>for exactly this situation<\/em> \u2013 that is, an <em>exemption for employment interests of special Government employees serving on advisory committees.<\/em> (See 5 2640.203(g).) Under this provision of OGE\u2019s regulations, a scientist \u201cserving on an advisory committee\u2026may participate in any <a href=\"https:\/\/www.law.cornell.edu\/definitions\/index.php?width=840&amp;height=800&amp;iframe=true&amp;def_id=b3a596676092f09c1822b2d7bf9a31b3&amp;term_occur=2&amp;term_src=Title:5:Chapter:XVI:Subchapter:B:Part:2640:Subpart:B:2640.203\">particular matter of general applicability<\/a>\u00a0where the disqualifying financial interest arises from his non-Federal employment or non-Federal prospective employment,\u00a0<em>provided<\/em>\u00a0that the matter will not have a special or distinct effect on the\u00a0employee\u00a0or employer other than as part of a class.\u201d That is precisely the situation here. The people Pruitt is trying to exclude from serving on committees advising on environmental standards are specifically exempt from the purported conflicts of interests Pruitt has implicitly invoked.<\/p>\n<p>Setting aside the ways in which Pruitt has run afoul of federal conflict of interest laws, the directive is subject to challenge directly, under the Administrative Procedures Act. Standing on its own, the directive is a policy that is subject to arbitrary and capricious review. Given the inherent contradiction in excluding scientists who receive EPA funding but including scientists who receive funding from companies subject to EPA regulations, the rule is on its face both arbitrary and capricious. The total reversal of longstanding policy on criteria for membership in scientific advisory committees at EPA, the new policy\u2019s inconsistency with similar criteria used by other agencies that rely on science to formulate standards and policies, and the lack of any coherent explanation will all also weigh against the directive in a court of law. If the directive is understood as an interpretive rule, for instance one interpreting the federal conflicts of interest law for EPA\u2019s purposes, it will be analyzed under the <em>Skidmore<\/em> doctrine, which gives deference to agency interpretations to the extent the agency\u2019s rationale is persuasive. This is not a high level of deference, and, to put it simply, Pruitt\u2019s rationale is not persuasive.<\/p>\n<p>Before any scientists volunteer to step down, and before any withhold their applications, Pruitt\u2019s policy should be subject to judicial review, and EPA forced to defend its indefensible position in court.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>By Michael Burger Earlier this week EPA Administrator Scott Pruitt issued a directive that prohibits scientists from serving on the EPA&#8217;s independent scientific advisory committees if they are currently a principal investigator or co-investigator on a research project that receives grant funding from the agency, or \u201cif they are otherwise in a position to reap [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1889,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[69225,69207],"tags":[69297,69300,69303],"class_list":{"0":"post-5248","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-climate-science","7":"category-cross-cutting-issues","8":"tag-anti-science","9":"tag-defending-science","10":"tag-silencing-science-tracker","11":"czr-hentry"},"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.3 - 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