Save Family Farming | PO Box 72 | Burlington, WA 98233
| 360-303-9123
October 8, 2016
The Honorable Dan Newhouse
1641 Longworth House Office Building
Washington, DC 20515
CC: The Honorable Michael Conaway
2430 Rayburn House Office Building
Washington, DC 20515
The Honorable Suzan DelBene
318 Cannon House Office Building
Washington, DC 20515
The Honorable Rick Larsen
2113 Rayburn House Office Building
Washington, DC 20515
Dear Representative Newhouse and Chairman Conaway:
First, please accept the sincere gratitude of farmers across the state for your strong support for farmers, particularly your challenge of EPA’s funding and support of the What’s Upstream campaign and EPA support for it. As you are aware, farmers and non-farmers alike are appalled at the lies, distortions and overt political intent of this campaign and even more appalled that documents reveal it was the Region 10 Administrator who overruled staff objections and provided authorization to the campaign leaders to proceed. We are grateful to have leaders such as yourself, Representatives Conaway and Walberg, and Senators Roberts and Inhofe working to hold federal agencies accountable and to preserve the ability of our farmers to feed our nation and communities.
While you have already done so much, we are writing to ask your assistance in addressing three concerns we have related to this campaign.
1. Reimbursement of misspent federal funds
As you have stated and the EPA has essentially acknowledged, the use of federal funds for this campaign against farmers was illegal. We would like your help in requesting a repayment of those funds to the US Treasury by those responsible. As the Northwest Indian Fisheries Commission was the recipient of the grant and the grant language makes clear they were responsible for granting and managing subawards, we believe this organization should be required to return those misspent funds. We would appreciate any help you can offer in this regard.
2. Require Region 10 Administrator Dennis McLerran to explain his role and actions
We believe that Mr. McLerran, Region 10 Administrator has intentionally misrepresented his personal role in approving the content and tone of the anti-farm campaign and the use of public money in an overt grassroots lobbying and a planned citizen’s initiative. He has violated the public’s trust in approving the lies about farmers and water pollution and violated federal and state laws by personally approving the use of public funds for these overt political activities.
Mr. McLerran wrote to Chairman Conaway on May 2, 2016 stating: “The EPA’s involvement in the sub-recipient’s project has focused on providing technical input during routine proposal reviews and flagging potential areas of non-compliance with grant terms and conditions, laws, regulations, and policies. For example, the EPA has provided guidance to the Commission and the Swinomish Tribe regarding the lobbying restrictions applicable to grants.”
This conflicts with the statement made by Swinomish Chairman Brian Cladoosby in a letter sent to Senator Roberts and Inhofe on April 25, 2016 which stated: “Staff from the EPA were intimately involved in helping us develop the content of public materials to ensure they were both compliant with federal grant requirements and rooted in sound science.” More than that, his statements now directly conflict with the information in documents released as a result of FOIA requests by Save Family Farming and the Capital Press. These records show McLerran’s staff raised strong objection to the false accusations made in the campaign and questioned the overt lobbying and citizen’s initiative planned by the campaign managers. When staff halted the campaign work, the manager went to McLerran. Notes from that meeting report: “Dennis emphasized we believe this to a policy issue and not a legal issue.” The Terms and Conditions of the grant in question even specify in Section 5 that the EPA’s involvement will be substantial and lists four areas where the EPA’s review and approval was required.
We recognize that an imminent change in administration means that Mr. McLerran will not be in a position of public trust. But while he remains, we ask that he be required to respond to these complaints which are supported by the public record:
1. He knowingly approved of the fraudulent use of public money.
a. He was very aware of his staff’s numerous complaints about the false content of the campaign but allowed it to continue without requiring the changes requested by his staff, thereby authorizing the publication of false and misleading information using public funds
2. He approved use of public funds for overtly political activities including lobbying for specific state legislation and the development of a citizen’s initiative campaign.
3. He intentionally misrepresented the role of the EPA staff and his own role in the campaign in his letter to Chairman Conaway.
a. Section 5 of the EPA grant specifies that the EPA be substantially involved in the grant including reviewing and approving all elements. This requirement provided the basis for his staff to intervene and stop the campaign, action which he overruled. The public record now shows he himself personally was involved and without his intervention it is quite certain the campaign would have been substantially altered.
4. He misrepresented to the Chairman that the public campaign was halted despite the fact that it continues to this day (see item 3 below).
We are aware that you have requested a briefing with EPA Director McCarthy to learn more about EPA’s role, especially that of Mr. McLerran in the What’s Upstream ballot initiative and lobbying campaign. We want you also to be aware that Director McCarthy and Administrator McLerran met with the Swinomish leadership involved in the campaign in April, 2015 at the very time the much more dishonest, vicious and political attack on farmers was being formulated. The records recently released also show that Larry Wasserman, the campaign manager, threatened to elevate the issue of the stoppage of the campaign if Mr. McLerran did not comply with his demands. We are concerned he had reason to believe that Director McCarthy would support him in this illegal campaign. We would like to know if Director McCarthy may have given indication of strong support for the Swinomish efforts leading to the Administrator’s decision to approve their fraudulent and illegal activities.
3. We are also asking you to help end the continued illegal use of public money in the on-going What’s Upstream campaign.
In the same letter to Chairman Conaway, Administrator McLerran stated that “During a meeting on April 25, 2016, the [Northwest Indian Fisheries] Commission confirmed that all public outreach related to the sub-award has stopped…”
To this day the website, http://www.whatsupstream.com, continues including the video sequence linking farmers with killing salmon. It includes the false accusations about dairies from the Western Environmental Law Center on a fact sheet called “Got Milk? Got Manure!” The social media outreach continues with a Facebook page that is occasionally updated with more false statements. The website and especially Facebook page also prominently feature the image of dairy cows standing in a stream – images purchased online showing Amish and British cows.
While there is no more evidence of billboards and bus advertising, the continuation of this campaign which was developed using our tax dollars is an affront to farmers. The very moderate updating and hosting costs of their website may not currently being paid through the EPA grant, but the much greater cost of developing this material and campaign was paid by taxpayers and should not be allowed to continue. We respect the constitutionally guaranteed right of free speech which include the right to lie, but we do not believe tax dollars should be involved. The campaign’s sponsors should not be allowed to use any material that was paid for using public funds.
Your strong support of farmers and government integrity has encouraged us to seek your help on these three issues. Save Family Farming is committed to seeing that farmers’ interests are protected in responding to the What’s Upstream campaign, including holding those responsible for the false attack and illegal funding accountable for their actions. Accountability for non-elected government officials is provided by our elected representatives which is why farmers and farm supporters are grateful for you efforts.
With sincere appreciation,
Save Family Farming
Larry Stap
President
Darrin Morrison
For the Governing Board
Gerald Baron
Executive Director