Republicans Are Using Big Tobacco’s Secret Science Playbook to Gut Health Rules

Much of the country has been watching in horror as Donald Trump has made good on his promises to eviscerate the Environmental Protection Agency, writes Sharon Lerner for The Intercept.  He has delayed 30 regulations, severely limiting the information staffers can release, and installing Scott Pruitt as the agency’s administrator to destroy the agency from within. But even those keeping their eyes on the EPA may have missed a quieter attack on environmental protections now being launched in Congress. This week, the House Committee on Science, Space, and Technology held a hearing on a bill to undermine health regulations that is based on a strategy cooked up by tobacco industry strategists more than two decades ago. At what Republicans on the committee have dubbed the “Making EPA Great Again” hearing, lawmakers are likely to discuss “The Secret Science Reform Act,” a bill that would limit the EPA to using only data that can be replicated or made available for “independent analysis.” The proposal may sound reasonable enough at first. But because health research often contains confidential personal information that is illegal to share, the bill would prevent the EPA from using many of the best scientific studies.