Letter to the Hon. Donald Trump - Ensure Open and Transparent Communications Between Federal Agencies and Public, Members of Congress

Letter

We are gravely troubled by reports about your recent directive to all federal agencies to silence communications with the public and Members of Congress. The American people expect an open, transparent and honest government, and your actions are not only contrary to that expectation, they promote a long lasting culture of fear among federal employees and prevent them from following their mission to openly serve the American public. Additionally, these actions undermine trust in our Federal government and do little to support your "drain the swamp" pledge to "make the government honest again".

According to reports, your transition team has directed the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and the Departments of Transportation, Agriculture, Health and Human Services and Interior with memos that impose a gag order on career federal employees. These memos instructed employees to, among other things, immediately cease releasing any public-facing documents, ban the release of photos and press releases to the public and terminate the use of social media. According to reports, the EPA was instructed to remove the website's climate change page containing links to scientific research on global warming and the transition team targeted lists of EPA employees with pending speaking engagements for review. In addition, in some instances the transition team specifically directed employees not to send any correspondence to public officials, including Members of Congress and state and local officials.

As Members of Congress we wanted to ensure that you are aware that it against the law to interfere with federal employees communicating with Congress. It is also against the law to retaliate against career federal officials for following lawful policy directives. These recent actions by your transition team, combined with your previous attempts as President-elect to solicit names of Energy Department employees who worked on climate change initiatives and State Department officials who worked on women's and gender issues are deeply troubling.

The agencies targeted by your transition team's latest directive are responsible for billions of dollars of taxpayer funded public research. This research helps find solutions to problems that affect Americans every day. Targeting the scientists at these agencies and prohibiting them from sharing the results of this research with the broader public is irresponsible and serves only to undermine the integrity and public trust in the federal government. Furthermore, these actions, particularly at the EPA, fly in the face of the Agency's current scientific integrity policy, which prohibits scientists, managers and other Agency leadership from suppressing, altering or otherwise impeding the timely release of scientific findings or conclusions. Previous Republican and Democratic administrations have protected the free flow of information and the sharing of agencies' views with the public.

Given your commitment to the rule of law and peaceful transition of power, we respectfully ask that you immediately reverse course and ensure that the dedicated federal civil servants of this country receive the respect they deserve and are immediately made aware of their clear protections under the law.