Room for one more scandal? Senators probe EPA's leak of farmers' personal info

Brett T. | 6:39 PM on June 08, 2013

Having so many different Obama administration scandals demanding the public’s attention all at once almost works in the administration’s favor; before the full implications of one scandal sink in, another one erupts. While the NSA has managed to bump the IRS from the headlines this week, it’s worth noting that the Environmental Protection Agency is busy doing its part to erode what’s left of the public’s trust in the government.

The Free Beacon reported this week that 24 senators signed a letter demanding to know why the EPA leaked the personal information of more than 80,000 farms, includes names, phone numbers and personal addresses, to left-wing environmental groups like Earth Justice, the Pew Charitable Trust and the Natural Resources Defense Council. Ten states caught sending the personal data recalled it for redaction and then resent it; Montana and Nebraska, however, ended up mistakenly resending the personal information.

I called on the EPA to answer for releasing personal information of about 80,000 farmers and ranchers. http://t.co/Ba2k22P00x

— Mike Enzi (@SenatorEnzi) June 7, 2013

Over at Ace of Spades HQ, Gabriel Malor notes that the EPA alone is juggling four scandals simultaneously. As Twitchy reported, an inspector general’s report showed that EPA employees had converted the parts of a warehouse that weren’t stuffed with sensitive documents or animal feces into a personal gym. The agency also granted fee waivers to liberal groups and presented an ethics award to Richard Windsor — who doesn’t actually exist.