Agricultural News
Senators Propose Measure to Stop EPA from Disclosing Livestock Producers' Personal Information
Wed, 24 Jul 2013 08:47:41 CDT
Iowa Senator Chuck Grassley and Indiana Senator Joe Donnelly have introduced legislation to protect livestock and poultry farmers from having personal information released by the Environmental Protection Agency. The bill stems from the release of the personal information of more than 80-thousand livestock and poultry owners from across the country to three activist groups. Grassley's office notes the EPA disclosed information on people in Iowa owning as few as one pig and an individual who owned 12 horses.
In fact, Senator Grassley says a large number of those the EPA released data on did not meet the definition of a Consolidated Animal Feeding Operation. According to Grassley - this is just another in a pattern of egregious overreach by the federal bureaucracy. He says the idea that government knows best was bad for the IRS and is bad for the EPA. He says a lot of Iowans were concerned with the EPA's actions and he can at least try to make sure this doesn't happen again.
The Farmer Identity Protection Act (S. 1343) comes in response to the EPA's release of livestock and poultry producers' names and other personal information to three radical environmental groups through a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request in February and again in April. The release divulged names, addresses, geographic coordinates and in some cases telephone numbers and email addresses of over 80,000 producers in 29 states.
Donnelly says it is unacceptable that the EPA released the personal contact information of tens of thousands of poultry and livestock owners earlier this year. He says this blatant violation of privacy must not happen again. That's why he's urging Senators on both sides of the aisle to support the legislation - which does not prevent the EPA from collecting the information about where farmers' operations are located and does not prevent EPA from disclosing information in the aggregate.
Grassley says transparency is good for accountability - bur argues putting the personal information of farmers in the hands of environmental activists makes no sense. Several Senators wrote the EPA in June regarding their concern with the agency's release of personal information. Their response was unsatisfactory for Grassley and Donnelly. Grassley says it looks like the EPA isn't going to end this reckless behavior - so it's time for Congress to step in and fix the problem.
Grassley and Donnelly filed a similar amendment to the farm bill - but it wasn't brought up by the Senate leadership for consideration.
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One group has offered a quick reaction to the move by the two lawmakers. The National Cattlemen's Beef Association offered their gratitude to the Senators for their efforts:
"Livestock producers are grateful to Sens. Grassley and Donnelly for introducing this legislation," according to National Cattlemen's Beef Association'sNCBA) Past President and Pilger, Neb., cattle feeder J.D. Alexander. "Unlike other businesses, cattlemen and women live, work and raise their families on their operations. We have a reasonable expectation of privacy on our private property and there is no conceivable reason for the EPA to release this type of information."
In the statement from the NCBA, the cattle industry group says "EPA claims it lacks statutory authority to protect livestock producers' personal information. The Farmer Identity Protection Act would unequivocally provide the agency with the ability to prevent such farm-specific releases from happening in the future, allowing the agency to provide information to outside parties only in aggregate without individually indentifying information, or with the producer's consent."
"In this instance EPA went too far, jeopardizing the health and safety of cattle producers and their families," said Alexander. "As a producer whose information was blatantly given to the recognized enemies of the U.S. beef industry, it comes as a relief to have this legislation introduced. Congress is going to have to be the one to fix this problem created by the incestuous relationship between environmentalists and EPA. Today is a step in that direction, and we thank Sens. Grassley and Donnelly for their efforts."
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