Barton, Greenwood Ask 15 Federal Agencies To Disclose Awards, Contracts and Agreements Between Employees and Outside Entities

"We hope that the disturbing practices discovered at NIH are not commonplace" - Barton

WASHINGTON - U.S. Rep. Joe Barton, R-Texas, chairman of the House Energy and Commerce Committee, and U.S. Rep. James Greenwood, R-Pa., chairman of the subcommittee on Oversight and Investigations, today requested that the Departments of Commerce, Energy, and Health and Human Services, as well as the Consumer Product Safety Commission, Environmental Protection Agency, Federal Communications Commission, Federal Energy Regulatory Commission, Federal Trade Commission, Food and Drug Administration, National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, Nuclear Regulatory Commission, Chemical Safety and Hazard Investigation Board, Medicare Payment Advisory Commission, Nuclear Waste Technical Review Board, and Defense Nuclear Facilities Safety Board each reveal the extent of awards, contracts and other agreements between their employees and outside entities.

"Today we have asked government agencies within the committee's jurisdiction to disclose the amounts, types and sources of outside funding received by their employees," Barton said. "This is a follow-up to an ongoing investigation into the management and ethics at the National Institutes of Health. Our goal is to learn whether the practices we have uncovered at NIH also exist in other agencies, and to be able to evaluate NIH's practices in the context of general ethics practices in the federal government.

"We hope that the disturbing practices discovered at NIH are not commonplace in our government, but we mean to discern the facts in a thoughtful and expedient manner," he said. Each letter was signed by Barton and Greenwood.

Adobe PDF versions of the original 15 letters can be downloaded here.

The following text is identical in each of the 15 letters.

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