John Vecchione Archives - Page 5 of 6 - Cause of Action Institute

06/19/2017

White House Should Release 100K Public Comments on Reforming Government

Washington, D.C. – Cause of Action Institute (“CoA Institute”) today submitted a Freedom of Information Act (“FOIA”) request to the White House Office of Management and Budget (“OMB”) seeking access to the more than 100,000 public comments OMB collected regarding “improvements to the organization and functioning of the Executive Branch.”

Between May and June, 2017, Americans were invited to submit suggestions to OMB in response to President Trump’s March 13 executive order calling for a comprehensive plan to reorganize the Executive Branch. The comments, however, have not been made publicly available.

CoA Institute President and CEO John Vecchione: “Public input can be a fundamental component of government reform, but there is little reason to sacrifice transparency. Given that President Trump’s executive order calls for the possible overhaul of the entire Executive Branch, the need for transparency and open public scrutiny of this matter is paramount.”

In addition to the regulations.gov website, which is routinely used by the federal government for gathering public comments, OMB also collected comments via an online form housed on a White House website. There appears to be a discrepancy between the reported number of comments and suggestions submitted via the reorganizing website, which states that “100,000+ suggestions and ideas” were submitted, and regulations.gov, which states that only 2,019 comments were received.

CoA Institute today requested access to all comments, suggestions, and ideas submitted to the OMB as part of this effort. The FOIA request is available here.

For information regarding this press release, please contact Zachary Kurz, Director of Communications: zachary.kurz@causeofaction.org

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06/1/2017

Pruitt Should Reconsider Obama-Era Settlement with Harley-Davidson That Funnels Millions to an Unrelated, Politically-Favored Project

Washington, D.C. – Cause of Action Institute (CoA Institute) today sent a letter to EPA Administrator Scott Pruitt urging him to reconsider an Obama-era settlement reached with Harley-Davidson, Inc. for selling after-market “super tuner” devices to boost performance of their motorcycles. The EPA alleged these devices were sold in violation of the Clean Air Act. Without admitting liability, Harley-Davidson agreed to settle the lawsuit.

The settlement included a controversial requirement that Harley-Davidson fund a seemingly unrelated program to replace or retrofit wood-burning stoves with cleaner appliances, which appears to violate the agency’s own guidance on the issuance of consent decrees.

CoA Institute also issued a separate Freedom of Information Act (“FOIA”) request to the EPA for documents related to the settlement negotiations.

CoA Institute President and CEO John Vecchione: “EPA is erring by not implementing a mitigation project by Harley-Davidson that fits the violation as required by applicable rules. The Obama administration’s pattern of using settlements to fund favored political projects is a dangerous precedent that should be reviewed and reversed. Funneling settlement funds to pet projects should not supplant the congressional appropriations process or applicable rules that mitigation projects address the underlying harm caused.”

Unlike the defeat devices unknowingly installed in Volkswagen vehicles, the Harley-Davidson “defeat devices” were freely and intentionally purchased by individuals, and came with labels that detailed what “performance enhancements are considered street legal and for competition-use only” and warned against improperly using the devices. Harley-Davidson maintains that these products, which have been sold for over two decades, “[were] and [are] legal to use in race conditions in the U.S.”

The “Emissions Mitigation Project” included in the consent decree requires Harley-Davidson to fund a “wood-burning appliance changeout and retrofit.” The project is defined as a “supplemental environmental project” (“SEP”). However, in 2015, the EPA issued a guidance document outlining the legal requirements enforcement officials must adhere to when crafting an SEP. The Harley-Davidson consent decree violates EPA’s guidance on SEPs by not establishing a sufficient nexus between the mitigation project and the alleged underlying violations.

In its letter, CoA Institute urges EPA Administrator Pruitt to reconsider the Harley-Davidson consent decree’s unlawful Emissions Mitigation Project, and replace it with a project that conforms to the SEP Policy’s sufficient nexus requirement.

The letter to Administrator Pruitt is available here The FOIA request is available here

For information regarding this press release, please contact Zachary Kurz, Director of Communications: zachary.kurz@causeofaction.org

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05/19/2017

Court of Appeals Rules Vehicle Tech Company Has Right to Pursue Relief After Unfair Treatment by DOE on Renewable Loans

Washington, D.C. – The U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia today reversed the District Court’s ruling, siding with Cause of Action Institute’s (CoA Institute) client, Limnia Inc., an advanced vehicle technology company that alleged it was unfairly passed over for a government-backed loan and loan guarantee through the Department of Energy’s (“DOE”) politically-driven programs.

CoA Institute President and CEO John Vecchione: “We are very gratified for the Court’s decision. The Circuit saw things our client’s way. We look forward to further advancing this case upon remand. But this is an important precedent laying out the parameters of voluntary remand to an agency.”

CoA Institute filed a lawsuit in 2013 on behalf of Limnia Inc. after the Department of Energy (“DOE”) failed to give the company fair treatment and the honest opportunity to compete for a government-backed loan under the agency’s controversial loan guarantee program to build advanced technology vehicles and components.

In 2008 and 2009, Limnia submitted two loan applications for $15 million in funding through DOE’s Advanced Technology Vehicles Manufacturing (“ATVM”) program. Limnia specializes in the production of battery systems for electric cars and applied for funding to develop a new advanced vehicle energy storage system. The DOE rejected both of Limnia’s applications.

Limnia sued DOE in the District Court alleging that the rejection of its applications was unlawful under the Administrative Procedure Act. In its complaint, Limnia argued it was passed over in favor of politically-favored competitors, such as Tesla Motors Inc., which had close connections to the Obama administration. Tesla received hundreds of millions in loans from the ATVM in early 2010.

Before the District Court could decide Limnia’s case on the merits, however, DOE requested that the case be remanded back to the agency. The District Court granted DOE’s request, returning Limnia’s case to the agency and closing Limnia’s judicial action. In today’s opinion, the Court of Appeals found that the District Court’s decision functioned as a dismissal of Limnia’s claims and authorized further judicial proceedings.

Limnia Inc. Chairman and Vice President of Product Innovation Scott Douglas Redmond: “We fought this fight on behalf of everyone who is sick of cronyism and corruption in Washington DC and tired of having their tax dollars used against them by corrupt political insiders. This is part one of a victory, not only for our team, but for the average citizen who doesn’t want their tax dollars going to politically connected projects.”

The full opinion is available here
Visit our blog for analysis of the opinion and more information about the case here

For information regarding this press release, please contact Zachary Kurz, Director of Communications: zachary.kurz@causeofaction.org

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05/15/2017

CoA Institute Demands Secretary of State Recover All of Sec. Clinton’s Unlawfully Removed Email Records

Revelation of FBI grand jury subpoenas raises more questions than it answers

Washington D.C. – Cause of Action Institute (CoA Institute) filed its opposition to the government’s motion to dismiss a case brought against the Secretary of State and the U.S. Archivist. The lawsuit seeks to compel the defendants to fulfill their legal obligations under the Federal Records Act to initiate action through the Attorney General to recover all of Hillary Clinton’s email records that were unlawfully removed from the State Department.

In December, 2016, the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals ruled in our favor, overturning an earlier opinion by the District Court that dismissed the case as “moot.” Despite the court’s rebuke, the Secretary of State and U.S. Archivist continue to refuse to perform their statutory obligations to recover Secretary Clinton’s email records by initiating action through the Attorney General.

One new piece of information publicly revealed for the first time in the government’s motion to dismiss was that during its investigation, the FBI issued grand jury subpoenas related to Secretary Clinton’s BlackBerry email accounts. The subpoenas confirm that the FBI investigation of Secretary Clinton was criminal in nature, but details about the scope of the subpoenas remains unknown.

CoA Institute President and CEO John Vecchione: “None of the information provided by the government establishes that the federal records at issue do not exist or cannot be recovered. The government presented fundamentally the same arguments the Court of Appeals already rejected last year. It is the agencies’ statutory duty to institute proceedings through the Attorney General to recover these records. Why the agencies are fighting so hard to avoid this obligation is unexplained.”

In its cross motion filed with its opposition, CoA Institute requests the Court to grant discovery for more information about the grand jury subpoenas that could be essential to the case. The government failed to introduce any evidence to show that the results of those subpoenas establish that Secretary. Clinton’s BlackBerry emails are not recoverable through forensic means.

Read the full pleading here

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04/27/2017

CoA Institute Highlights Problems with Presidents’ Unilateral Designation of Monuments

Washington D.C. – After President Trump yesterday signed an executive order to review previous presidents’ national monument designations under the Antiquities Act, Cause of Action Institute (“CoA Institute”) today sent a letter to Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke outlining why some designations may have been unlawful.

Signed into law over a century ago, the Antiquities Act authorizes the president to declare federal lands as part of monuments, which restricts how the lands can be used. Records obtained by CoA Institute indicate that some of President Obama’s designations may have resulted from collusion with outside environmental groups, while ignoring feedback from the local stakeholders who would be most harmed.

CoA Institute President and CEO John Vecchione: “Major decisions impacting Americans’ livelihoods, vast public lands, natural resources, and property rights are currently left to the sole discretion of the president. This is contrary to most of our system of government. Presidents failed to substantiate many designations in any meaningful way, beyond the use of a few magic words on the face of the proclamations. Unchecked discretion and lack of recourse to remedy overbroad proclamations has resulted in misuse of the Antiquities Act and undue restrictions on future use of vast swaths of federal lands.”

CoA Institute has submitted more than 10 Freedom of Information Act (“FOIA”) requests to various agencies and executive branch offices involved with national monument declarations.

Evident from government records received and reviewed by CoA Institute, monument declarations have been made with little or no consideration of local stakeholders and those most adversely impacted by the designations. More recent designations, such as the Northeast Canyons and Seamounts Marine National Monument and the expansion of the Cascade-Siskiyou National Monument have even been made in direct contravention of longstanding statutory frameworks established by Congress and trusted by local stakeholders.

To date, CoA Institute has received several interim releases, including over 1,000 records, but we anticipate that this represents only small fraction of the records that are responsive to our requests. These records, along with publicly available documents and conversations we have had with local stakeholders in multiple states, preliminarily confirm several of our concerns.

For example, it appears that third-party environmental groups knew about a forthcoming monument designation in the Atlantic Ocean prior to August 2015. However, local fishermen—who would be directly and adversely impacted by the designation— were notified only 12 days before the September meeting. As indicated in records we have reviewed, local fishermen were given only 250 words in a press release informing them of the meeting and seeking input on a then-undefined proposal. In contrast, third party organizations had enough in-depth information in advance of the meeting to build online petitions supporting a monument in the Atlantic Ocean that were pushed out to their members nationwide.

As part of our ongoing oversight, CoA Institute continues to investigate:

The role certain Members of Congress played in lobbying President Obama to take unilateral action under the Antiquities Act;
Potential collusion between outside groups and the Obama Administration to declare national monuments;
Lack of transparency regarding monument designations;
Pretextual public hearings relating to predetermined monument designations;
The continued acquisition of private lands in and around existing national monuments to expand such monuments; and
The legality of agency rulemakings to enforce Antiquities Act designations.

The full letter can be found here

For information regarding this press release, please contact Zachary Kurz, Director of Communications at CoA Institute: zachary.kurz@causeofaction.org

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04/27/2017