Bill limits EPA from releasing private information

Reps. Rick Crawford (R., Ark.), Lee Terry (R., Neb.), Mike McIntyre (D., N.C.) and Jim Costa (D., Cal.) introduced legislation March 6 to prohibit the Environmental Protection Agency from disclosing the private and confidential information of livestock and poultry producers to the public. The Farmer Identity Protection Act (H.R. 4157) 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 2013. The release divulged names, addresses, geographic coordinates and in some cases telephone numbers and email addresses of over 80,000 producers in 29 states. EPA has plans to release information on thousands more farmers and ranchers in the future. Read More