Grassley calls reporters ‘policemen’ of government process

Sen. Chuck Grassley doesn't see the point of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency's temporarily banning reporters and the public from a meeting on toxic chemical contamination of drinking water.

'You're the policemen of our system,” Grassley said Wednesday during one of his weekly conference calls with reporters.

'So if you want bureaucrats to be responsible, they've got to be responsible for what they do and that meeting should have been open to the press,” the Iowa Republican said.

The EPA temporarily barred journalists and the public from a national summit on contamination in drinking water a week after the agency sought to delay publication of a study on those chemicals. The agency later reversed itself and said it would allow reporters into the meeting.

Grassley was not familiar with the details of EPA's decision to bar the public, but said that he believes there are very few reasons not to admit reporters to government meetings.

'The only place reporters should be kept out is when there is a discussion of national security issues that you don't want your enemies to know what is our national security policy,” he said. In some cases, meetings might be closed to protect the privacy of individuals, he added.

'Beyond that, I don't know the point of it,” Grassley said.

l Comments: (319) 398-8375; james.lynch@thegazette.com