Feds Accused Of Trifling With Study
by Bill Walsh - Times-Picayune (excerpt)

WASHINGTON -- A congressional committee accused the Bush administration Monday of manipulating a study of formaldehyde in FEMA trailers to downplay health risks faced by the thousands of hurricane victims living in them.

The House Committee on Science and Technology said that FEMA and the Department of Health and Human Services, out of concern for legal liability, skirted normal review processes to avoid warnings from a federal scientist.

"FEMA officials actually hid, manipulated or simply ignored the scientific work and concerns of federal scientists to justify their own policy and legal objectives," subcommittee Chairmen Brad Miller, D-N.C., and Nick Lampson, D-Texas, wrote in a letter to Michael Chertoff, secretary of the Department of Homeland Security, which oversees FEMA.