Burnett resigned as the EPA's associate deputy administrator last month. He also has contributed $4,600 to Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama's campaign.
EPA Administrator Johnson, in testimony before Boxer's committee in January, planned to tell senators that "greenhouse gas emissions harm the environment."
However, Burnett said in a letter to Boxer, "an official in the office of the vice president called to tell me that his office wanted the language changed." He said he didn't make the change. Johnson delivered the testimony as planned.
In one of the previous instances, administration officials extensively edited testimony in October by Dr. Julie L. Gerberding, director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, removing six pages she planned to deliver.
Administration efforts to alter her testimony have been previously reported. But, in a new allegation, Burnett charged Tuesday that Cheney's office had been involved in efforts to delete portions of her testimony on the health risks of climate change. He declined to identify who in the vice president's office had sought the changes.
In December, Burnett said, he sent the White House an e-mail finding, in response to the Supreme Court ruling, that greenhouse gas emissions pose a risk, a step toward regulation. But shortly after, Burnett said, "I was asked to send a follow-up note saying that the e-mail had been sent in error."
"I explained that I could not do this because it was not true," he said.
The new charges of political interference come as California works to overturn a federal decision in December denying California and other states permission to impose stricter emission standards than the federal government.
Congressional Democrats have tried to get records of White House communications with the EPA on the issue, but the White House recently invoked executive privilege in refusing to turn over documents to a congressional committee investigating the EPA's decision to deny California's request.
But with Burnett, a Stanford-trained environmental economist, Democrats have a star witness who may be able to offer new insight into the White House's role in a number of EPA decisions at the planned July 22 Senate hearing.
Boxer said the White House was trying to prevent the government from acting on a threat to human health and the environment. She said: "History will judge this Bush administration harshly for recklessly covering up a real threat to the people they're supposed to protect."
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richard.simon@latimes.com
