A $120,000 no-bid contract the EPA awarded to a Republican-affiliated group to provide media monitoring services has been terminated after reports it was seeking emails of agency employees.

The group awarded the contract, Definers Public Affairs, has employees previously or currently affiliated with America Rising, a prominent political action committee that performs opposition research for Republican candidates.

Sens. Sheldon Whitehouse and Kamala Harris complained about Definers’ ties to America Rising after Mother Jones and The New York Times reported on public records requests made by a Definers executive, Allan Blutstein, seeking the emails of EPA employees who may have spoken out about the agency’s direction under Trump. The EPA employees told the Times they viewed the requests as attempts to intimidate or bully them into silence.

The two Democrats, members of the Environment and Public Works Committee, said in a letter to EPA Administrator Scott Pruitt on Tuesday that the agency should terminate the contract.

“EPA’s contract with Definers risks further politicizing the agency and is another instance of EPA under your tenure becoming captured by the industry it regulates,” Whitehouse and Harris wrote.