31 



Ms. Browner. If I can presume that you are speaking specifical- 

 ly to the matters and offices that you raised in your opening 



Senator Lieberman. I am. 



Ms. Browner [continuing]. Statement, I think that both the In- 

 stitute for Environmental Technologies and an office for small 

 business are very, very important issues. This Administration is 

 committed to the development of environmental technologies. I 

 think the President's stimulus and long-term investment package 

 includes monies for environmental technologies. 



The actual creation of an institution in the short-term is some- 

 thing that I do not feel comfortable addressing. We have been 

 there three, four weeks now. We are coming to understand the 

 structure of the agency and what flexibility we have in terms of 

 reorganizing within the agency, so that those issues of importance 

 to us, to this Administration, can be advanced. 



One thing that is becoming increasingly clear to me in these four 

 weeks is that environmental technology development is going to 

 have to become the culture of the agency in the same way that pol- 

 lution prevention and ecosystem prevention will. You do not want 

 to isolate it, necessarily, but you want to develop a system whereby 

 it is integrated into everything that we do: into our thought proc- 

 ess, into the development of rules, into every way in which the 

 agency functions. 



So I would say as to that, that would be my only concern at this 

 point in time, and maybe it is something we can continue to dis- 

 cuss. I think that it has got to be one of our highest priorities. 



As to the Office for Small Business, I absolutely agree with you 

 on the need to make sure that we are working with small business- 

 es. One of the issues that I pride myself on during my tenure in 

 Florida is the creation of an office to deal with those small busi- 

 nesses that will be most impacted by the new Federal Clean Air 

 Act and the States' responsibilities thereunder. 



So I think we agree. Your description of how that office is set up 

 is of concern to me, and it is certainly something I think that we 

 have the flexibility to change within our current structure, so that 

 we can make sure that we actually have a group of people who are 

 reaching out to deal with small businesses on their grounds and in 

 their place of work. 



But again, I think it has got to be part of the culture of the 

 agency, that we have got to look at every program, every single 

 thing we do, to make sure that we are listening to how this will 

 impact small business. We are working with small businesses to 

 make sure that they will be able to come into compliance with the 

 law in a timely and economically sensitive way, and I am commit- 

 ted to doing that. 



Senator Lieberman. Well, let me just say in response, I know 

 you have only been on the job officially about a month, but I really 

 appreciate the thoughtfulness of your response, even only after a 

 month. I take from it a sense of shared goals here, and I certainly 

 would like to work with you, I am sure Senator Mikulski would as 

 well, to see if we can jointly develop some of these ideas. 



The truth is that ever5rthing you have said is exactly what I 

 would hope to accomplish with the kinds of amendments we have 

 talked about. I do think, to use the phrase I have used before here, 



