36 



Are you familiar with either of those programs, and if not, could 

 you become familiar with them and let me know about your plans 

 to continue EPA's support for those programs? 



Ms. Browner. I am somewhat familiar with both of those. I had 

 hoped to be able to visit the supercomputer this week, but there 

 were some needs for changes in my schedule. I do hope to visit it in 

 the not too distant future, and would be more than happy to dis- 

 cuss with you the future and what is an appropriate commitment. 



Senator Levin. Good. The center is not too dissimilar, in terms of 

 its purpose in linking information technology to the protection of a 

 natural system, from what you identified in Florida's strategic 

 vision before you came to EPA. 



Ms. Browner. Right. 



Senator Levin. Thank you again, and congratulations again. 



Ms. Browner. Thank you. 



Chairman Glenn [presiding]. Thank you. 



Last night, we were in the House Chamber and heard the Presi- 

 dent's address. You were sitting in the front row. The Joint Chiefs 

 of Staff were immediately behind you. I was behind the Joint 

 Chiefs of Staff, directly behind you. One of the biggest lines of the 

 evening was when the President said that with regard to Super- 

 fund, we have got to stop all the money going to the lawyers and 

 see that it goes to cleaning up the environment, or words to that 

 effect, anyway. 



As I recall, you were one of the first on your feet, applauding 

 that line and I was close behind you on that. [Laughter.] 



How are we going to do it? How are you going to do it, with us 

 supporting you? 



Ms. Browner. Well, you raise a very difficult issue, one that I 

 think everyone who has been involved with the Superfund program 

 agrees is a problem. The solutions are not yet there. I think there 

 are things we can do internally in the agency in terms of better 

 managing the money, and moving more expeditiously in developing 

 remediation plans, cleanup plans, monitoring plans. 



But I think it is going to take a bringing together of all affected 

 parties: the industries who are responsible for the cleanups; the 

 municipalities who are now having to absorb an increased financial 

 responsibility for cleanups; the citizens' groups who live in those 

 communities; the Congress; the regulatory agencies. We are going 

 to have to come together and, as much as possible, put aside our 

 past history or the adversarial nature of the debate that has taken 

 place thus far and see where we can develop a consensus. 



I think there are many good things in the law, but it is also time, 

 as is appropriate in all of our environmental laws at times, to bring 

 the new knowledge we have about cleanups, about what may be ap- 

 propriate in terms of cleanup and about technologies that were not 

 available 5 years ago, to a conversation, to a discussion, and seek to 

 develop consensus. 



Chairman Glenn. Well, I think by any measure by anybody, 

 EPA or anybody else, the success of the Superfund concept has 

 been minimal to practically nonexistent. That overstates it a little 

 bit, but not a whole lot. 



This Committee started some years ago, along with the General 

 Accounting Office and OMB, a study of high-risk areas of Govern- 



