37 



ment where we could see the possibility of wasting many, many 

 tens or even hundreds of billions of dollars, and we have continued 

 that through the last 4 years or so, analyzing these things. 



The GAO took the initiative of putting together a high-risk series 

 of booklets for this transition period, here. One deals with environ- 

 mental problems. 



Ms. Browner. Yes. 



Chairman Glenn. You may be familiar with those. If not, I com- 

 mend them to your perusal. In that, they say the estimated costs of 

 cleaning up Superfund sites has grown rapidly over the past 12 

 years. At the end of Fiscal Year 92, EPA had obligated about $11.4 

 billion, but had completed cleanups at fewer than 12 percent of the 

 current Superfund sites, even after all these years. 



EPA has estimated the fund's share of the cost to clean up cur- 

 rent sites would be $40 billion and recognizes that many more sites 

 will be added to the Superfund over time. 



A 1991 University of Tennessee study estimated that if Super- 

 fund grew to 6,000 sites, cleanup costs for EPA in the private 

 sector, excluding costs for Federal facilities and Superfund's admin- 

 istration, could amount to $300 billion in 1990 dollars over the next 

 30 years. 



That is going to be one of the biggest single money problems you 

 face. I know you talk about bringing research to bear on it, and 

 that is what we are going to do, but I think the President pretty 

 well hit it on the head last night. We have had a huge overhead 

 cost in that program and not a whole heck of a lot of cleanup to 

 show for it. 



I do not know the answer to it. Maybe it is such a difficult prob- 

 lem there is not much you can do about it. But I think, once again, 

 you have to prioritize what are the most dangerous sites first, and 

 there have been attempts made to do that. I do not know how suc- 

 cessful those have been. Where the greatest danger, the greatest 

 number of people is, has to be the concentration of your energies 

 there, and the dollars, if we are going to see that get cleaned up. 

 That is more a statement than a question. 



But it does lead into another thing, and that is your budget. I 

 would like to ask what is going to happen this year when the final 

 figures come out. Maybe you do not know those yet and they are 

 still being hassled through 0MB, but how do you view the re- 

 sources that the EPA has had in the past? Do you need to expand 

 it? Do you need more support from here, less? 



For instance, you mentioned research. I noticed in 1992 you had 

 $502 million going into research with 12 labs administering that. Is 

 that adequate, and are you going to have enough to do the job that 

 you are going to be expected to do? 



Ms. Browner. Well, to do the job that I think most Americans 

 expect us to do probably takes more money than anyone is pre- 

 pared to give to the agency. We can work within the budget that 

 the President has suggested for our agency. WTiat we have to do as 

 an agency is manage our resources better. I believe there is room 

 for better management of our resources, for making wiser choices 

 in how we spend our dollars. 



Chairman Glenn. What is your budget now? What is the budget 

 that you are inheriting? 



