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tal agency be held in the highest regard and to the highest stand- 

 ard. 



What we do is incredibly important to every American for a vari- 

 ety of reasons, and we must act with caution where appropriate, 

 with speed where appropriate, but we must act based on the best 

 science available to us, and we must tell the American public the 

 truth. They are not dumb. They will understand what we have to 

 say if we tell them in an honest and truthful manner. 



That is what I would hope to be able to achieve to educate the 

 public. None of this is easy. There are no simple answers. But as a 

 country, I think we can do a better job in terms of protecting our 

 environment, of leaving our air, land, and water cleaner for future 

 generations. We will all have to participate in those efforts. 



Senator Cochran. Well, I wish you well. I do not know of any 

 other challenge that is more important right now for us to deal 

 with than restoring confidence in the American people in our Gov- 

 ernment and the ability of Government officials to make correct 

 and good policy decisions. 



I am satisfied that you have your heart in the right place, and I 

 wish you well. I brought that up because it is something that I re- 

 member going through and trying to help deal with, in terms of 

 finding out what the facts are and then getting them out to the 

 American people. It is really a very difficult thing to do, when you 

 are confronted with some of the forces that are at work in that 

 community. 



Ms. Browner. Thank you. 



Chairman Glenn. We are going to have to move along shortly. 

 We will all submit additional questions, I am sure, that we hope 

 you would respond to so we could have it as part of the record. 

 Mine will be along several lines, and I will just make a couple- 

 minute statement here on what they are. 



EPA contracting out: The agency has basically been run by con- 

 tracting out since it was formed. There have been some real abuses 

 here. We had a hearing on it last year; we may want to send you 

 that hearing record for you and your staff to look at on some of the 

 abuses that came out at that time. 



This Committee, particularly under Senator Pryor's subcommit- 

 tee, has taken the lead in looking into some of this outside con- 

 tracting. There are many abuses in Government and the testimony 

 we had was really a prime example of how EPA has almost become 

 a captive of its contractors, could not operate without it now in any 

 way, shape, or form. The question is whether you do outside or 

 inside work with civil service, whether we continue contracting out 

 and what all that means. 



Another area would be the organization of the agency, your rela- 

 tionship with the States, with regions, how you contract out with 

 the States where the attorneys general in the different States do 

 some of the activity under what is, in effect, a contract with EPA, 

 as I understand it. How that works out. Your operation with your 

 inspector general — the inspectors general are creatures of this 

 Committee, as a matter of fact. We expanded that a couple of years 

 back. Basically, you have done an excellent job and so we want to 

 talk about that a little bit. 



