S. 171, DEPARTMENT OF THE ENVIRONMENT 



ACT 



THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 18, 1993 



U.S. Senate, 

 Committee on Governmental Affairs, 



Washington, DC. 



The Committee met, pursuant to notice, at 9:40 a.m., in room 

 SD-342, Dirksen Senate Office Building, Hon. John Glenn, Chair- 

 man of the Committee, presiding. 



Present: Senators Glenn, Levin, Lieberman, Akaka, Roth, Coch- 

 ran and McCain. 



OPENING STATEMENT OF SENATOR GLENN 



Chairman Glenn. The hearing will be in order. 



Good morning and welcome to today's hearing on making EPA a 

 Cabinet-level department. Our bill to accomplish this, S. 171, was 

 introduced on January 21st of this year and has been referred to 

 this Committee, and it currently has 25 Senate cosponsors. 



S. 171 would elevate the Environmental Protection Agency to 

 Cabinet-level status. In addition, it would establish a bureau of en- 

 vironmental statistics to compile, analyze and publish a compre- 

 hensive set of environmental quality statistics and prepare an 

 annual report. 



I would add that one of the things we looked at was that what- 

 ever your bent is on things dealing with the environment, you can 

 find some set of statistics from some group to back up whatever it 

 is you want to do. I would just say that without any qualification, 

 because we had examples of that when we had the Clean Air Act 

 on the floor. 



What we would like to see this Bureau of Environmental Statis- 

 tics evolve into over a period of time is a group to analyze all of 

 these different statistics and come up with what we can better rely 

 upon. It would be akin to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, which was 

 established to do the same thing, to make one set of figures that we 

 all can play from. 



The bill also would also set up a Commission on Improving Envi- 

 ronmental Protection to enhance and strengthen the management 

 of existing programs within the department. Finally, the bill calls 

 for the establishment of an international greenhouse gas monitor- 

 ing program and an international energy conference on energy effi- 

 ciency and renewable energy. 



Since the advent of the atomic age and even before, the levels 

 and types of pollutants in our air, water, and land have dramatical- 

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