188 



STUENGTHENING "mE lUD i MFRASTRUCTTJM 91 



Yet very little of this money was earmarked for research and development. 

 The consequence of this shortsighted policy is that tremendous opponu- 

 nities to learn from the cleanup prcKess arc being lost. We believe that a 

 substantially larger percentage of environmental restoration and -waste man- 

 agement funds should be directed to R&D. This proportionally small in- 

 vestment can lead to major improvements in our understanding of the im- 

 pacts of wa^tc; on the environment and in the development of technologies 

 to aid in waste cleanup. 



Hazardous waste remediation efforts at federal facilities should be 

 coordinated with the EPA Superfund Innovative Technologies (SITE) pro- 

 gram and other Icdcral efforts. In addition, a comprehensive comparative 

 analysis of federal facility cleanup funding ($9.4 billion in federal support 

 for FY 9}) and Superfund cleanup program funding ($1.7 billion in federal 

 suppon in FY 9^) should be undertaken to determine if the current 5:1 

 ratio of support for these activities is appropriate. 



