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Center for Marine Conservation 



Washington, DC 

 February 17, 1993 



Senator John Glenn, Chairman 

 Committee on Governmental Affairs 

 Washington, DC 20510-6250 



Dear Chairman Glenn: 



As your committee considers legislation to raise the Environmental Protection 

 Agency to a Cabinet department, I would like to express some concerns about the 

 possible transfer of some or all of the statutory authority of the current Council on 

 Environmental Quality (CEQ) to the EPA. 



As you know. President Clinton has proposed to give environmental concerns 

 better attention within the White House, in part by replacing CEQ with an Office of 

 Environmental Policy. Although the environmental community generally supports 

 this action, it is important that the necessary legislative changes be made in a 

 manner that does not complicate EPA's job or do away with the legal authority, ad- 

 ministrative process, emd Federal court precedents associated with CEQ during the 

 past two decades. 



Some have suggested that CEQ's statutory authority under the National Environ- 

 mental Policy Act (NEPA, P.L. 91-190) should be transferred to the EPA as part of 

 the legislation to make it a Department of the Environment. Some enhancement of 

 EPA's role under NEPA, such as in the areas of gathering, analyzing, and reporting 

 information on conditions and trends in environmental quality, may be appropriate. 

 Complete transfer, however, of CEQ's NEPA responsibilities from the Executive 

 Office of the President (EOP) to a cabinet-level EPA would weaken NEPA and 

 create serious problems for the head of EPA, for the reasons outlined below. 



1. NEPA requires all Federal agencies to integrate environmental values into 

 their actions "to the fullest extent possible"; this duty involves much more than en- 

 vironmental impact statements, which are prepared for relatively few activities. 

 Title II of NEPA, along with the Environmental Quality Improvement Act of 1970 

 (P.L. 91-224) makes the Council and Office of Environmental Quality in the EOP 

 responsible for overseeing existing Federal programs and activities for compliance 

 with NEPA; for coordinating environmental programs throughout the government; 

 and for developing and recommending to the President new national policies and 

 programs to improve environmental quality. 



These responsibilities should not be delegated to EPA, because they cut across the 

 entire Federal Government, including other Cabinet departments and independent 

 agencies; because they require full participation in the development of the Presi- 

 dent's annual budget proposals to Congress (a function limited to EOP agencies); 

 and because they involve review and clearance of legislation and regulations affect- 

 ing many agencies, which requires close coordination within the EOP. 



2. Delegating full NEPA authority to EPA would put one Cabinet officer in the 

 very difficult position of attempting to direct another Cabinet officer. The NEPA 

 Regulations (40 CFR 1500-1508) issued by CEQ in 1978 are binding on all Federal 

 departments and agencies, and include a formal referral process whereby CEQ re- 

 views and mediates interagency environmental disputes, such as have occurred be- 

 tween EPA and the Corps of Engineers. The Clean Air Act (Section 309) also pro- 

 vides for such referrals. It is inappropriate for EPA to be given the authority to 

 apply the NEPA Regulations to other agencies, or to mediate its own disputes with 

 those agencies, particularly since EPA has opposed applying NEPA's EIS require- 

 ments to nearly all of its own programs and actions. 



