33 



[Statements submitted for the record, and the bill S. 1545, fol- 

 low:] 



Statement of Hon. George E. Brown, U.S. Representative from the State of 



California 



I am pleased to have this opportunity to testify today on your legislation, S. 1545, 

 a bill to authorize the Office of Research and Development at the Environmental 

 Protection Agency. This bill is the companion bill to H.R. 1994, legislation that was 

 reported out of the Science, Space, and Technology Committee, which I chair. The 

 House of Representatives subsequently passed H.R. 1994 in November of last year. 



We all know that the nation's environmental awareness in the 1970s, and the 

 subsequent federally supported environmental research, was focused primarily on 

 human health issues. 



Over the last 20 years, we have come to a greater understanding and appreciation 

 of the complementarity between human health and the integrity of our diverse eco- 

 logical systems. A more sophisticated understanding of these interdependent rela- 

 tionships has led to a greater valuation of retaining the healthy state of ecosystem 

 services. Thus, there is a commensurate need to develop similarly holistic environ- 

 mental policies which protect the ability of the biosphere to provide on a sustainable 

 basis the goods and services to support continuing human activity, not just for today 

 but for future generations. 



Current and emerging environmental problems portray, in scale and kind, poten- 

 tially more cumulative, irreversible environmental effects. Localized environmental 

 problems, naively viewed in isolation, are recognized now as having compounded re- 

 gional and even global impacts. 



The changing nature of environmental problems requires a fundamental change 

 in regulatory philosophy and environmental policies. Beyond command-and-control 

 waste regulations are new paradigms emphasizing pollution prevention with consid- 

 eration of consumer product life-cycles to minimize waste and optimize energy mate- 

 rial efficiency. On this point, I recognize and commend the hard work this Commit- 

 tee has done on S. 978, Environmental Technologies legislation. The House is sched- 

 uled to consider our Environmental Technologies initiative later this week. 



I believe our objectives also should include the creation of a more innovative and 

 cooperative atmosphere between public and private sectors to achieve the desired 

 outcomes. 



The role of R&D to support sound environmental policy and regulatory decision- 

 making is more urgent now than ever before. The changing nature of the complex, 

 cross-media issues we face today, and the promise of new management strategies 

 to address them, require development of increasingly sophisticated models, 

 databases and validations. Several critical areas of research include the develop- 

 ment and validation of environmentally sound "green" technologies and of more pre- 

 cise human health and ecological risk assessments. Research can provide a pre- 

 dictive capacity for future environmental issues allowing us time to respond 

 proactively. 



An essential element to the improvement of environmental decision-making is the 

 scale and quality of the research that undergirds the policy. To improve the quality 

 of environmental research, the science used must be relevant to an agency's mission 

 and not driven by current political needs. At the same time, it is necessary for 

 science to be an integral component of the agency's mission in order to maximize 

 the effectiveness of the research in supporting that mission. 



These bills, I believe, are an important step toward strengthening the scientific 

 base of the EPA. They would direct the Science Advisory Board to review the Agen- 

 cy's research program and submit an annual report outlining whether the budget 

 submitted by the President adequately funds that program. This will help the Con- 

 gress to better evaluate the relevance of EPA's research program to its overall mis- 

 sion. 



In addition, the bills establish a program to modernize the laboratories to insure 

 that credible science can be carried out. 



