46 



Administration has taken some initial steps to improve significantly the integration 

 of environmental research with policymaking and resource use management deci- 

 sions: 



• a senior-level interagency committee, co-chaired by members from the Of- 

 fice of Science and Technology Policy, the Council of Economic Advisors, and the 

 Office of Environmental Policy, has been formed to provide an effective science- 

 technology-economics-policy link across all sub-committees of the CENR, 

 through close interaction with both technical and policy offices within the White 

 House and the agencies; 



• each subcommittee of the CENR has a senior level policy vice chair, ensur- 

 ing that the policy agencies will play a vital role in setting environmental R&D 

 priorities; 



• each environmental issue subcommittee, with membership from both-the 

 science and policy branches of agencies, will have an assessment function, to in- 

 clude all stakeholders in the evaluation of the current state of knowledge for 

 addressing these environmental problems; 



• a data and information working group has beef formed within the CENR, 

 reporting directly to the executive committee, that will, with stakeholder par- 

 ticipation (including, academia, industry, environmental organizations, Con- 

 gress, State and local government), work to develop a distributed system that 

 ensures rapid access by all users to scientific, technical, and economic environ- 

 mental information. 



The risk assessment subcommittee will examine a range of scientific and technical 

 issues in the risk assessment and risk management Pea. Its work will complement 

 the broader policy oriented efforts of the interagency working group on risk, which 

 is examining issues related to the interface of risk analysis and cost-benefit analysis 

 and the appropriate use of these tools in setting regulatory priorities. The sub- 

 committee will examine such issues as comparability across agencies in undertaking 

 risk assessments, ways to better integrate socioeconomic considerations into risk 

 analyses, approaches to advancing the assessment of ecological and non cancer 

 risks, and possible mechanisms to undertake comparative risk analyses. 



Developing a Comprehensive National Environmental Research Plan 



The Administration is committed to formulating an environment and natural re- 

 sources R&D strategy through the CENR. The charge to the CENR is to design a 

 balanced environmental R&D program that is: 



• scientifically excellent; 



• policy relevant, not policy driven; 



• well coordinated between Federal agency programs and private sector pro- 

 grams; 



• meets the near- and long-term needs of the scientific and policy commu- 

 nities; 



• broad enough to catch, and respond, to surprises; 



• anticipatory, and not just focused on the policy and management issues of 

 today. 



The CENR has been structured with respect to both scope and membership so 

 that it can develop and implement, in concert with non-federal partners, a com- 

 prehensive environment and natural resources R&D strategy. The CENR has al- 

 ready taken a number of steps toward developing this strategy. 



The environmental issue and crosscutting subcommittees of the CENR developed 

 a set of draft strategy documents that presented initial views on: an environmental 

 vision; near-and long-term policy questions; the scientific information needed to an- 

 swer the policy questions; the scientific goal of each CENR subcommittee; the cur- 

 rent state of scientific knowledge; the highest priority scientific needs; and a strat- 

 egy to develop the required scientific knowledge. 



The draft strategies were presented to more than 200 non-federal scientists from 

 academia, industry, environmental organizations, Congress, and State and local gov- 

 ernment, at a White House sponsored scientific forum that was hosted at the Na- 

 tional Academy of Sciences from March 28-30. The specific goal of the fora was to 



