11 



Within the strategic plan, we in particular are putting a lot of 

 effort into promoting science excellence to assure sound EPA deci- 

 sions, assuring that environmental data are accessible and useful 

 to policymakers, scientists, and the public. We want to measure en- 

 vironmental progress where we can, and we intend to create a na- 

 tional and international environmental research agenda. These ef- 

 forts will be done in collaboration with other agencies through the 

 National Science and Technology Council that the President has 

 created, and particularly through the Committee on Environment 

 and Natural Resources. 



My testimony also points out that EPA has created a Science Pol- 

 icy Council, which we think is very significant. Our Deputy Admin- 

 istrator, Robert Sussman, who chairs the Science Policy Council, 

 has provided an opportunity within the agency to bring science and 

 policy together, thus ensuring that science underpins our policy de- 

 cisions. 



We are active participants in the Committee on Environment 

 and Natural Resources, CENR, about which I am sure my col- 

 league, Mark Schaefer will speak. We have made a commitment as 

 an agency to fully participate in this. Our Deputy Administrator, 

 Robert Sussman, is one of the vice chairs of this committee. The 

 Assistant Administrator for Research and Development — the posi- 

 tion I am acting in right now — chairs the Subcommittee on Toxic 

 Substances, Solvents, and Hazardous Waste. 



Many of the provisions of the ERDDA bill call for us to strength- 

 en interagency collaboration and cooperation on activities. We are 

 working these things through the Committee on Environment and 

 Natural Resources. 



We have also undertaken, as you are very well aware, a labora- 

 tory study. You mentioned in your opening remarks the Mitre re- 

 port, the SAB report, and other things. We have delivered to the 

 Administrator the final recommendations of the steering committee 

 on the laboratory study and hope that the Administrator will soon 

 come out with her decisions on this. 



In particular, we want to emphasize that we are going to set our 

 research agenda based on the risk assessment paradigm. We are 

 going to be giving priority to research that has the greatest impact 

 on reducing uncertainty in risk assessment and facilitates risk 

 management. S. 1545 promotes similar ideas. So we think we are 

 moving in a very consistent direction. 



We also intend to put more priority into long-term research, mov- 

 ing to 50 percent of our research dollars. We intend to embark with 

 a new organizational structure, as I mention in my testimony, that 

 will have more partnerships with the scientific community, in- 

 crease the number of EPA fellowships, and move along with a lot 

 of management and administrative streamlining. 



My testimony also goes through the fiscal year 1995 budget re- 

 quest. That I will leave to the committee to look at in the record. 



We think that our research program provides the vital tools to 

 understand and solve the environmental problems and to translate 

 science into policy. Currently, we have our authorizations through 

 a number of single media statutes, but we clearly recognize that S. 

 1545 clarifies the role. It allows us to embark on a number of cross- 

 media programs for which the individual media strategies don't 



