ENVIRONMENTAL RESEARCH, DEVELOPMENT, 

 AND DEMONSTRATION AUTHORIZATION 

 ACT OF 1993 



THURSDAY, JULY 21, 1994 



U.S. Senate, 

 Committee on Environment and Public Works, 

 Subcommittee on Toxic Substances, Research and 



Development, 

 Washington, DC. 

 The committee met, pursuant to notice, at 9:38 a.m. in room 406, 

 Dirksen Senate Office Building, Hon. Harry Reid, [chairman of the 

 subcommittee] presiding. 



Present: Senators Reid, Lieberman, and Baucus [ex officio]. 



OPENING STATEMENT OF HON. HARRY REID, U.S. SENATOR 

 FROM THE STATE OF NEVADA 



Senator Reid. The committee will come to order. 



Today, we take the next step toward authorizing appropriations 

 for the EPA's Office of Research and Development. The EPA Office 

 of Research and Development is charged with the duty of providing 

 scientific support to implement our environmental statutes as well 

 as providing basic research to address systematic, environmental, 

 and human health hazards. 



Recently, the Office of Research and Development, ORD, has 

 been the subject of debate. A recent report by the Mitre Corpora- 

 tion was critical of ORD laboratories and has caused many to call 

 for reform. The Science Advisory Board and others have criticized 

 ORD's research and development strategy as being short-sighted in 

 terms of national policy. 



EPA itself, in response to the Mitre report and other criticism, 

 is drafting its own lab reorganization proposal. Yet with all this de- 

 bate and criticism, we have not had a law reauthorizing ORD since 

 1981. 



I believe that congressional leadership is critically needed in this 

 area at this time. Our statutes and regulations must be based on 

 sound science if we are to ensure that our environmental spending 

 is invested in the most effective manner possible. If we are to ex- 

 pect the American public to spend some $115 billion a year in pol- 

 lution abatement, we owe it to them to make sure that the laws 

 are based on sound science. 



S. 1545 has a number of provisions that would move EPA in this 

 direction. It authorizes $520 million for fiscal year 1995 for EPA's 

 ORD. It requires EPA to upgrade its facilities and equipment and 



(1) 



