70 



Mr. Weldon. Thank you, Ms. Goodman. 

 Dr. Hecht. 



STATEMENT OF DR. ALAN D. HECHT, PRINCIPAL DEPUTY AS- 

 SISTANT ADMINISTRATOR, OFFICE OF INTERNATIONAL AC- 

 TIVITIES, ENVIRONMENTAL PROTECTION AGENCY 



Dr. Hecht. Thank you, Mr. Chairman, members of the sub- 

 committees. I am very pleased to have an opportunity to join this 

 panel. I am not sure that EPA often has a chance to speak in a 

 panel on environmental or national security. 



You have my testimony and I would only like to highlight a few 

 points, since I assume the testimony will be part of the record. 



Mr. Weldon. Without objection. 



Dr. Hecht. It is obvious that EPA's principal objective is envi- 

 ronmental protection, the health and safety of U.S. citizens. This 

 is, of course, predominately a domestic agenda, but many of the is- 

 sues we face have an international dimension, and EPA's inter- 

 national program, of which we are dealing with one today, ema- 

 nates from our responsibility to protect U.S. citizens from either 

 transboundary pollution or, of course, global environmental threats. 



In addition, EPA, as one agency of the Government, is an ele- 

 ment, is an arm of our efforts to implement foreign policy, and in 

 that regard EPA has had some responsibilities over the years to as- 

 sist the State Department and other agencies of Government in 

 carrying out these objectives. 



For example, EPA has worked for many years with our Agency 

 for International Development in assistance programs in Eastern 

 Europe under the Seed Act and in the former Soviet Union under 

 the freedom Act. More particularly, EPA has had a very long and 

 productive history of cooperation with Russia dating back to at 

 least 1972. The first environmental agreement, which was revised 

 more recently in 1974, was in many ways a hallmark of cooperation 

 during difficult periods of the cold war. 



More recently, with the initiative of Gore and Chernomyrdin to 

 establish a commission to deal with areas of cooperation across the 

 board, EPA Administrator Carol Browner was asked to chair the 

 environmental committee or the environmental working group of 

 that activity and in that regard has brought the full resources of 

 EPA to begin to address a number of these important bilateral is- 

 sues. 



At the same time on the international arena, our accession and 

 our agreement in the London Convention, something that EPA was 

 a strong supporter of, has given us an opportunity to work with 

 Russia and other governments to facilitate their accession to the 

 terms of the London Convention. 



There are a number of important policy documents that have 

 helped frame what we have done in Murmansk. Many have been 

 mentioned already today, but let me just highlight a few. The Arc- 

 tic environmental protection strategy is basically an agreement 

 under which AMAP, this monitoring and research program, has 

 been carried out. The United States-Russian environmental agree- 

 ment, which was signed in December 1994, is an update and a re- 

 newal of the agreement that was signed in 1992. 



