insight POLICY PAPER
supp -;re,v; t-c Ef'.A mS/ght contains up-u;-Jat« policy Information from the
A,^iTi,ii5"v-ato~/Deputy /Administrator to all EPA employees.
WHY EPA SHOULD BE A CABINET DEPARTMENT
March 1993
EPA-175-N-93-013 1
Below is a statement from Administrator Carol Browner to
the U.S. Senate Committee on Governmental Affairs
(Senator John Glenn, D-OH, Chairman) - February 18,1993:
I AM HONORED to testify before you today in support
of creating a Cabinet Department on the environment, and
to confirm this Administration's commitment to improving
environmental quality. I commend the leadership this
Committee has demonstrated in pursuing this matter. The
Administration supports elevation of EPA to a Cabinet
Department and will provide to the Committee suggested
technical corrections to S.171 in the near future....
....WE ALL SHARE A STRONG COMMITMENT TO THE
ENVIRONMENT. However, without an adequate
institutional framework, even principled commitment can be
rendered abstract. The question is not whether to create a
Department on the environment, but when. The answer
is now, at the beginning of this Nation's third decade of
Federal environmental protection. A decade in which we
will move from command and control, media-specific
regulation to alternative approaches oriented toward
pollution prevention, ecosystem protection, and incentive-
based policies. It is time for a Department on the
environment to function as a permanent and equal partner
in the President's Cabinet, integral to any equation of
Federal decisionmaking.
1993 IS A PIVOTAL POINT IN TIME. We have the
opportunity now to establish an environmental
infrastructure ready to meet the challenges of the 21st
century. We must move "upstream" and examine individual
pollution sources as elements of larger systems. Preventing
pollution by elimination or reduction of waste at the source
is key to this Administration's commitment to providing a
healthy economy that meets our needs today, while
preserving the environment for our children and future
generations to enjoy.
A CABINET DEPARTMENT ON THE ENVIRONMENT
will be well-positioned to accelerate efforts to integrate
pollution prevention and multi-media decisionmaking into
regulatory and compliance programs Governmentwide, to
promote the use of incentive-based policies, to improve
technical assistance to small business, and to encourage
corporate commitment to clean manufacturing processes and
green products through innovative programs. A Cabinet
that includes an environment Department will ensure that
the environment is fully engaged and integrated into the
President's examination of and decisions on national issues.
LIKEWISE, EPA's INTERNATIONAL ENVIRONMEN-
TAL PROGRAMS provide cooperation with and technical
expertise to developing and newly democratic countries and
our industrialized partners. Cabinet status will be important
in making the head of EPA a peer with Cabinet colleagues
in foreign environment ministries and promoting
international cooperation on the environment. It will also
make EPA a more effective collaborator with other Cabinet
Departments involved in international environmental
activities, including UNCED followup, programs in Central
and Eastern Europe and the former Soviet Union, and
environmental cooperation with Mexico.
IN THE PAST TWENTY YEARS, this country created
most of our existing environmental infrastructure and body
of law. To be sure, the national debate among Federal,
State, Local, and Tribal governments, industry, and the
public on environmental matters has not always been
successful. Nevertheless, significant progress has been
achieved. The air, water, and land are demonstrably
cleaner as a result of our joint efforts. Our "command and
control" approach has worked well but has tended to focus
on a relatively small number of large point sources of
pollution. In addition, its limited scope ignores creative
opportunities in terms of pollution prevention and
ecosystem approaches....
....IN 1993, CONCERN FOR THE ENVIRONMENT affects
individual, corporate, and governmental behavior. The
environmental ethic has evolved and is taken seriously
across economic, cultural, geographic, and governmental
sectors. Just as civil rights issues gripped our Nation in the
60's, and nuclear/cold war concerns dominated the 70's and
80's, integration of economic and environmental policy has
seized the public's attention in the 90's....
....WE NOW UNDERSTAND THAT WE LIVE in an
enormously complex global ecosystem: "solving" one
environmental problem can create a new one. Cleanup of
surface water has contaminated ground water and solutions
to ground water pollution have polluted the air. Actions
taken by one country can affect the health of the citizens of
another, thousands of miles away, and for generations to
come. We also know that assessment of environmental
achievement is a relative measure: our "successes" are
meaningful only in terms of reducing overall risk. We
have learned that we must not limit ourselves to cleanup,
but must also seek to prevent pollution at the source....We
must force ourselves to address long-term and not just
short-term consequences.
THE 8CXS HAVE SHOWN US THAT ENVIRONMENTAL
ACTION OR INACTION has economic consequences, in
turn affecting our environmental and business choices in a
never-ending cycle of cause and effect. Environmental
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opportunities can be economic opportunities. Money spent
by companies to comply with environmental laws and
regulations translates into revenues and jobs for other
American businesses....
....THIS ADMINISTRATION IS COMMITTED to
identifying the dynamic relationship between economic and
environmental needs and to ensuring that environmental
assets are reflected in our accounting of national well-being.
Environmental protection and economic growth are not
incompatible....
....EPA IS EVOLVING AS AN INSTITUTION grappling
with today's challenges, but the EPA created by
Reorganization Plan Number 3 in 1970 is positioned now to
function as more than a regulatory agency.... An
environment Department must work closely with both its
Cabinet counterparts and with its State, Local, Tribal, and
other government partners, and remain responsive to the
individual citizen. We must rely carefully on sound
science and research to better understand environmental
issues such as biodiversity, global climate change,
environmental equity, risk, and persistent toxic chemicals,
and to better develop policy and solutions. An environment
Department must be a model environmental steward, both
domestically and internationally. The Department must also
serve as a model for responsible fiscal practices and
responsive accountable management. Financial integrity and
sound contract management are critical to fulfilling our
environmental mission and to safeguarding the taxpayer's
dollar.
ENVIRONMENTAL PROTECTION IS NOT A MERE
FOOTNOTE, but encompasses all of the Earth's resources
and human activity....It shapes our daily thinking, strategies,
and budgets in every conceivable issue area. We are
moving beyond thinking of environmental protection as a
luxury or as a hindrance to economic growth. The growth
of our economy depends on the availability of a clean, safe
environment and the long-term availability of natural
resources. We can best join the need for balancing growth
and the environment by unleashing American ingenuity
and creativity to revive our economy and create a new
generation of environmental technology....
....BOTH OUR NATIONAL ENVIRONMENTAL ETHIC
AND THE NATURE OF THE ECOSYSTEM ITSELF tell us
that the President's Cabinet currently is incomplete. In
today's world a successful strategy for any public policy
issue requires a holistic perspective that crosses traditional
Department boundaries. There is virtually no such thing as
a policy or problem that does not have environmental
aspects or that is simply "environmental." A sound
approach to the environment is essential to the success and
sustainability of our Nation's economic, social, and trade
policies....It is not enough that environmental considerations
be part of Cabinet discussions: the environment must be
there in its own right as an equal priority and member.
OUR EXPERIENCE OVER THE LAST FEW WEEKS in
fashioning the President's economic plan is illustrative of the,^
role that environmental considerations should play in our
Federal decisionmaking process. As the numerous options
for energy taxes were explored, environmental concerns and
impacts were analyzed in a matrix alongside energy,
economic, social, and trade considerations.
....CURRENTLY, EPA SITS IN THE CABINET ROOM AT
THE PRESIDENT'S INVITATION, but President Clinton
agrees that we should validate its presence as a statutory
matter, regardless of who sits in the White House Oval
Office. It is time for a permanent chair at the table,
institutionalizing the environment as a critical ingredient in
the mix of any Federal decisionmaking.
....IN ADDITION TO OUR CHILDREN, students of
democracy everywhere in the world should comprehend
that an environment Department is key to America's
identity. The United States should join the majority of our
major partners who count an environment minister as an
equal among the top government tier. Not to do so sends
the wrong message about our government's priorities here
at home; it also prevents us from asserting the kind of
leadership that the rest of the world is looking to us to
provide on environmental problems affecting the entire
planet.
IN CONCLUSION, I ASSURE YOU that I believe the
creation of an environment Cabinet Department means more
than a new chair. Joining the Cabinet ensures direct access
to the President, and, consequently, a voice on behalf of
citizens concerned about the environment their children
will inherit and industry seeking to mesh environmental and
business concerns....
....FINALLY, CREATION OF AN ENVIRONMENT
DEPARTMENT signals at home and abroad the highest
commitment of the United States to environmental
stewardship....S.171 is consistent with President Clinton's
three-part environmental framework: ELEVATION OF
EPA TO A CABINET DEPARTMENT; ELIMINATION OF
THE COUNCIL ON ENVIRONMENTAL QUALITY AND
REASSIGNMENT OF ITS FUNCTIONS; AND
CREATION OF AN OFFICE OF ENVIRONMENTAL
POLICY IN THE WHITE HOUSE.
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