steps
             toward a
        stable future
          EPA
           An Assessment of the
     Budget and Personnel Processes
of the Environmental Protection Agency
              by a Panel of the
         National Academy of
        Public Administration
                  May 1984


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About the National Academy of
Public Administration

The National Academy, a nonpartisan collegial
society, was formed in 1967 to advance the ef-
fectiveness  of government at all  levels through
sound management and counsel on the practical
implications of public  policy.  In its extensive
work program the National Academy has con-
ducted studies or performed services for state and
local governments, the Congress  and Judiciary.,
and nearly every major department and agency
of the executive branch.
The National Academy's members,  elected by
their peers, consist of practitioners and scholars
of public administration, notably present and for-
mer Congressmen, Cabinet members and White
House officials, as well as governors, mayors and
local leaders, and businessmen and women with
significant experience in government service.
Congress and the President honored the National
Academy with a federal charter in April, 1984.

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     STEPS TOWARD A STABLE FUTURE

A Report by a Panel of the National Academy of Public
                  Administration
                    Assessing
         the Budget and Personnel Processes
       of the Environmental Protection Agency

                    May, 1984'
        National Academy of Public Administration
            1120 G Street, N.W., Suite 540
              Washington, D.C. 20005
                   202/347-3190

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                          NATIONAL ACADEMY
                     OF PUBLIC ADMINISTRATION
                    1120 G Street, N.W., Suite 540, Washington, D.C. 20005
                                  202/347-3190

                                April 20, 1984
Mr. William D. Ruckelshaus
Administrator
Environmental Protection Agency
West Tower, Room 1200
401 M Street,  S.W.
Washington, D.C.  20460

Dear Mr. Ruckelshaus:

     On behalf  of the National  Academy  and its Panel—Frank  C. Carlucci,
chairman, Robert W. Fri,  John W. Gardner, Simon Lazarus, Gerald L. McManis,
Dale R. McOmber,  Robert E. Merriam, Ersa H. Poston, Victoria Tschinkel and
William N. Walker—it is my. privilege formally to transmit to you the Panel's final
report, entitled "Steps Toward A Stable Future."

     We commend you  and Deputy Director Aim and EPA's new top leadership for
initiating programs to achieve the consistent, stable management and capacity for
long-term planning that are needed to  accomplish the goals Congress  has set for
the Agency.  Further,  we  agree with  your own emphasis on the importance of
enhancing   the  morale  and  the  professionalism   of  the  EPA  workforce—
recommendations to assist the Agency move toward those objectives are the most
sweeping in this Panel's final report.

     The National Academy  expects to follow  closely EPA's implementation of
the Panel's  recommendations.  It is our view—which we are pleased to know that
you share—that the management reforms  introduced under your leadership now
must be made a permanent feature of the Agency's operations.

     I know that I speak for the Panel  and its staff in extending our thanks  to the
hundreds of EPA employees and officials who cooperated with us in  conducting
this assessment of the Agency's personnel and budget management processes.
                                       incerely,
                                        Jackson Walter
                                       resident
Enclosure
      Affiliates: National Academy of Public Administration Foundation and National Institute of Public Affairs

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    J    UNITED STATES ENVIRONMENTAL PROTECTION AGENCY
                         WASHINGTON. D.C.  20460
                              APR  2 5 1984

                                                   THE ADMINISTRATOR
Mr. J. Jackson Walter
President
National Academy of Public Administration
1120 C Street, NW, Suite 540
Washington, DC  20005
                                         t
Dear Mr. Walter:

     Thank you for the Academy's Panel  report. Steps Toward a Stable
Future, which assesses EPA's budget and personnel processes.   Deputy
Administrator  Al Aim and other senior managers have reviewed the
report and join me in complimenting the Panel and the Academy.  I will
be expressing my personal appreciation to chairman Frank Carlucci and
other members of the Panel.

     We agree with the basic thrust of  the Panel's recommendations in
both the budget and personnel areas.  EPA senior managers are
developing implementation plans to achieve the objectives of the principal
recommendations in the report.  In fact,  we are moving quickly to estab-
lish a new Office of Human Resources Management at EPA—one of the
report's most significant recommendations.  On May 1, I  will be meeting
with the Panel members and Agency managers and staff to launch the
new organization.

     The best way I can express my gratitude for this excellent  report
is to assure you and the Academy of my personal commitment to institu-
tionalizing the best management practices and systems at EPA. I believe
carrying out the recommendations of the  report will  go a long  way in
fulfilling that  commitment.

                                  Sincerely,
                                  William D.  Ruckelshaus

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                                              PREFACE

                 Why in the world should anyone care about the internal management of an
               agency of the Federal government—in this instance, the personnel management
               and budgeting systems of the Environmental Protection Agency? Careful students
               of environmental affairs detect and report shifts in policy on toxics or changes
               in the levels of appropriation for the Clean Air Act or an escalation in the politics
               of acid rain; but very little notice is paid to changes in EPA's executive devel-
               opment program or  the organization of its research  labs or any of the other
               management decisions that substantially determine the  capacity of the Agency to
               protect our environment this year and in the future.
                 EPA's new leadership does care. The obvious question has to be, why? Part
               of the reason must be a recognition that the ambitious goals of curbing pollution
               of our land, air and water that Congress has set for the Agency will not be achieved
               without consistent, stable management and a capacity  for long-term planning.
                 The National Academy of Public Administration began its assessment of EPA's
               personnel management and  budgeting systems in  the summer  of  1983 at the
               request of the then newly-confirmed Administrator, William D. Ruckelshaus. It
               is the standard practice of the National Academy that its projects be directed by
               a Panel of its Members and invited outside experts and that the findings and
               recommendations be  the Panel's. As President, it was my privilege to talk with
               each of the panelists  before his or her appointment.  Without exception,  each of
               the ten—Frank C. Carlucci (Chairman), Robert W. Fri, John W. Gardner, Simon
               Lazarus, Gerald L. McManis, Dale R. McOmber, Robert E. Merriam, Ersa H.
               Poston, Victoria Tschinkel, and William N. Walker—commented to me  that the
               commitment of the Agency's new  leadership to this  open, broad-ranging and
               intensive review of two important  aspects of EPA's  management  would be a
               constructive initiative that commanded their respect, support and participation.
                 A major emphasis of this  Panel report concerns the EPA employees.  I have
               two preliminary comments on this aspect of the Panel's work: first, this assessment
               of EPA's personnel management and budgeting systems strongly confirms the
               diagnosis set forth in another recent National Academy Panel Report, Revitalizing
               Federal Management (November 1983), that Federal managers feel a frustrating
               loss  of relevance and control, that must be turned around if the programs they
               administer are to succeed; and second, EPA's workforce from top to bottom
               retains a high commitment to their public responsibilities and the Agency's pro-
               grams. These two comments are based upon information about EPA employees
               that was collected by the Panel and its professional staff through extensive in-
               terviews with EPA's  new top leadership, with Agency employees in  each of the
               ten regional offices and its major laboratories and with outside experts, and through
               a questionnaire survey of more than one-tenth of EPA's 11,000 employees.
                 I want to thank the panelists  and staff of this project and, in particular, to cite
               the work of Frank Carlucci, the Panel Chairman; Betty Bolden and Eldon Taylor,
               the  staff directors of  the personnel and budget studies respectively; Alan Dean,
               immediate past Chairman of the National Academy's Board of Trustees, who
               worked on this project as a special assistant to Mr. Carlucci; and Robert Haught,
               our regular and reliable editor.

                                                   J. Jackson Walter
                                                   President
n

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                             CONTENTS

Preface                                                              ii


Steps Toward A Stable Future                                        1
The Panel's Assignment                                               1
The Agency and Its Challenges                                         1
The Panel's Findings                                                  2
Developing the Workforce                                             3
     Creating a Human Resources Director                              3
     Institutionalizing Career Development                              3
     Explaining the Basis for Promotion                                 3
     Supporting the Senior Executive Service                            3
     Reducing Presidential Appointments                                4
     Encouraging Presidential Leadership and Congressional Support        4
Improving EPA Management                                           5
     Consolidating the Statutes                                         5
     Addressing Fragmentation              ,                           5
     Reprogramming for Flexibility                                     6
     Improving a  Sound Budget Process                                 6
     Opening the  Budget Process                                       6
     Encouraging Long-Range Planning and Regional Input                6
Improving R&D Effectiveness: A Special Case                           6
From Contention to Consensus: A Summary of Findings                   7
Executive Summary                                                  9
     The Panel                                                       9
     The Staff                                                       10
Developing the Workforce                                            11
     Policy and Operations                                            11
     Personnel Office Staffing and Services                             11
     Workforce Planning                                             11
     Recruiting and Staffing                                           12
     Position Classification and Position Management                    12
     Career Development and Training                                 12
     Performance  Appraisal                                           12
     Labor Relations                                                 12
     Incentive Awards                                                13
     Equal Employment Opportunity                                   13
     Development and Utilization of Executives                          13
     Morale and Motivation of EPA Staff                              14
     Program Evaluation                                              14
     Automated Personnel Systems                                     14
Improving EPA Management                                          15
     Statutory Complexity                                            15
     Strategic Planning                                               15
     Complexity and Detail in the Budget Document                     15
     Regional Office Participation in the Budget Process                  15
     EPA Use of Resource Distribution Models                          15
     Confidentiality of Budget Estimates                                15
     Flexibility in Budget Execution                                   16
     EPA Management Accountability Systems                          16
     Budgeting for Superfund Administrative Expenses                   16
     Administrative. Information Systems                                16
     Communication and Training                                      16
Improving R&D Effectiveness: A Special Case                          17
     Budgeting for Research and Development                          17
     Human Resources Management in Research and Development         17              iii

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               STEPS TOWARD A STABLE FUTURE
                       A Report by a Panel of the
               National Academy of Public Administration

   Spurred by strengthened leadership and internal management reforms during
the past  nine months, the Environmental Protection Agency is bounding back
strongly after a drop in public confidence and a period of low employee morale.
In our view as public administrators, the Agency today is moving on its own
initiative in the right direction.
   To hasten EPA's recovery as an effective agency and to provide right now for
a future of consistent and  stable administration, we offer additional recommen-
dations. Because the Agency's workforce from top to bottom demonstrably retains
a high commitment to their public responsibilities and EPA's programs and because
events have established that a strong bipartisan consensus supports those programs,
we urge prompt attention to the processes of implementation.  ,

                     THE PANEL'S ASSIGNMENT
   The Agency's new leadership asked us to concentrate  on EPA's internal man-
agement rather than public policy. Government agencies operate with two principal
resources—employees and dollars—and while budget and personnel procedures
rarely attract sustained public scrutiny,  they do contribute substantially to  the
capacity of an institution to provide leadership and implement public policy.
   When the National Academy invited us to join together on a Panel to undertake
this review last summer, each of  us agreed to participate because we believed
the Agency's leaders were displaying good faith in requesting an outside assess-
ment of EPA's internal operations and  that they were  prepared to accept and
implement good counsel.  We were told that our  independent appraisal of pro-
cedures was meant to be an important  additional step toward confirming man-
agement's readiness to work for the restoration of employee and public confidence.
Given this favorable climate, we believe that a virtually unprecedented opportunity
now exists to achieve and preserve a new and higher level of professional and
technical competency in EPA.
   It is our overriding concern that the Environmental Protection Agency should
be protected from the vacillations in management and approaches to public policy
that have taken place in recent years and that it be encouraged to pursue a permanent
mission that transcends partisan politics. Accordingly, while we applaud reforms
already initiated by the Agency and propose additional  internal improvements,
we believe a stable future requires presidential support and consistently high-
quality appointments to leadership within the EPA. No formula for administrative
reform can substitute for strong support and leadership  at the top, which must
come from the  President.
A stable future
requires presidential
support and
consistently
high-quality
appointments to
leadership within
the EPA.
EPA has attracted a
bright, aggressive,
talented and
committed
workforce . . .
                THE AGENCY AND ITS CHALLENGES
  Our review of the qualifications and experience of the Agency's workforce
spotlighted its great variety and professional diversity. EPA is the workplace of
industrial hygienists, chemical, physical and electrical engineers, aquatic biolo-
gists, nuclear physicists, epidemiologists, meteorologists, atmospheric chemists,
lawyers and public administrators, among many others. In this respect, it resembles
a university, except that its campus covers the Nation and it must carry out its
assigned missions in the unrelenting glare of public scrutiny.
  The Agency was created in 1970 by a presidential reorganization plan rather
than by a legislative act of Congress. Lacking the advantages of a generic statute,
the  Agency instead inherited the disparate programs, responsibilities, facilities
and personnel of other Federal organizations and agencies. Its immediate challenge

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 The Agency today is
   moving on its own
initiative in the right
            direction.
     EPA leadership
 must cope with the
  changing nature  of
         its statutory
       mandates and
        public policy
     responsibilities.
was to meld a diverse and inherited workforce into an effective organization.
  Today there is still no single overriding congressional directive driving EPA.
Instead, it has absorbed the missions prescribed in 11 different statutes. These
laws fall under the jurisdiction of numerous committees of the Congress. Not
surprisingly, the statutes affecting EPA are not always consistent—either in detail
or in overall trust—with each other.
  To illustrate the challenges confronting the Agency from the Congress is the
fact that as we prepare this report, 9 of the  Agency's  11 major statutes have
expired. Yet the Agency is expected to pursue the mandates in those statutes and
be able to handle new environmental issues as yet unrecognized.
  EPA leadership must cope with the changing nature of its statutory mandates
and public policy responsibilities. It must also lead a complex intergovernmental
system in which many environmental protection activities are carried out by state
and local public agencies. While addressing long-term and persistent problems
such as water and  air pollution, the Agency must at  the same time respond to
more  immediate environmental  emergencies  such as those involving specific
chemical pollutants.
  Yet another challenge to effective administration is the tension between technical
and scientific issues and public policy considerations.  The blending of technical
and policy considerations at EPA—critical to rulemaking—is complicated by the
fact that much of the science on which the policies must be based is at the frontiers
of knowledge.
  Within this distinctive Agency, EPA research and development activities serve
special roles.  Unlike the individual programs EPA administers, R&D cannot be
isolated but must serve the entire Agency as a resource. Responsibility for long-
term basic research as well as for work under deadlines in  specific programs
creates tension. Accordingly, R&D merited special attention from the Panel to
ensure its ability to pursue this dual role effectively.
   Aggravating these challenges, the Agency suffered a crisis in public confidence
until last spring. The entire leadership of the Agency was replaced by a new
team.  We are  persuaded  that the management initiatives of this  new team's
leadership are sound and deserving of support.
                                                      THE PANEL'S FINDINGS
                                Environmental.protection is a permanent public responsibility. Accordingly,
                              we support steps in the direction of permanence and stability at EPA. Agency
                              leadership should complement its management reforms with initiatives toward
                              institutionalizing the professionalism needed in so complex and critical a field.
                              Rather than proposing sweeping reforms, however, we recommend a number of
                              moves in the direction of more effective management, confident that they will
                              be steps  toward a stable future.
                                EPA does not need to be insulated from politics, but it does need the management
                              structures and procedures and the high quality personnel necessary to accomplish
                              the ambitious goals the political process has set for the Agency. Accordingly,
                              we recommend against conversion from its current status within the Executive
                              Branch to a multi-member commission purportedly independent of presidential
                              direction. The electorate supports environmental protection and EPA is far more
                              likely to  benefit from having the President directly responsible for its performance
                              than from any illusory  insulation from partisan politics.
                                Congress, the President and EPA should work together to overcome the frag-
                              mentation of the Agency's basis in law and  accountability to Congress. The
                              ultimate  goal of this cooperation should be an  organic act for the EPA. In the
                              process, common administrative strategies—for example, permitting, enforcement
                              and other administrative  procedures—should be devised and adopted whenever

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Congress and the Executive Branch identify recurrent issues in existing environ-
mental statutes.
   We provide a blueprint for further refinement of EPA's budget and personnel
processes. We were not asked to determine whether the Agency now has adequate
funding or sufficient staff assigned to its various programs but rather to concentrate
our investigation on identifying ways in which the budget and personnel processes
can be improved to serve Agency  needs.
EPA needs both a
high-quality career
workforce and
competent,
professional
leadership.
                  DEVELOPING THE WORKFORCE
   Since its creation and in part because of the broad public support for its programs,
EPA has attracted a bright, aggressive, talented and committed workforce, many
of whose members are also intellectually and emotionally involved with the cause
of environmental protection. As we and our staff spoke with EPA civil servants,
a common theme emerged: many entered public service  solely, or primarily to
work for EPA.
   The strong overall commitment of EPA's career employees to its mission has
been of critical importance to an Agency that is inherently difficult to manage.
Administrator William D.  Ruckelshaus appears to recognize this. "I will make
a special effort to harness  the energies and talents of the people at EPA toward
the Agency's mission," he told the Senate Environment and Public Works Com-
mittee  in May 1983, responding to senators' concerns that the EPA workforce
was seriously demoralized.  "EPA's greatest resource today is the same as when
we started—its people."
   Throughout all  of the Agency's activities—in research, enforcement,  air and
water pollution control, hazardous waste management, and external affairs—
assuring  continued high-quality performance  on the part  of EPA employees is
critical to Agency effectiveness. To provide incentives for that optimum perfor-
mance, the Panel  firmly believes that EPA personnel and human resources ac-
tivities need to be substantially enhanced and given greater emphasis within the
Agency.
   Creating a Human Resources Director. We recommend that the personnel
function in the Agency be strengthened and redirected to stress career development
within the EPA workforce. Toward that end we urge the creation of a new position,
Director of Human Resources, reporting directly to the Assistant Administrator
for Administration and Resource Management,  to emphasize that career devel-
opment involves much more than routine personnel services.
   Institutionalizing  Career Development.  We  further recommend that  EPA
undertake a comprehensive and coordinated career development and executive
development effort on behalf of its employees. Such an effort not only will improve
morale but will create an even more capable career workforce to meet the Agency's
goals.
  Many EPA employees are currently prisoners of their  career specialties and
their geographic location. A fundamental objective of the Agency's  career de-
velopment and training should be the removal of barriers to functional and geo-
graphic mobility.  We found that EPA does not encourage aggressively enough
the Agency-wide experience that is needed in top career managers.
  Explaining the Basis for Promotion. We recommend that professional and
geographical diversity of experience be required for promotion into the Agency's
Senior Executive  Service  (SES). We  also recommend that the Administrator
clearly establish and announce this policy to EPA employees.
  Supporting the Senior Executive Service. We believe that the EPA thus far
has missed an opportunity to institutionalize continuity and stability in its programs
by inattention to its SES. We found that personnel services, functions and com-
munications activities with SES employees need strengthening. Among our rec-
Progress toward a
comprehensive
environmental
protection statute
may be slow, but it
is worth the effort.

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      EPA's statutory
 fragmentation leads
         to  budgeting
  rigidities, impedes
             efficient
 administration,  and
   causes confusion.


        Congress, the
  President and  EPA
         should work
together to overcome
    the frustration of
   the Agency's basis
           in  law and
    accountability to
            Congress.
ommendations to improve SES program management is to have those responsi-
bilities specifically  assigned to a senior officer within  the jurisdiction of the
Director  of Human Resources. By  this means, senior EPA personnel will be
assured of resourceful direction and support no matter where they  serve in the
Agency.
  Reducing Presidential Appointments. The Agency has 13 political officers
whose posts are subject to presidential appointment and Senate confirmation. That
number is extremely high compared to other large  Executive Branch agencies
(though not Cabinet departments) and impedes continuity.*  We urge  that the
number of presidentially-appointed/Senate-confirmed positions at EPA be cut back
to be more in line with comparable agencies.
  We recommend the EPA Assistant Administrator  for Administration and Re-
source Management—the key headquarters position in terms of assuring stability
through transitions in top management—be designated as an SES career-reserved
position, effectively removed from the  political appointee category.
  To isolate environmental R&D from partisan political considerations and to
support the long-range nature of environmental research,  we recommend that the
EPA Assistant Administrator for Research and Development either be designated
as an SES career-reserved position or be nominated by the President and confirmed
by the Senate for a fixed term of not less than five or six years. Such action will
help the Agency institutionalize and stabilize the kinds of research management
initiatives needed to improve program implementation.
  In keeping with our general view that there  are  too  many presidentally-ap-
pointed/Senate-confirmed  positions at EPA, we recommend that the Agency's
new leadership cooperate with the White House and the Congress in identifying
positions that could be filled on  a different basis that  would promote the long-
term interests of the Agency. Our concern here is to encourage and enable EPA
to attract and retain competent professional managers who will achieve the con-
sistent, stable administration that we believe the Agency needs.
  Encouraging Presidential Leadership and Congressional  Support. It is im-
portant to note that in promoting stability, we are not aiming at "depoliticizing"
the  Agency in any way that would isolate it from the Administrator, the President
or the Congress.  For instance, we agree with many of the EPA employees in-
terviewed who endorsed the appropriateness of regional administrators being either
career or non-career appointees of the Administrator. However, we do urge that
Deputy Regional  Administrators  and Deputy Assistant Administrators be desig-
nated explicitly as "career-reserved" positions, a recommendation which in effect
affirms the Agency's historic practice of keeping those positions largely free from
political influence.
  To ensure that the Agency continue to develop and retain qualified employees,
the  President must make and the Congress approve political appointments of the
highest quality. Truly competent and qualified managers and professionals—in
career and non-career and presidentially appointed/Senate-Confirmed jobs alike—
clearly can be attracted to policy leadership positions at the EPA, as the Agency's
current management team illustrates. It is important to note that, based on our
professional staff's interview findings, EPA employees endorse this characteristic
of their current political  leadership. But finding, attracting, and confirming such
individuals is a joint responsibility warranting vigorous and demanding attention
from both the President  and the Congress.
  To continue  to develop popular bipartisan support for the programs of the
Agency,  we observe that  EPA needs both a high-quality career workforce and
                               *E.g., the largest Executive Branch independent agency—the Veterans Administration—has three
                               such officials, the National Aeronautics and Space Agency has three, the Federal Aviation Ad-
                               ministration (as an independent agency and as a part of the Department of Transportation) has two.

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competent, professional leadership.  It is the responsibility of the President and
the Congress to see to it that these conditions are met.

                   IMPROVING EPA MANAGEMENT
  The history of the Environmental Protection Agency and the history of modern
pollution control at the  Federal level are the same. Established  by Presidential
Reorganization Plan No. 3 on December 2, 1970, EPA was made responsible
for administering all but one of the major pollution control statutes.*
  EPA is responsible for carrying out provisions of:
  • The Clean Air Act;
  • The Federal Water Pollution Control Act, also known as the Clean  Water
     Act;
  • The Noise Control  Act;
  • The Federal Insecticide, Fungicide and Rodenticide Act;
  • The Environmental Research, Development and Demonstration Authoriza-
     tion Act;                                             '
  • The Marine Protection, Research and Sanctuaries Act; commonly known as
     the Ocean Dumping Act;
  • The Safe Drinking  Water Act;
  • The Resource Conservation and Recovery Act;
  • The Toxic Substances Control Act; and
  • The Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation and Liability
     Act, commonly known as "Superfund."
  Consolidating the Statutes. In our investigation of EPA's budget and personnel
procedures, we were struck by the extent to which they mirror the  disjointed legal
structure of the  Agency. At a  time  when the general  public understands that
environmental problems  comprise a seamless web, the Agency is left to administer
statutes that do not reflect the interrelationships between land, air, and water.
  Since EPA is responsible for administering laws that originated in many congres-
sional committees and subcommittees, the Agency has expressed  frustration over
the need to  testify before  19 House committees and subcommittees plus seven
Senate panels. Agency officials appear before Congress as often as 90 times a
year to deliver similar reports.
  Redundant testimony  aside, EPA's statutory fragmentation leads to budgeting
rigidities, impedes efficient administration and causes confusion. Statutory frag-
mentation, moreover, costs more money than would consistency.
  Congress  and the EPA should begin to develop an organic law covering pro-
tection of earth, air, and water. Progress toward a comprehensive environmental
protection statute may be slow, but it is worth the effort.
  Addressing Fragmentation. Despite prevailing overlap of congressional ju-
risdiction over federal environmental laws, there still are opportunities for EPA
to address its responsibilities in a comprehensive and consistent manner.
  We recommended that EPA, the Executive Branch, and Congress work closely
to identify common approaches implicit  in the environmental laws. Common
administrative strategies can be devised for all of them.
  We recommend further that state program grants, research  and development,
administrative procedures, enforcement, and permitting  in many  cases be made
consistent among the enabling laws. The resulting uniformity—even if limited to
procedures—could improve Agency management, public  understanding and long-
term environmental success.
Many EPA
employees are
currently prisoners
of their career
specialties and their
geographic location.
In our judgment,
EPA must undertake
major efforts to
improve the
management of its
people.
*The Council on Environmental Quality was assigned primary jurisdiction over the National En-
vironmental Policy Act and the Department of the Interior is responsible for administering much
of the resource- and conservation-oriented legislation regulating protection and development of the
nation's minerals and other natural resources.

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    That the Agency
  works as well as it
  does is a tribute to
          its people.
     We recommend
 enhancing the role
   of EPA's regional
    offices in overall
budget preparation.
   Reprogramming for Flexibility. The House and Senate appropriations com-
mittees have established ceilings of $500,000 and $250,000 respectively for the
reprogramming of Agency funding.  Because committees of both Houses must
approve reprogrammings, Agency flexibilty in shifting funds in fact is limited to
$250,000, and that limitation unreasonably restricts the kind of flexibility essential
to good management. We recommend the reprogramming ceiling in both House
and Senate appropriations reports be set at $1 million, with reprogrammings above
the amount subject to Congressional  consent.
   Improving  a Sound Budget Process. We found in the Environmental Pro-
tection Agency a well-established and fundamentally sound budget process which,
on the whole, satisfies the needs of  Agency managers, administration officials
and congressional committees. The system provides  timely and accurate man-
agement information.
   Nevertheless, it can be improved. W^ note that the EPA was introducing reforms
before we began our review. They promise to strengthen the Agency's budgeting
process.
   We recognize that difficulties encountered in budgeting at EPA largely reflect
problems inherent in the Federal budget process. That process can become so
time-consuming and so resource-intensive that it comes to be viewed as an end
in itself. We strongly agree that zero-based budgeting, formerly required through-
out the Executive Branch, was inordinately time-consuming and that  the end
product at the  Agency was not improved.
   With the abandonment of zero-based budgeting, EPA managers and employees
are in a much better position to focus  on budgeting as a management activity that
profits from experience in building a predictable future.
   Opening the Budget Process. We applaud the initiatives being taken to open
the budget process within the Agency. EPA managers are moving to include in
budget deliberations all key parties at headquarters and in the regions. We strongly
endorse this opening up of the budgeting process to input from across the Agency
as an integral component of comprehensive environmental management.
   We recommend enhancing the role of EPA's regional offices in overall budget
preparation. To this end we approve the current practice of having a "lead"
region represent EPA regional interests in coordinating with headquarters national
program managers. However, overall responsibilities of both the lead regions and
of the  national program managers need to be better defined. We recommend
expanding the process by which lead regions are selected to participate in program
budget planning so that regional offices themselves are included in the lead region
selection process.
   Encouraging Long-Range  Planning and Regional Input. We endorse  the
Agency's recent adoption of a two-year planning document that addresses upwards
of 35 priority activities for the next operating year and the  following budget year.
That document will help the Agency arrive at budgets driven by decisionmaking
needs, avoiding the trap in which decisionmaking becomes the  captive  of prior
budget constraints.
   While endorsing the two-year planning approach as reasonable  for all EPA
programs, we  encourage EPA to draw up longer-range  plans in certain select
areas. We also support the  notion that key  management commitments arising
from the Agency's Administrator's Strategic Planning and Management System
be applied to Agency officials' performance evaluations. Accountability supports
priority-setting, decisionmaking and program execution.
                                    IMPROVING R&D EFFECTIVENESS: A SPECIAL CASE
                               Public policy in the environmental, pollution control, and natural resources
                             fields requires marrying technical sciences with the social sciences and politics.

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In few areas of American life must science and policy work so closely to achieve
overall benefits for society.
   Within EPA the R&D  activities are fragmented in ways we conclude are not
productive. This function should be accorded greater prominence and permanence,
as our recommendation concerning the Assistant Administrator for R&D  makes
clear.
   The R&D organization does not make sense. The Agency inherited laboratories
scattered across a dozen states. Unfortunately past recommendations to consolidate
the Agency's 14 laboratories have met resistance from EPA's research employees
and from Congress. Although we believe that consolidation is but one avenue to
improving R&D management, we do favor appropriate consolidations as circum-
stances permit. Specifically, we  favor concentrating EPA's multi-discipline re-
search activities at the Agency's Cincinnati, Ohio and Research Triangle Park,
North Carolina centers, with center directors reporting directly to the Assistant
Administrator for Research and Development in Washington.
   We believe that  R&D should have  its own budget,  should 'be directed  to
concentrate on broader problems  and pursue science beyond the narrow needs of
individually funded programs, and should constitute an integral component of the
Agency. Moreover, we recommend that Congress pass enabling legislation spe-
cifically authorizing basic and interdisciplinary environmental research  within
EPA to serve the Agency  as a whole and the permanent interests of environmental
protection across the nation.

FROM CONTENTION TO CONSENSUS: A SUMMARY OF FINDINGS
   Our review of EPA's budget and personnel processes has confirmed what its
Administrators have claimed—that it  is a  complex and difficult Federal agency
to administer. It has no coherent legislative base, only a collection of complex
and sometimes inconsistent statutes to administer. It is intensely political—in the
sense that virtually everything it does  directly touches the public—yet its actions
must be scientifically and professionally above reproach.  And EPA has a major
leadership role in devising and installing innovative administrative arrangements
that permit and encourage a shifting to  state and local  governments of more of
the responsibility for implementing national environmental policies and programs.
These are difficult assignments.
   That the Agency works as well as  it does is a tribute to its people. We were
consistently impressed by the talent and dedication  of  EPA's employees. They
clearly want to be where  they are, and doing  what they are doing.
   EPA's effectiveness in its complex mission will continue to  depend  on its
employees. It is accordingly a matter  of highest priority that talented employees
continue to be attracted, motivated, and retained. They also must be developed
and managed along lines supportive of the Agency's programs, which increasingly
involve the coordination and oversight of complex intergovernmental regulatory
arrangements in which state and local officials make the site-specific decisions.
They  must be led, at the  senior career level,  by managers sensitive both to the
professionalism and objectivity the public demands of EPA and to the legitimate
policy views of elected political leadership. And EPA must have personnel and
budget processes consistent with these needs and with the need to translate policy
into specific goals and resources  that give direction to its talented staff.
   In our judgment, EPA must undertake major efforts to improve the management
of its  people. We  cannot  state this conclusion  too strongly, for it should impart
a real sense of urgency in  adopting programs to correct these weaknesses. Having
said that, however, we offer  no simple solution. The answer is not a closed
"service" like the IRS, Forest Service, or other models. The answer is to  do
many things better than they are  now being done. That is why we make many
recommendations  on personnel matters and that is why we think each of them
Despite its youth,
[EPA] is already
evolving from the
contentiousness that
characterizes new
experiments in
government to  the
spirit of consensus
surrounding many
older public
institutions.

R&D should have its
own budget, should
be directed to
concentrate on
broader problems
and pursue science
beyond the narrow
needs of individually
funded programs.  .  .

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 The new leadership
    at EPA has been
notably successful to
    date  in restoring
        direction and
             morale.
deserves prompt and sustained attention. We do not mean to set forth a menu
from which to choose.
  Good progress already has been made regarding budgetary matters.  EPA's
budget system, while complex and laborious, is about as sensible as the law and
review needs allow. It  can be improved, and we add several recommendations
to actions already underway to that end.
  Three of our chief recommendations fall outside purely budget and personnel
matters. But they set a  framework of some importance:
  1. We encourage rationalization of EPA's statutory base over the long run. It
     cannot but  help matters, although legislative  change alone will not insure
     improved management.
  2. We urge a number of long-range management changes in the R&D function,
     which must be pursued vigorously for several years to be effective. These
     are management,  not organizational, changes.
  3. We believe that no formula for administrative reform can  substitute  for
     strong support and leadership from the President, who has the central re-
     sponsibility for appointing consistently high-quality, competent management
     officials  who can earn the public's confidence and the respect of EPA
     employees.
  The  new leadership at EPA has been notably successful to date in restoring
direction and morale. Our recommendations are intended to identify opportunities
for further improvements in Agency management and long-range planning.
  Within the Federal establishment, EPA is a virtual newcomer, barely 13 years
old. Despite its youth, it is already evolving from the contentiousness that char-
acterizes new experiments in government to the spirit of consensus surrounding
many older public institutions. We intend our recommendations to advance that
gradual, but inevitable,  evolution, and to build upon broad public support of the
Agency's goals.

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                      EXECUTIVE SUMMARY
                      Steps Toward a Stable Future
                        A Report by a Panel of the
                National Academy of Public Administration

  The Environmental Protection Agency, under contract 68-01-6778, commis-
sioned the National Academy of Public Administration in July, 1983 to undertake
intensive studies of the Agency's personnel management and budgeting systems.
The purpose of these studies was to identify strengths and  weaknesses in the
management and utilization of EPA's people and its resources, and to recommend
improvements to enable the Agency to administer more effectively the laws enacted
by Congress to protect and enhance the environment.
  To conduct these studies, the National Academy assembled a 10-member Panel
of Academy members and other individuals who have had distinguished public
service careers. Members of the Panel* were:   <
* Frank C. Carlucci (Chair). President, Sears  World Trade, Inc. Former
  Deputy Secretary of Defense; Deputy Director, Central Intelligence Agency;
  Ambassador to Portugal; Under Secretary, Department of Health, Education
  and Welfare; Deputy Director, Office of Management and Budget.
  Robert  W. Fri. President,  Energy Transition Corp. Former Head, U.S.
  Delegation to the International Atomic Energy Agency; Deputy Administrator,
  Energy Research and Development Administration;  Deputy Administrator
  and Acting Administrator, EPA.
* John W. Gardner. Chairman and founder, Independent Sector; Former
  Chairman, Common Cause; Secretary, Department of Health, Education and
  Welfare; President, Carnegie Corporation  of New York and the Carnegie
  Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching.

  Simon Lazarus.  Partner, Powell, Goldstein, Frazer & Murphy. Former As-
  sociate Director,  White House Domestic Policy  Staff; Attorney, Arnold &
  Porter.
  Gerald McManis. President, McManis Associates. Former Senior Associate,
  Cresap, McCormick and Paget; Department of Defense executive responsible
  for application of systems analysis techniques to management problems.
  Dale R. McOmber. Former Assistant Director for Budget Review, Office
  of Management and Budget.
* Robert E. Merriam. Partner, Alexander Proudfoot Co. Former Chair, Ad-
  visory Commission on Intergovernmental Relations; Deputy Assistant to Pres-
  ident Eisenhower; Deputy Director, Bureau of the Budget.
* Ersa H. Poston.  Former Vice Chair, Merit Systems Protection Board; Pres-
  ident, New York Civil Service Commission; Member, International  Civil
  Service Commission.
  Victoria Tschinkel.  Secretary,  Florida Department of Environmental Reg-
  ulation,  and Member of the Energy Research Advisory Board, U.S.  De-
  partment of Energy.
  William N. Walker. Partner, Mudge Rose Guthrie  Alexander & Fredon.
  Former Deputy Special Representative for Trade Negotiations, Geneva; Di-
  rector, Presidential Personnel Office; General Counsel, Federal Energy Office
  and Cost of Living Council.
* Indicates member of the National Academy.

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                 The Panel selected as director of the personnel management study team Betty
               Bolden, Deputy Assistant Secretary of Labor for Administration and Management,
               on assignment to the National Academy. She was assisted by John Campion,
               Jack Sante, Joan Anderson, Kathleen Warren, Maureen M. Yagodka, and Kathel
               Carroll.
                 Staff director for the budget process  study was El don D. Taylor, former In-
               spector General  of the National Aeronautics  and Space Administration  and a
               former top administrative officer both for EPA and the National Science  Foun-
               dation. He was assisted by George Pilarinos,  Patricia L. Foreman and Darlene
               Pilarinos.
                 The teams  carried out an extensive interview program, contacting EPA per-
               sonnel in the Washington, D.C. headquarters, in the 10 regional offices, and four
               of the Agency's research and development laboratories. The project also involved
               interviews with officials of other federal agencies and with union officials, and
               review of numerous EPA task force reports, guidance documents and other man-
               agement information. Comments were solicited from members of Congress.
                 The personnel study team utilized a seven-page questionnaire to analyze em-
               ployee and supervisor attitudes. The voluntary participation survey produced 1,033
               responses, a 60 percent return rate of the 1,730 questionnaires originally distrib-
               uted.
                 Individual Panel members reviewed and commented on drafts of the budget
               and personnel staff reports, and the Panel met six times for group discussions of
               the findings and recommendations and for discussion with top EPA officials.
                 Following is a summary of the Panel's recommendations as they appear in the
               two extensive staff papers:
10

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                   DEVELOPING THE WORKFORCE
                       The Panel's Recommendations
                             as detailed in the
                    Staff Report on the Personnel System
Policy and Operations
• EPA leadership should communicate to all concerned  its high standards for
   management of the Agency's human resources.
• The personnel function should be given a higher level of organizational stature,
   conceptual scope and top management support. Specifically, the function should
   be elevated to the Office level, comparable to the Comptroller. The Director
   of Personnel should be retitled the "Director of Human Resources Manage-
   ment,"  or some similar title, to demonstrate responsibility for planning and
   programming, over and above day-to-day  "personnel administration."
• The proposed Director of Human Resources Management should be insulated
   to the extent practicable from involvement with day-to-day operating personnel
   matters.
• The proposed Director of Human Resources  Management should consciously
   reorient the personnel function to an interventionist role, identifying and pur-
   suing needed personnel initiatives.

Personnel Office Staffing and Services
• The proposed Director of Human Resources  Management should  reexamine
   the distribution of resources among essential programs in the staff-level  func-
   tions.
• A  workload model should be developed as  a guide for the  staffing of field
   personnel offices.
• The Agency should provide a structured career system for those engaged in
   personnel office occupations.
• EPA should review the field servicing pattern and realign it  to best meet the
   Agency's needs for providing responsive personnel services.

Workforce Planning
• EPA should begin a workforce planning process.
• In  the process EPA should analyze the numbers of personnel in existing job
   categories by program, headquarters and field, and determine if these categories
   are currently appropriate.
• The Agency should analyze current technical expertise and develop and maintain
   a list of Agency-wide and regional technical  experts.
• A policy should be developed on current hiring which will address future needs
   of the Agency.
• The Agency should analyze Headquarters/Regional workload proportions and
   staffing  allocations and determine if they  are appropriate in light of further
   delegation.
• EPA should install a comprehensive personnel management information system
   which will permit the  Agency access to information on each member of its
   workforce which is both current and accurate.
• On the basis of present and projected skills needs, the personnel management
   information system should be used to plan for the acquisition of skills for now
   and the future, and the necessary training  and development required in  light
   of Agency needs.                                                                     11

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               Recruiting and Staffing
               • The Personnel  Management Division should carefully and thoroughly assess
                 the adequacy of present means for bringing employees aboard from the outside.
               • EPA should develop a systematic strategy for both identifying needs and for
                 filling positions.
               • The personnel  offices at both  staff and operating levels should  reorder their
                 priorities to give immediate attention to filling of vacancies.

               Position Classification and Position Management
               • The Personnel Management Division should define the minimum classification
                 program required of field activities, and top EPA management should assure
                 that they have the  resources to carry it out.
               • EPA should broaden the planned reinstatement of regular periodic surveys in
                 Headquarters to cover the entire Agency and to deal with other kinds of position
                 management problems.

               Career Development and Training
               • The Administrator should advise all employees of his  commitment to an im-
                 proved career system at all levels of the Agency  with  heavy emphasis on his
                 intention to develop and maintain a workforce sufficient to meet the challenges
                 of the future.
               • EPA should design and schedule the implementation of a comprehensive pro-
                 gram of career  development and training for both its present and future work-
                 force.
               • The Agency should take appropriate means to reduce the over-ceiling condition
                 present in  some laboratories by  offering reassignments to other  locales, thus
                 permitting  a better balance of skills and providing for the infusion  of new
                 blood.
               • To introduce an infusion of new blood into the workforce, EPA should consider
                 establishing an Agency-oriented successor to the PACE as well as using existing
                 means as represented by the Presidential Management  Intern Program.

               Performance Appraisal
               • EPA should continue to stress,  at all levels,  the  coordination of systems to
                 manage programs and measure success with the content of individual perfor-
                 mance standards.
               • Standards should be developed from the top down and  each level should have
                 some knowledge of the performance requirements of their superiors.
               • The standards set at each level should be used to actually manage the work,
                 rather than just to evaluate performance.
               • Any changes which must be made in the merit pay and performance appraisal
                 instructions from year to year should be kept to  a minimum and should be
                 fully explained to all concerned in order to  promote employee feelings of
                 stability and predictability.
               • EPA management should redouble its training and communication efforts with
                 managers,  supervisors and employees about the  systems and their interrela-
                 tionships.

               Labor Relations
               • EPA should continue to develop and apply labor-management relations policies
                 and practices which take advantage of the opportunity  to enlist union partner-
                 ship, as representatives of employees, in achieving management's goals for a
                 motivated, satisfied and participative workforce.
12

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Incentive Awards
•  The Agency should establish mechanisms and processes for analysis, oversight
   and review of the program, as well as  guidance to improve the program in
   terms of consistent use and equity.
•  The Agency should establish or use more non-monetary methods of recognition
   of employee  contribution and performance.
•  The Agency  should make greater use of the employee suggestion program to
   help counter the perception that  management is not interested  in employee
   ideas on improving work operations.

Equal Employment Opportunity
•  EPA should  maintain the current field organizational structure,  but establish
   the EEO Officer position as full time; disseminate program goals, policies and
   responsibility for the Assistant Regional  Administrators/Management Division
   Directors to whom the EEO Officer reports; and provide  sufficient resources
   to support attainment of EEO goals.
•  Accountability for the recruitment and development of minorities, women and
   handicapped  should be included in the  Strategic Planning and Management
   System and in the performance standards of senior managers.
•  EPA should split the Affirmative Action/Special Emphasis function in Head-
   quarters, assign one person to each function, and reorganize the staff to reflect
   the policy and oversight role.
•  The Agency should establish a feedback process to make certain that the Office
   of Civil Rights  is  aware of Administrative Law Judges' efforts  to resolve
   complaints, both informally  and formally.
•  The Agency  should establish performance standards and a range of permitted
   time for persons assigned collateral duty responsibilities for Special Emphasis
   Programs.
•  Visible support should be provided to Special Emphasis Programs by all levels
   of EPA management.
•  In conjunction with the reemphasis to be given to supervisory development in
   structuring an EPA career system, the Agency should develop mandatory courses
   which focus on supervisory responsibility in equal employment opportunity.
•  The Agency should establish program manager targets for both upward mobility
   and  bridge positions; personnel should review selection criteria  to assure no
   unwarranted  emphasis is  placed on formal college training.
•  EPA should reinstitute the recruitment program at historically black colleges
   under the joint leadership of the Directors of Personnel and Civil Rights; the
   program should aim at more  use of cooperative education appointments which
   will lead to permanent EPA appointments as opposed to providing short-term
   employment or temporary solutions  to ceiling problems.

Development and  Utilization of Executives
•  A career-reserved SES position should be established in the Office  of the
   proposed Director of Human Resources to manage the SES programs of EPA,
   including intake, development, assignment,  policy development and  imple-
   mentation.
•  The Agency  should establish SES personnel policies and  communicate them
   to the EPA SES  corps.
•  SES bonus information should be publicized in  sufficient  detail to take some
   of the mystery and  suspicion out of the process.
•  The Agency  should finalize SES R1F procedures and publicize them to the
   staff.
                                                                                       13

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               •  The Agency should establish a system for communicating directly with SES
                  members on matters that affect them, such as SES vacancies, personnel policies,
                  and executive development seminars.
               •  The Panel recommends increased use of short-term seminars (one day or less)
                  which would have both programmatic and management topics.
               •  Orientation programs  should be developed for new political executives which
                  clearly explain the SES in general and the EPA program specifically;  one
                  objective of the orientation should be to foster, at an early date,  a respect for
                  the career executives  who will implement the policies that the political exec-
                  utives will establish.
               •  EPA should seek administration approval and congressional authorization to
                  establish the Assistant Administrator for Administration and Resources Man-
                  agement as a career-reserved position in the SES.
               •  EPA should seek administration approval and congressional authorization to
                  establish the Assistant Administrator for Research and Development either as
                  an SES career-reserved position or  a PAS position with a fixed term of not
                  less than five or six years.
               •  The Deputy Regional Administrator and Deputy  Assistant Administrator po-
                  sitions should be changed from general to career-reserved.
               •  The SES candidate program can be improved by (1) structuring the future
                  program to include preferred work experiences which reinforce the Agency's
                  new career development approach; (2)  providing for GS-14 eligibility to en-
                  courage a greater number of field applications; and (3) making candidate as-
                  signments which reflect the Agency needs for more broadly based managers.

               Morale and Motivation of EPA Staff
               •  EPA should give Agency-wide publicity to task force recommendations which
                  will be implemented emphasizing those which will address communication and
                  coordination problems. The Agency should use the Strategic Planning  and
                  Management System  to track  progress in  implementing selected EPA Task
                  Force Report options, and issue periodic progress reports to staff.
               •  The Agency should explore—within current OMB publication restrictions—
                  how it can improve communication both within EPA and with its constituencies:
                  state and local government/industry/environmental groups.
               •  All levels of management should be encouraged to establish formal  and informal
                  methods of employee  communication.

               Program Evaluation
               •  The proposed Director of Human Resources Management should institute an
                  aggressive program evaluation program to assure compliance with programs
                  and guidance and keep managers informed of the  status of personnel manage-
                  ment in their organizations.

               Automated Personnel Systems
               •  EPA should actively pursue the analysis of personnel ADP alternatives already
                  tentatively begun, and select the approach which best meets its needs.
               •  The effort to revitalize the personnel data system should be led by the users.
14

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                   IMPROVING EPA MANAGEMENT
                       The Panel's Recommendations
                             as detailed in the
                     Staff Report on  the Budget Process


Statutory Complexity
•  The EPA and the authorizing committees of the Congress should work together
   to enact  legislation that provides consistent  language in the environmental
   statutes for such common  functions as state  assistance, research and devel-
   opment, permitting, standard-setting, enforcement, and administrative proce-
   dure.

Strategic Planning
•  The Panel endorses implementation of the Guidahce  and Strategic Planning
   changes outlined in the Deputy Administrator's  Memorandum of November
   2, 1983 and recommends that several strategies be selected annually for analysis
   of longer term (3- to 5-year) trends.

Complexity and Detail in the Budget Document
•  The Panel endorses the Agency's decision to eliminate the implementation of
   zero-based budgeting.
•  The Agency should  continue to base  its budget formulation  on functional
   analysis so as to retain the  management benefits that accrue therefrom.
•  The Agency should continue to move toward fewer program elements in the
   budget structure, more concise budget narratives,  and a somewhat higher level
   of aggregation of activities and accomplishments in the budget pricing analysis.

Regional Office Participation in the  Budget Process
•  The budget process improvements suggested in the Headquarters/Regional Re-
   lationships Task Force Report should be implemented.
•  The Deputy Administrator should serve as the focal point for evaluation of the
   proposed  balance between  Headquarters and Regional funding  in the formu-
   lation  of initial budget estimates.
•  The Agency should provide a conflict resolution mechanism, with the Deputy
   Administrator as the focal  point, to moderate disputes that may arise as part
   of the Lead Region budget collaboration process and assure that positive Head-
   quarters-Regional relationships are not disrupted by the process.

EPA Use of Resource Distribution Models
•  The continued use of workload models for Regional resource  allocation is
   recommended. When used effectively, models can  yield substantial  related
   benefits such as more realistic  budget justifications, improved  staff commu-
   nication, and enhanced program accountability.
•  The Agency should develop a formal policy on resource models that addresses
   the question of consistency  in design approach and technical  validity of model
   construction.
•  The Agency should clearly define the function of resource model design and
   modification as a joint Headquarters/Regional responsibility and that the policy
   require the full participation of the regions in the process.

Confidentiality of Budget Estimates
•  The Agency should open its budget  formulation process to permit the sharing
   of estimates between the major programs and the regions, recognizing that the
   benefits of openness outweigh the costs of possible information leaks.                     15

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Flexibility in Budget Execution
• The Congress should provide the Agency with increased reprogramming flex-
  ibility by raising the present $250,000 and $500,000 thresholds to $1,000,000.
• The Agency should conduct a review of internal control systems to insure that
  managers are delegated the maximum flexibility possible.

EPA  Management Accountability Systems
• The Panel  endorses the  Agency's approach to program and management ac-
  countability and recommends that the systemic improvements initiated during
  the Budget Study be  implemented.
• The Agency should review the impact of data collection requirements that have
  accumulated in recent years to reduce the load and provide a review mechanism
  for proposed new requirements.

Budgeting  for Superfund Administrative Expenses
• OMB, EPA and the  appropriate authorizing committees in Congress should
  consider a  revision of CERCLA which would permit funding of EPA admin-
  istrative expenses within the regular Salaries and Expenses appropriation and
  eliminate them from  the site cleanup cost recovery process.
• As an alternative, the Panel recommends legislation that would permit funding
  of EPA administrative expenses within the S&E appropriation and would pre-
  scribe a statutory formula for recovery of the administrative expenses on a site-
  specific basis.

Administrative Information Systems
• EPA should establish an Agency objective to achieve horizontal integration of
  administrative ADP systems for grants, contracts, personnel, payroll budget
  and accounting.
• EPA should establish an Information Systems Steering Committee composed
  of representatives from both line and staff user organizations, to advise on the
  development of administrative ADP systems, stressing horizontal compatibility
  and a view of information systems as an Agency-wide resource.
• EPA should conduct a cross-system study of administrative processes to provide
  a strong foundation for software design.

Communication and Training
• EPA should develop a new  budget manual and implement a procedure that
  assures the issuance of regular, periodic updates.
• A training  course should be designed for EPA personnel covering the EPA
  planning, budgeting and accountability processes.

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       IMPROVING R&D EFFECTIVENESS: A SPECIAL CASE
                       The Panel's Recommendations
                             as detailed in the
                   Staff Reports on the Personnel System
                          and the Budget  Process

Budgeting for Research and Development
•  "R&D Program Manager" staff positions should be established in the Head-
   quarters R&D complement, with responsibility for media-based planning and
   budgeting, liaison with national program managers,  and operation of R&D
   management accountability systems.
•  Multi-discipline Research Centers should be formed at Cincinnati and at Re-
   search Triangle Park, with the center directors reporting to the Assistant Ad-
   ministrator for R&D.
•  The Agency should seek enabling legislation and support from OMB for its
   basic research and interdisciplinary research activities.
•  The Agency should work with OMB to develop a more coherent approach to
   the presentation of the R&D program in the budget document.

Human Resources Management in Research and Development
•  The Assistant Administrator for Research and  Development should be either
   an  SES career-reserved position or a PAS  position with a fixed term of not
   less than five or six years.
•  The Personnel Division should conduct  a  review of ORD labs that receive
   personnel services from Las Vegas to determine quality and responsiveness of
   personnel management services, and corrective action taken if necessary.
•  EPA should assign  resource management responsibility at ORD headquarters
   and multi-lab sites whose focus would include  (a) development of ORD staff
   across laboratory lines; (b) retraining of employees whose skills are not being
   utilized fully due to  changes in EPA research priorities; (c) assuring supervisors
   have the necessary  skills to develop, motivate, and direct subordinate staff;
   and (d) provision of central direction for  optimum utilization of equipment.
•  The Agency  should establish an ORD-wide career development  perspective
   which focuses on (a) the functional cross-development of its professional staff
   as opposed to the development within a single media;  (b) the upgrading of the
   skills of supervisors; and (c) retraining employees whose current skills are out
   of alignment with EPA's program priorities.
•  Both the  lab directors and the  Assistant Administrator should periodically
   communicate to ORD staff regarding local and national program goals, strat-
   egies for reaching the goals, and how employees' duties relate to such goals
   and strategies.
                                                                                       17

             U.S. GOVERNMENT PRINTING OFFICE :  1984 0 - 441-469

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                               National Academy of Public Administration

                                                Officers

                                Phillip S. Hughes, Chairman of the Board
                                      J. Jackson Walter, President
                                      S. Kenneth Howard, Treasurer
                                      Sheldon S. Cohen, Secretary

                                           Board of Trustees
Phillip S. Hughes, Chairman
Under Secretary
The Smithsonian Institution
Anita F. Alpern
Distinguished Adjunct Professor in Residence
The American University

Robert P. Biller
Vice Provost
University of Southern California

Hale Champion
Executive Dean
John F. Kennedy  School of Government
Harvard University

Sheldon S.  Cohen
Cohen & Uretz
Washington, D.C.
Morris W.H. Collins, Jr.
John C. Stennis Chair in Political Science
Mississippi State University

Lyle C. Fitch
Chairman of the Board
Institute of Public Administration

Arthur S. Flemming
Director
Coalition for Quality Integrated Education
S. Kenneth Howard
Executive Director
Advisory Commission on Intergovernmental Relations
Thomas D. Morris
Consultant
Washington, D.C.

Sylvester Murray
City Manager
City of Cincinnati
Elsa A.  Porter
Distinguished Practitioner in Residence
Washington Public Affairs Center
University of Southern California
Rocco Siciliano
Chairman, Chief Executive Officer
TICOR
Elmer B. Staats
President
Harry S. Truman Scholarship Foundation
Richard A. Wegman
Wellford, Wegman, Krulwich, Gold & Hoff
Washington, D.C.

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