dEBUnSight POLICY PAPER
This supplement to EPA InSight contains up-to-date policy information from the
Administrator/Deputy Administrator to all EPA employees.
NEW DIRECTIONS AT EPA
Below are remarks by Administrator Carol Browner at a
"town meeting* with EPA employees on November 22,1993:
Today marks an important milestone for our Agency: We
have formally sworn in almost all of our assistant
administrators, and our new team is ready to lav out its vision
for the Agency.
Today, we are here to celebrate the Agency's
accomplishments over the last ten months, to present our new
team's vision for the next three years and beyond, and to have
an open discussion about where EPA is going.
Let me begin by thanking the team of senior career
leaden and all of you who have carried the Agency for many
months during this transition. You have done an exceptional
lob under sometimes difficult circumstances, and I thank you
again.
With your help, we have begun to build the base for a new
energized agency that is confident of its place as the leading
environmental organization in the world.
Let me just review some of the remarkable steps EPA has
taken in the last ten months. Some of them have been new
initiatives. In other cases, I have been able to assist you in
completing work that began before I joined the Agency.
Presidential Initiatives:
• EPA helped to shape the President's -Earth Day
commitments on biodiversity and climate change.
• We helped to draft the very important executive orders
on federal pollution prevention, recycling, and environmental
justice.
Agency Initiatives:
• EPA announced the Combustion Initiative for hazardous
waste incinerators, the Great Lakes Water Quality Initiative,
and the pulp and paper duster rule—three important actions
that had been bottled up in the Agency for years.
• We proposed or finalized a significant number of new air
rules.
• EPA took significant steps to make pollution prevention
the central ethic of all we do.
• EPA reorganized our enforcement office and took
groundbrea. ig enforcement actions.
• EPA announced an ambitious legislative agenda,
including NAFTA (North American Free Trade Agreement)
with its environmental side agreement, the Food Safety
package, the Drinking Water SRF (State Revolving Fund) and
Reform package, the Clean Water Act reforms, and Superfund
reform.
December 1993
EPA-175-N-93-026
Agency Management
• EPA opened up management to employees at all levels
of the Agency through our Enforcement Reorganization, our
open budget process, and our very successful NPR (National
Performance Review) effort.
• At the same time, we have been working day in and day
out to tackle the most daunting regulatory and implementation
agenda of any agency anywhere in the federal government
And we've done it under difficult working conditions and
under difficult financial constraints.
These accomplishments are yours. You are the people that
made them all happen. And today, I want to lay out for you
my vision for where we go now—and to ask all of you to help
me in making it a reality.
My vision for the future is based in large part on what 1
have heard from all of you, from the NPR process, and from
the Agency's career leadership.
When I leave EPA, I hope to have accomplished two things
First, with your insight and help, we will have established new
directions for protecting our nation's health and environment--
a major change in our nation's environmental policies The
food our children eat will be safer because of EPA's food
safety program...Our air will be improved because of EPA's
aggressive implementation of the Clean Air Act...Our nation's
waters will be cleaner as a result of EPA's non-point source
program and our new watershed approach to dean water
Our drinking water will be safe for our children to dnnk The
contaminated sites across our nation will be on their way to
productive redevelopment because Superfund will be working
faster, fairer, and more efficiently.
But, as important as these policy initiatives are, the second
accomplishment I hope to achieve is even more important
The greatest legacy I could hope for is leaving each of you
with a fundamentally different view of your lob 1 want each
of you to view yourselves as environmental leaders.
Like most of you, I came to EPA because I fundamentally
believe in what we do here. But today, we stand at a critical
crossroads in our quest for a dean environment.
In the last twenty years, an entire infrastructure and body
of command-and-control laws was created, virtually from
scratch, to protect the environment. Beyond a doubt, these
improved our environment. We ni. longer have lead in our
gasoline Lake Erie and many nvers and streams are cleaner
than they were before. We have begun cleaning up the
nation's toxic sites.
But, our strategies for environmental protection are still not
where they should be.
Perhaps most disturbing, environmental policy has become
remarkably polarized and adversarial. At any given time.
PitiiMd wm SoinCMOtt b* en
IMM90&
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several hinidied lawsulte are pending agW’et EPA.
Our laws have. In sou ses , sImply moved coneau In ne
from one m ’ 41 um to another-from air to land , from land to
wa
Stetes, 1omli es, arid b rsIn. are con ned abo
ulatorv bwder s arid the mite of envb’onmattel pvote toa.
We have learned that 4ff fenint oovulatloris are vulnerable
in different ways to different wfron nte1 am ”narite, yet
we have few s)r i.u.s In pIaea to a nw’r ats this
You and I have the pporUi dty In the n t th years to
address these problems and niakq EPA th. leader of a new
generadon of eavlronntentei protection—to make fwidartel
changes that could well be felt (or the n t th 1 generations.
Despite the problems facing us, support for environmentel
pruPe on In the general public and In the federal government
has never been s onger. Many of th. laws that govern
envmmmmml protection are up far reauthodsation. EPA has
an opportunity a responsibility to sb’esgthen and refine
thes . laws and diarige the way we do bnirtaia
We won’t have an opportunity ilk. this again for a long
time. say, lets seize the day. Lets lead th. new generation
of environmental protection. And, let’s do It by adLtertng to
two important prmdplec
One—that EPA’s overarching responsibility is the protection
of our people and our environment By protecting ow
environment, we axe protecthig human health.
Two—that EPA must have an unyielding conunitutont to
this nation’s environmental goals combined with common
sense. innovation, and flmdbility in achieving these goals.
To implement th principles, I believe we must focus on
three areas
-Fixing our environmental decision-making process
—Re-focusing on m nagemen and
-Inipiernentuig a stiong, new policy agenda.
First, we must fix the orocess by which EPA arrives at
environmental policy. rm asking each one of you to help us
get away from the grsdloá, expanrnve litigation, and
mefficences of the past. Every one of us must aeste
in ntive5 to solve problems and eliminate hyperbole and
conflict We must work in complete partitership with
Congress and other federal agencies, with states, ibea, and
localities, with the public, with all stakeholdera. We must
break down the false choice between environmental protection
and economic development You and I must look for ways to
incorporate the public earlier tn t the pro s . Our Enforoament
Reorgaruzanon Task Force and ow Superfund NAc rr
(National Advisory Council for En nmentai Policy and
Techni ‘og ’) process are excellent examples.
Second, we must make EPA one of the best-mpnawed
a cncies Lii the federal government. Not an easy job—and a
oarncuiar challenge when we face finite resources In the
federal gaverrintent and the need to saeamllne our operations.
EPA has hunidredsof day-to-day rospon brlities for regulating,
ruiernaking, contracting, protecting, enforcing, permithng. We
must be dedicated to continuous improvement in every one of
these areas. We must help you get the resour you. need to
do your iobs.
The 400 EPA employees working on the National
Performance Review have set the course for ige. Now we
are reedy to begin. W. will use their recommendations to
“ ke EPAanorga 4 ’ ’inn where empowered employees work
eative1y to aceomplish dear objectives, to meet deadlincs,
and ha responsive to th. public. ___
You and I must tie together the budget process and the
environmental objectives of the Agency. To do this, today I
un announcing that we will undertake an effort to produce a
ftv.-yw s tegic plan by March of 1994. 1 am also
anrtRr ag that I am committed to identifying conctete.
ii auw*bLe envhonmerttei goals.
Bu eons of ow goals caz& be achieved unless we nurture
the 4glfr i4nii and competence of each individual. You and
I must re-dedicate ourselves to make human resource
In the comIng years, we will (ace substantial financial and
hiring hurdles . I am committed to doing all I can to secure the
we need to do our job. But, we will need to use the
NPR remmmendattons 1 work together, and re-think the way
we do everything from nalemakirig to perriuts to procurement.
If you and I tak . this opportunity, we can cut red tape an
mak. our work more productive and more satisfying.
Finally, you and I must lead the new generation f
environmental protection with a strong, new policy gent a.
Again, we need an unyielding commitment to the nations
environmental goals combined with common en
innovation, and flexibility in achieving these goals.
EPA’s new agenda means prevennn DollutioII . nor
to dean a up.
EPA’s new agenda means pursurn environmeriril tusnct
tnt everything we do. We must use all the toots at our
to protect all Aniencens.
EPA’s new agenda means developinct new environme’ i
techrioiortes. market-based media nisms a d mcci i ii yes to rcer
private sector decisions.
EPA’s new agenda means com rchensive aonroaches . r
piece by piece. site-specific thzn1 . irtg. We need eco s c
protection, watershed protection, cioss-med ta protccrmr
fighting pollution industry by industry
EPA’ , new agenda means quality science . We must
employ the best possible science, educate the public abuut
science and risk. and invest strategically in research ari .
development for the science of tomorrow.
My vision and my agenda for. this Agency have come
together through many hours of working with you. with :
senior management, and with the resuit of the Nanun .
Performance Review. Again. I thank all of you for all your
good work. We’re on our way.
In all that we do, let’s remember that protecting our
environme. means protecting public health. Let’s remember
that no agency in this government has a greater impact -on the
lives and the Livelihoods of Americans than EPA. Real peu tc
in reel communities with real problems are counting on us :u
l ’ -takR their lives a little bit safer, a little bit healthier, a little air
dwter. We take that responsibility seriously.
After twenty years of environmental protecnc.a, it’s time to
focus on the resuJt, not the rhetoric. Let’s work together to
get the job done.
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