Hearing of the Energy and Environment Subcommittee of the House Science, Space, and Technology Committee - Fostering Quality Science at EPA: Perspectives on Common Sense Reform -- Day II

Statement

I want to welcome everyone to the second day of our hearing on Fostering Quality Science at EPA: Perspectives on Common Sense Reform.

As this is a continuation of the hearing held on November 30th of last year, I will be brief. Unfortunately, the Environmental Research, Development and Demonstration Authorization Act, or ERDDAA, which is the statute authorizing R&D at EPA as well as the Science Advisory Board, was last reauthorized for fiscal year 1981. I think we can all agree that our fiscal, environmental, and economic priorities have changed dramatically over the last 30 years, and we should have statutes and a Congressional role in environmental policy that reflects these changes. As we have held nearly a dozen oversight hearings on specific EPA issues during this Congress, we have seen patterns of behavior that suggest the need for significant reforms.

At day one of this hearing, we received testimony from several witnesses with decades of experience with the Agency: Susan Dudley of George Washington University who formerly served as head of the White House Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs; Alan Moghissi of the Institute for Regulatory Science; Ken Green of the American Enterprise Institute; and Gary Marchant of Arizona State University. They provided specific recommendations on reforming scientific activities at EPA, including the need to separate science and policy, to quantify uncertainties, to ensure greater transparency in the data, models, and assumptions used in regulatory decisions, to prioritize environmental problems and solutions, and to stop overlyalarmist approaches to benefit-cost analysis.

I want to thank the witnesses for appearing before the Subcommittee, and I look forward to continuing this important conversation with this panel of experts.

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