President George W. Bush and Christine Todd Whitman, his appointed director to the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), have announced plans to cut the EPA's staff and shift a portion of its environmental duties to state governments. The administration says it wants to cut 270 positions from the agency, or about 8% of the existing staff. At the same time it has also proposed a $25 million increase in state environmental enforcement grants. Last month, prefacing the decision, Whitman told the National Association of Manufacturers in a speech that states were better equipped to deal with environmental problems than the EPA. She also emphasized state enforcement of environmental regulations through a "partnership" with industry. Democrats and environmental groups, however, are charging that the proposal does little to guarantee states will enforce federal environmental laws. States with good enforcement records (Arizona, Delaware, and Missouri) notwithstanding, the proposal's foes point to numerous records of states failing to correct past violators as evidence supporting their conclusion. Among these breaches are examples of state governments allowing serious violations of federal pollution laws to go unreported, allowing major industrial polluters to operate without permits, and failing to conduct emissions tests on industry smokestacks. The House Appropriations Committee has approved the proposed cuts but their counterpart in the Senate has moved to restore them. Negotiators from both government bodies are expected to iron out the dispute.

Source: Bush Plan Trims EPA Staff, Enforcement would shift to States
Eric Pianin
Newsday, July 24, 2001
http://www.newsday.com/coverage/current/news/tuesday/nd1694.htm