Rounds Opening Statement at Subcommittee Hearing on Management of EPA, Fish and Wildlife, Chemical Safety Agencies

WASHINGTON – U.S. Sen. Mike Rounds (R-S.D.), chairman of the Senate Environment and Public Works (EPW) Subcommittee on Superfund, Waste Management, and Regulatory Oversight, today provided the following opening statement at a hearing entitled “Oversight of the Management of the Federal Environmental Protection, Chemical Safety, and Fish and Wildlife Agencies.”  

Remarks as Prepared for Delivery:

The Environment and Public Works Subcommittee on Superfund, Waste Management, and Regulatory Oversight is meeting for the first time today to conduct a hearing on “Oversight of the Management of the Federal Environmental Protection, Chemical Safety, and Fish and Wildlife Agencies.  I’d like to thank our witnesses, Inspector General Arthur Elkins of the Environmental Protection Agency, and Deputy Inspector General Mary Kendall of the Department of the Interior for taking time out of their schedules to be with us today.

I am honored to be chairing this Subcommittee in the 114th Congress with my friend from Massachusetts, Senator Ed Markey, as Ranking Member.  As Subcommittee Chairman, I plan to conduct thorough oversight over the Environmental Protection Agency and the Department of the Interior.  The Inspectors General from these Agencies can and should serve as a resource for these reviews and today’s hearing serves as a starting point for this Oversight plan. 

Inspectors General are tasked with independently conducting audits and investigations relating to agency actions and programmatic mismanagement.  Not only are they an asset to Congressional oversight, but their recommendations are effective at correcting mismanagement, waste, fraud, and abuse, at the EPA and Department of the Interior.  It is essential the Inspectors General view Congress as a partner in this oversight process.

Throughout this Congress we will be focusing chiefly on good governance and making certain the agencies are operating transparently, responsibly managing taxpayer dollars and working to achieve their core missions without the regulatory overreach so prevalent in agency actions today.  More than ever we are seeing agency regulatory regimes expanding federal jurisdiction beyond their statutory limits, encroaching into private businesses, landowner’s rights, and the States’ ability to manage and regulate the environment and land within their own borders.

Additionally, the EPA and the Department of the Interior are moving forward with implementing major environmental regulations impacting every sector of the U.S. economy and affecting hundreds of thousands of American jobs.

We must make certain that the regulations these agencies implement are being written in an open, transparent process that allows for full public participation taking into account all views regardless of the agencies’ notions of their goals.  The EPA and Fish and Wildlife Service owe it to the American people to not only provide a thorough, transparent and honest analysis of how regulations will affect them but also to base these regulations on the most current and reliable economic data and sound science.

Notably, these IG’s have conducted recent investigations on mismanagement of the Chemical Safety Board, grant management, and administrative management issues.  I look forward to hearing a review of the work the IG’s have done regarding management of the EPA, CSB, and Fish and Wildlife Service along with an update of the reviews the IG’s are currently undertaking.  Again, I’d like to thank our witnesses for being with us today and for presenting their testimony.