 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
Recent Developments in the EPA Office of the Ombudsman
Subcommittee on Environment and Hazardous Materials
Prepared Statement of The Honorable Paul Gillmor This
joint hearing will now come to order and the Chair of the Environment and
Hazardous Materials Subcommittee recognizes himself for the purposes of
delivering an opening statement. Today's
hearing is being called, at the request of Mr. Bilirakis, to explore recent
events occurring in the Office of EPA's Ombudsman.
This office, which Congress established in 1984 as a four-year project,
sought to build a bridge between concerned citizens and government bureaucracy,
bringing governmental processes back to the people.
Internal and external events over the past several years have created a
public liaison that has been eager to be responsive to the public, but not
responsible to it.
A true ombudsman is both. While
personalities have dominated this story, the heart of the problems within the
Ombudsman's office can be traced to the question of whether a neutral entity
can act independently within an agency that supports it.
People who have previously served in that office have asserted that it
cannot. Last
year, the General Accounting Office (GAO) issued a report detailing how the
Ombudsman functions.
In April of this year, Administrator Whitman moved the Ombudsman function
into the statutorily independent EPA Office of Inspector General.
Some believe that a conflict of interest still exists with the Ombudsman
function housed within the Inspector General's Office.
I think that assessment is premature, but I am eager to hear their
suggestions for the proper way to handle this matter. We
will not reach all the answers this morning, but I hope we understand the
importance of breaking down the barriers of bureaucratic indifference and
opening these processes to free and open input, creativity, and constructive
criticism in the defense of human health and the environment.
Even
though Congress has not reauthorized the hazardous waste ombudsman's office in
fourteen years, EPA has found this function important enough to have
administratively kept it alive all this time.
Whether we agree on the proper place to put the ombudsman, we must not
shut the public out of important decisions on their local areas and
environments. I
look forward to hearing from our very distinguished panel of witnesses and thank
them for making time to be with us during an extremely hectic time on Capitol
Hill. They
possess the greatest background and experience to help us begin to answer to
some of the questions that will help us create and independent ombudsman
function within the EPA.
Though some may want to get into the personalities or past disputes
behind this issue, we must remember that it was Congress that sought this role
and we should ensure that it operates responsively to the public and responsibly
to the taxpayer.
Additionally, I am very interested in the GAO statement and what they
found to be the case in the Ombudsman's office operations within the Office of
Solid Waste and Emergency Response.
We must seek the lessons of the past if we are to avoid problems in the
future. I now want to recognize the Gentleman from New Jersey, my Ranking Member, Frank Pallone.
|
|||||||||||
|
