April 6, 1970
Page 10399
S. 3677 – INTRODUCTION OF ENVIRONMENTAL QUALITY ADMINISTRATION ACT OF 1970
Mr. MUSKIE. Mr. President, on behalf of myself and Senators BAYH, BOGGS, EAGLETON, MONTOYA, RANDOLPH, and SPONG, I introduce the Environmental Quality Administration Act of 1970.
Few Federal programs and executive agencies have undergone the constant change in a relatively short period of time which has marked the Federal effort to control air, water, and land pollution. And few Federal "wars" are being fought with as much room for improvement in effectiveness and efficiency.
Without a thorough reorganization of the executive branch, the pursuit of environmental quality will never achieve a preeminent position in the Federal Government. And if policies for the protection and enhancement of the environment do not dominate in the future, we will never be able to correct the mistakes of the past.
I am not the first to note the way in which pollution control and abatement protection programs are scattered through several departments and agencies.
The Federal Water Pollution Control Administration is housed in the Department ofthe Interior. The Air Pollution Control Administration is part of the consumer protection and environmental health services program in the Department of Health, Education, and Welfare, along with the Environmental Control Administration.
The Congress has assigned responsibilities for pesticides control to the Department of Agriculture, which also promotes the use of pesticides for increased agricultural production. The Atomic Energy Commission supervises radiological protection from the uses of nuclear energy, which the Commission promotes. The Corps of Engineers is responsible for control of most polluted industrial discharges into the navigable waters, which the corps dredges and into which it authorizes the dumping of spoil. Some responsibilities for solid waste programs are lodged in the Department of the Interior's Bureau of Mines, which has as its primary mission the promotion of mineral resource development and use.
We have also given authority to the Department of Housing and Urban Development and the Farmers Home Administration in the Department of Agriculture to make grants and loans for the construction of sewage systems.
Such proliferation of activities and overlap of responsibilities are not unique to environmental protection programs in the Federal Government. But, increasingly, such proliferation and overlap are intolerable because of their adverse effects on our efforts to improve the environment.
The time has come for us to create an independent, watchdog agency to exercise the regulatory functions associated with environmental protection. Bureaus, divisions, and administrations housed in separate departments, cannot marshal the resources required o combat the interlocking assaults on our air, water, and land resources. They have neither the status nor the manpower to deal with one of the fundamental and insidious threats to our society.
There are those who favor the creation of a Department of Natural Resources or a Department of Conservation to handle such functions. Whatever the merits of such a department to serve other purposes, such a move for these purposes would be a mistake for several important reasons.
First, it would ignore the fact that our environmental protection problem involves competition in the use of resources – a competition which exists today in the Department of the Interior and would exist in any department which must develop resources for public use.
The Department of Transportation is not the agency to determine air pollution control requirements for the transportation industry. The Atomic Energy Commission is not the agency to establish water pollution control requirements for nuclear powerplants. The agency which sets environmental quality standards must have only one goal: protection of this and future generations against changes in the natural environment which adversely affect the quality of life.
The problem of environmental pollution will not be solved by picking up the rhetoric of antipollution concerns and then assigning the control of pollution to those responsible for the support or promotion of pollution activities.
Second, we must recognize that environmental protection is not the same as conservation, although sound conservation practices should enhance the environment. For example, some conservation projects developed and promoted by the Soil Conservation Service, the Bureau of Reclamation, or the Corps of Engineers are not consistent with broader societal needs and the quality of life. Our conservation projects in southcentral Florida, for instance, have seriously threatened the ecology of the Everglades.
Finally, the traditional concerns of conservation activities have been too closely identified with the protection of natural resources separated from the population centers. Our primary concern must be man where he lives and the interrelationship between the natural environment and his manmade environments.
An independent agency, charged with responsibility for developing and implementing Federal environmental quality standards, supporting basic research on problems of environmental quality, stimulating and supporting research on control techniques, and providing technical assistance to State, interstate, and local agencies, would reflect the national commitment we need if we are to avoid ecological disaster.
The establishment of such an agency must be backed up by a commitment of resources to eliminate the discharge of municipal and industrial wastes into our public waterways, to drastic reduction in air pollution emissions from stationary sources and moving vehicles, to prevent the distribution of materials and products which threaten man and other species, and to insure the reconstruction and development of our metropolitan areas as places worth living in.
The commitment of resources means money and manpower, and hard decisions on where to allocate those resources and where not to allocate them. It means making environmental protection and improvement more than a conventional political issue. And it means placing authority for these programs in the right place.
The Environmental Quality Administration would mark an important change in our commitment to environmental quality. It would translate our concern into effective action, our financial commitments into results, and our determination into strong enforcement.
I ask unanimous consent that the text of the bill and a summary of its provisions be printed in the RECORD at this point.
The PRESIDING OFFICER (Mr. MONDALE). The bill will be received and appropriately referred; and, without objection, the bill and summary will be printed in the RECORD.
The bill (S. 3677) to establish an independent agency to coordinate the management of programs established to protect and enhance the quality of the environment through the control and abatement of air and water pollution, solid waste contamination, and through other related activities, introduced by Mr. MUSKIE (for himself and other Senators), was received, read twice by its title, referred to the Committee on Government Operations, and ordered to be printed in the RECORD, as follows:
S. 3677
Be it enacted by the Senate and. House of Representatives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, That Congress finds and declares that
(a) the deterioration of the environment threatens the health and welfare of man and degrades the quality of life;
(b) air, water and land pollution disrupts production, jeopardizes the economy and impedes the growth of the Nation;
(c) our technology has made it possible to increase agricultural and industrial production, meet consumer demands, and explore outer space, but we have not used our technology adequately to protect the resources of our environment;
(d) the protection and enhancement of the environment requires effective coordination and management of existing and future programs providing for the control and prevention of air and water pollution, the disposal of solid wastes and the conservation of natural resources; and,
(e) it is therefore the purpose of this Act to protect present and future generations of Americans against the adverse effects of environmental changes through the establishment of an independent agency
(1) to develop and promote policies for the protection and enhancement of the environment;
(2) to develop criteria which identify the effects of pollutants and other environmental changes on the public health and welfare;
(3) to develop and enforce standards to protect the public health and welfare from the short- and long-term adverse effects of environmental changes; and,
(4) to develop the technical capacity to implement such policies and standards responsible for the development, administration, and enforcement of comprehensive national policies, programs, and activities authorized by Act of Congress to improve the quality of the American environment and to maintain that improved quality.
SEC. 2. (a) The Administration shall be headed by an Administrator who shall be appointed by the President, by and with the advice and consent of the Senate. In addition to the Administrator there shall be five deputy administrators, appointed by the President, by and with the advice and consent of the Senate, and designated at the time of appointment as follows: the Deputy Administrator for Research and Development; the Deputy Administrator for Enforcement; the Deputy Administrator for Standards Development and Intergovernmental Coordination Program Planning; the Deputy Administrator for Operations and Grants; and the Deputy Administrator for Public Information. Each deputy administrator (according to such order as the Administrator shall prescribe) shall act for, and exercise the powers of, the Administrator during his absence or disability. The Administrator shall prescribe the functions and duties of each deputy administrator consistent with his designation and such additional functions as the Administrator may from time to time prescribe. The Administrator and the deputy administrators may delegate any of their functions to, or otherwise authorize their performance by, an officer or employee of, or assigned or detailed to, the Administration.
(b) The Administrator is authorized to appoint and fix the compensation of such officers and employees, and prescribe their functions and duties, as may be necessary to carry out the provisions of this Act.
(c) The Administrator may obtain the services of experts and consultants in accordance with the provisions of section 3109 of title 5, United States Code.
(d) Subchapter II of chapter 53 of title 5, United States Code (relating to Executive Schedule pay rates), is amended as follows:
(1) Section 5313 is amended by adding at the end thereof the following:
"(20) Administrator, Environmental Quality Administration."
(2) Section 5314 is amended by adding at the end thereof the following:
"(55) Deputy Administrators, Environment Control Administration (5)."
SEC. 3. (a) There are hereby transferred to the Administrator all functions of the Secretary of Health, Education, and Welfare with respect to, and being administered by him through
(1) the National Air Pollution Control Administration;
(2) the Bureau of Radiological Health;
(3) the Bureau of Solid Waste Management; and
(4) the Bureau of Water Hygiene.
(b) There are hereby transferred to the Administrator all the functions. of the Secretary of Commerce with respect to, and being administered by him through, the Environmental Science Services Administration.
(c) There are hereby transferred to the Administrator all functions of the Secretary of the Interior with respect to, and being administered by him through
(1) the Federal Water Pollution Control Administration: and
(2) the Water Resources Division of the Geological Survey.
(d) There are hereby transferred to the Administrator all functions of the Secretary of Agriculture with respect to, and being administered by him through
(1) the Pesticide Control Board pursuant to the Federal Insecticide Fungicide, and Rodenticide Act, (7 U.S.C. 135),
(2) the Farmers Home Administration, insofar as such functions relate to the water and sewer facilities assistance program.
(e) There are hereby transferred to the Administrator all functions from the. Department of Housing and Urban Development (with respect to, and being administered by him through) the Community Resource Development Administration, insofar as such functions relate to the water and sewer grant program authorized by section 701 of the Housing Act of 1954.
(f) There are hereby transferred to the Administrator all functions of the Department of Transportation with respect to, and being administered by him through the Office of Noise Abatement;
(g) Within 180 days after the effective date of this Act, the President may transfer to the Administrator any function of any other agency or office, or part of any agency or office, in the executive branch of the United States Government if the President determines that such function relates primarily to functions transferred to the Administrator by subsection (a) through (f) of this section.
SEC. 4. (a) All personnel, assets, liabilities, contracts, property, and records, as are determined by the Director of the Bureau of the Budget to be employed, held, or used primarily in connection with any function transferred under the provisions of section 4 of this Act; are hereby transferred to the Administrator. Except as provided in subsection (b) of this section, personnel engaged in functions transferred under this title shall be transferred in accordance with applicable laws and regulations relating to transfer of functions and personnel.
(b) Personnel not under section 5337 of title 5, United States Code, shall be transferred without reduction in classification or compensation for 1 year after such transfer.
(c) In any case where all of the functions of any agency or office are transferred pursuant to this Act, such agency or office shall lapse.
SEC. 5. (a) The Administrator is authorized to appoint, without regard to the provisions of title 5, United States Code, governing appointments in the competitive service, such advisory committees as may be appropriate for the purpose of consultation with, and advice to, the administration in the performance of its functions. Members of such committees, other than those regularly employed by the United States Government, while attending meetings of such committees or otherwise serving at the request of the Administrator, may be paid compensation at rates not exceeding those authorized to be paid experts and consultants under section 3109 of such title, and while so serving away from their homes or regular places of business, may be allowed travel expenses, including per diem in lieu of subsistence, as authorized by section 5703 of such title, for persons in the Government service employed intermittently.
(b) In order to carry out the provisions of this Act, the Administration is authorized
(1) to adopt, alter; and use a seal;
(2) to adopt, amend, and repeal rules and regulations governing the manner of its operations, organization, and personnel, and the performance of the powers and duties granted to or imposed upon it by law;
(3) to acquire by purchase, lease, condemnation, or in any other lawful manner, any real or personal property, tangible or intangible, or any interest therein; to hold, maintain; use, and operate the same; to provide services in connection therewith, and to charge therefor; and to sell, lease, or otherwise dispose of the same at such time, in such manner, and to the extent deemed necessary or appropriate;
(4) to construct, operate, lease, and maintain buildings, facilities, and other improvements as may be necessary;
(5) to accept gifts or donations of services, money, or property, real, personal, or mixed. tangible or intangible;
(6) to enter into contracts or other arrangements or modifications thereof, with any government, any agency of department of the United States, or with any person, firm, association, or corporation, and such contracts or other arrangements, or modifications thereof, may be entered into without legal consideration, without performance or other bonds, and without regard to section 3709 of the Revised Statutes, as amended, (41U.S.C.5);
(7) to make advance, progress, and other payments which the Administrator deems necessary under this Act without regard to the provisions of section 3648 of the Revised Statutes, as amended (31 U.S.C. 529); and
(8) to take such action as may be necessary to carry out the provisions of this Act.
SEC. 6. The Administrator shall, as soon as practicable after the end of each fiscal year, make a report in writing to the President and the Congress on the activities of the Administration during the preceding fiscal year.
SEC. 7. (a) All orders, determinations, rules, regulations, permits, contracts, certificates, licenses, and privileges
(1) which have been issued, made, granted, or allowed to become effective in the exercise of functions which are transferred under this Act, by (A) any agency or office, or part thereof, any functions of which are transferred by this Act, or (B) any court of competent jurisdiction; and
(2) which are in effect at the time this Act takes effect; shall continue in effect according to their terms until modified, terminated, superseded, set aside, or repealed by the Administrator, by any court of competent jurisdiction, or by operation, of law.
(b) The provisions of this Act shall not affect any proceedings pending at the time this section takes effect before any agency or office, or part thereof, functions of which are transferred by this Act, except that such proceedings, to the extent that they relate to functions so transferred, shall be continued before the Administration. Such proceedings, to the extent they do not relate to functions so transferred, shall be continued before the agency or office, or part thereof, before which they were pending at the time of such transfer. In either case orders shall be issued in such proceedings, appeals shall be taken therefrom, and payments shall be made pursuant to such orders, as if this Act had not been enacted, and orders issued in any such proceedings shall continue in effect until modified, terminated, superseded, or repealed by the Administrator, by a court of competent jurisdiction, or by operation of law.
(c) (1) Except as provided in paragraph (2)
(A) the provisions of this Act shall not affect suits commenced prior to the date this section takes effect; and
(B) in all such suits proceedings shall be had, appeals taken, and judgments rendered, in the same manner and effect as if this Act had not been enacted. No suit, action, or other proceeding commenced by or against any officer in his official capacity as an officer of any agency or office, or part thereof, functions of which are transferred by this Act, shall abate by reason of the enactment of this Act. No cause of, action by or against any agency or office, or part thereof, functions of which are transferred by this Act, or by or against any officer thereof in his official capacity shall abate by reason of the enactment of this Act. Causes of actions, suits, or other proceedings may be asserted by or against the United States or such official of the Administration as may be appropriate and, in any litigation pending when this section takes effect, the court may at any time, on its own motion or that of any party, enter an order which will give effect to the provisions of this subsection.
(2) If before the date on which this Act takes effect, any agency or office, or officer thereof in his official capacity, is a party to a suit and under this Act
(A) such agency or office, or any part thereof, is transferred to the Administrator; or
(B) any function of such agency, office, or part thereof, or officer is transferred to the Administrator;
then such suit shall be continued by the Administrator (except in the case of a suit not involving functions transferred to the Administrator, in which case the suit shall be continued by the agency, office, or part thereof, or officer which was a party to the suit prior to the effective date of this Act).
(d) With respect to any function transferred by this Act and exercised after the effective date of this Act, reference in any other Federal law to the agency, office, or part thereof, or officer so transferred or functions of which are so transferred shall be deemed to mean the Administration or Administrator, as appropriate, in which such function is vested pursuant to this Act and such other Federal law shall hereafter be administered by such Administration or Administrator to the same extent as such law was administered by such former agency, office, or part thereof, or officer.
(e) This Act shall not have the effect of releasing or extinguishing any criminal prosecution penalty, forfeiture, or liability incurred as a result of any function transferred under this Act.
(f) Orders and actions of the Administrator in the exercise of functions transferred under this Act shall be subject to judicial review to the same extent and in the same manner as if such orders and actions had been by the agency or office, or part thereof, or officer exercising such functions immediately preceding their transfer. Any statutory requirements relating to notice hearings, action upon the record, or administrative review that apply to any function transferred by this Act shall apply to the exercise of such function by the Administration.
(g) In the exercise of the functions transferred under this Act, the Administrator shall have the same authority as that vested in the agency or office, or part thereof, exercising such functions immediately preceding their transfer, and his actions in exercising such functions shall have the same force and effect as when exercised by such agency or office, or part thereof.
SEC. 8. (a) This Act, other than this section, shall take effect 90 days after the enactment of this Act, or on such prior date after enactment of this Act as the President shall prescribe and publish in the Federal Register.
(b) Notwithstanding Subsection (a), any of the officers provided for in Subsection (a) or (b) of section 3 of this Act may be appointed in the manner provided for in this Act, at any time after the date of enactment of this Act. Such officers shall be compensated from the date they first take office, at the rates provided for in this Act. Such compensation and related expenses of their offices shall be paid from funds available for the functions to be transferred to the Administrator pursuant to this Act.
The summary, presented by Mr. MUSKIE, is as follows:
ENVIRONMENTAL QUALITY ADMINISTRATION ACT
Section 1– Short title, the Environmental Quality Administration Act of 1970.
Section 2– Findings and declaration of purposes
Section 3– Appointment of Administrator by the President, with the advice and consent of the Senate; appointment of Deputy Administrators by the President with the advice and consent of the Senate, for Research and Development, for Enforcement, for Standards Development and Intergovernmental Coordination Program Planning, for Operations and Grants, and for Public Information.
Section 4– The functions of the following agencies and programs are transferred to the Administration: the National Air Pollution Control Administration, the Bureau of Radiological Health, the Bureau of Solid Waste Management, the Bureau of Water Hygiene, the Environmental Science Services Administration, the Federal Water Pollution Control Administration, the Water Resources Division of the Geological Survey, the water and sewers facilities assistance program of the Farmers Home Administration, the Pesticide Control Board, the water and sewer grant program of the Community Resource Development Administration, the Office of Noise Abatement in the Department of Transportation, and any others determined by the President.
Section 5– Transfer of personnel, assets, liabilities, contracts, property and records.
Section 6– Appointment of advisory committees by the Administrator; powers of the Administration.
Section 7– Report by the Administrator to the President and the Congress each fiscal year.
Section 8– Continued effect of actions of agencies transferred to the Administration.
Section 9– Effective date of act.