United States GAO General Accounting Office Washington, D.C. 20548 Resources, Community, and Economic Development Division B-282394 April 20,1999 The Honorable Ken Culvert Chairman, Subcommittee on Energy and the Environment Committee on Science House of Representatives Subject: Environmental Protection: Allocation of ODerating Exoenses to Strategic Goals and Obiectives Dear Mr. Chairman: Each year, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) provides to congressional committees a budget justification for requested appropriations for the forthcoming year. This justification supplements the President’s budget submitted to the Congress by providing additional details and shows funding levels for the previous fiscal year- Your Subcommittee and others use the justification in deliberating EPA’s budgets, programs, and activities. EPA’s budget justifications for fiscal years 1999 and 2000 differed significantly from its justifications for fiscal year 1998 and prior years because they were organized according to the agency’s strategic goals and objectives (e.g., Clean Air: Reduce Emissions of Air Toxics). These goals and objectives were established in the strategic plan EPA prepared to meet the requirements of the Government Performance and Results Act. In contrast, the fiscal year 1998 budget justification was organized according to EPA’s program offices and components (e.g., Office of Air and Radiation: Air Toxics). In our testimony of March 18,1999, we reported that EPA implemented several changes to its fiscal year 2000 justification to solve problems experienced in comparing requested Science and Technology funds fos fiscal years 1998 and 1999.* We also reported, however, that EPA made changes to the objectives in the fiscal year 2000 justification for Science and Technology funds without information to adequately allow comparisons of requested amounts for fiscal year 2000 with fiscal year 1999 requested and enacted amounts. One such change in the fiscal year 2000 budget justification was the allocation of $86.6 million of Science and Technology funds from ‘Environmental Protection Acencv: Difficulties in Comwrina Annual Budgets for Science and Technoloev (GAO/T-RCED-99120, Mar. 18,1999). /~&S-ii6 1 GAO/RCED-99-144R Allocation of Operating Expenses to Strategic Goals and Objectives B-282394 the “Enable Research on Innovative Approaches to Current and Future Environmental Problems” objective in fiscal year 1999to several other objectives-generally disclosed but not specifically identified-m the fiscal year 2000 budget justification- As a result, you requested that we show how the $86.6 million shown for this objective for fiscal year 1999 was distributed among specific objectives in the fiscal year 2000 budget request. Allocation of ODeratiw ExDenses to Goals and Objectives In the fiscal year 1999 budget justification, under the strategic goal “Sound Science, Improved Understanding of Environmental Risks and Greater Innovation to Address Environmental Problems,” EPA requested $86.6 million for the objective “Enable Research on Innovative Approaches to Current and Future Environmental Programs.” In the fiscal year 2000 budget justification, EPA marked this objective as “Not in Use.” The fiscal year 2000 justification stated that the objective for fiscal year 1999 included the amounts for operating expenses and working capital for the Office of Research and Development. In the fiscal year 2000 budget justification, EPA allocated the requested amounts for this objective among other goals and objectives to more properly reflect costs of the agency’s objectives but did not indicate which specific objectives received the allocation. Guidance from the Office of Management and Budget does not require agencies to develop or provide these types of crosswalks in their justifications from one year to the next. EPA does not provide crosswalks unless asked to by the Office of Management and Budget or congressional committees. At our request, EPA’s Office of Chief F’inancial Officer provided us with information to link the operating expenses allocated to the specific goals and objectives for the 1999 requested amounts. As shown in table 1, EPA allocated the $86.6 million of operating expenses to 7 strategic goals and further segmented the amounts into 15 of its 41 strategic objectives. The table shows (1) the original budget request, including the “Enable Research on Innovative Approaches to Current and Future Environmental Problems” objective for fiscal year 1999 before the allocation of the operating expenses to strategic goals and objectives (shown in bold on the second page of table 1); (2) the allocation of the operating expenses to the strategic goals and objectives; and (3) the fiscal year 1999 amounts with the operating expenses allocated, as shown in the fiscal year 2000 budget justification. 2 GAO/RCED-99-144R Allocation of Operating Expenses to Strategic Goals and Objectives B-282394 Table 1: Allocation of $86.6 Million of Fiscal Year 1999 Operating Expenses for Science and Technology by Goal and Objective Operating expenses Revised fiscal year 1999 Strategic goals Strategic objectives I Origin@ fiscal year 1999 budget request amount allocated to fiscal year 1999 budget request request, which includes operating expenses Goal 1: Clean air Attain national ambient air quality standards for ozone and particulate matter $115862,600 Reduce emissions of air toxics 17,178,400 Attain national ambient air quality standards for CO, S02, N02, and lead 113.200 0 113,200 Acid rain 4,000,000 0 4,000,000 Safe drinking water, fish and recreational waters 37,699,300 8,129,200 1 45,828,500 Conserve and enhance nation’s water 11,570,700 4,028,600 15,599,300 Reduce loadings and air deposition 6,065,700 1,281,400 7,347,100 Reduce agricultural pesticides’risk 2,998,200 0 2,998,200 Reduce the use on food of pesticides not meeting standards 1,451,800 0 1,451,800 Goal 4: Preventing pollution and reducing risks in communities, homes, workplaces, and ecosystems Healthier indoor air 4,186,700 798,200 4,984,900 Reduce public and ecosystem exposure to pesticides 863,600 0 863.600 Safe handing and use of commercial chemicals and microorganisms 9,333,300 3,410,200 12,743,500 Reduce or control risks to human I health 1 5,935,600 825,600 6,761,200 Prevent, reduce, or respond to releases.. spills, . accidents, and I emergencies I 8,203,700 1,025,700 9,229,400 3 GAO/RCED-99-144R Allocation of Operating Expenses to Strategic Goals and Objectives B-282394 1 Goal 6: Reduction of global and cross-environmental risks Climate change $67,406,500 $2,316,400 $69,722,900 Goal 7: Expansion of Americans’ right to know Enhance ability to protect public about their environment health $18,648,300 $1,573,000 $20,221,300 Goal 8: Sound science, improved understanding of environmental risks and greater innovation to address Research for ecosystem assessment environmental problems and restoration 84537,200 20,983,800 105,521,OOO. Research for human health risk assessment 47,556,lOO 9,445,100 57,001,200 Research to detect emerging risk issues 49,591,lOO 6,252,200 55,843,300 Pollution prevention and new technology for environmental protection 44,657,OOO 7,858,600 52,515,600 Enable research on innovative approaches to current and future environmental problems 86,614,300 (86,614,300) 0 Goal 9: A credible deterrent to pollution and greater Enforcement tools to reduce compliance with the law noncompliance 8,662,800 0 8,662,800 Increase use of auditing, self-policing policies 97,900 0 97,900 Goal 10: Effective Management services, management administrative, and stewardship 226,000 0 226,000 rotal $633,460,000 0 $633,460,000 Source: GAO’s analysis of EPA’s data. 4 GAOLRCED-99-144R Allocation of Operating Expenses to Strategic Goals and Objectives B-282394 Agency Comments We provided copies of a draft of this report to EPA for review and comment. EPA generally agreed that the report provided a good characterization of the crosswalk needed to compare the amounts that had been requested for fiscal year 1999 with the amounts requested for fiscal year 2000. EPA suggested changes to the report to help ensure accurate information, and we made changes as appropriate. Scope and Methodology We performed our work at EPA’s headquarters in Washington, D.C. We reviewed the Justification of Appropriation Estimates for the Committees on Appropriations prepared by EPA for fiscal year 1999 and the Fiscal Year 2000 Annual Performance Plan and Congressional Justification. We also met with EPA officials and reviewed additional documentation prepared by the agency. We did not independently verify the data provided by EPA We conducted our review from March through April 1999 in accordance with generally accepted government auditing standards. As arranged with your office, unless you publicly announce its contents earlier, we plan no further distibution of this report for 30 days. At that time, we will send copies to Senator Ted Stevens, Senator Robert C. Byrd, Senator Christopher S. Bond, Senator Barbara A Mikulski, Senator Fred Thompson, Senator Joseph I. Lieberman, Senator John H. Chafee, Senator MT S. Baucus, Representative James Sensenbrenner, Jr., Representative George E. Brown, Representative Jerry F. Costello, Representative C. W. (Bill) Young, Representative David R. Obey, Representative James T. Walsh, Representative Alan B. Mollohan, Representative Dan Burton, Representative Henry A. Waxman, Representative John R. Kasich, and Representative John M. Spat& Jr., in their capacity as Chair or Ranking Minority Member of Senate and House Committees and Subcommittees. We will also send copies of this report to the Honorable Carol M. Browner, Administrator of EPA Copies wiIl also be made available to others upon request 5 GAOLRCED-99-144R Allocation of Operating Expenses to Strategic Goals and Objectives B-282394 Please call me at (202) 512-6111if you or your staff have any questions. Major contributors to this report were Everett 0. Pace and John A. Wanska. Sincerely yours, David G. Wood Associate Director, Environmental Protection Issues (160483) 6 GAO/WED-99-144R Allocation of Operating Expenses to Strategic Goals and Objectives Ordering Information The first copy of each GAO report and testimony is free. Additional copies are $2 each. Orders should be sent to the following address, accompanied by a check or money order made out to the Superintendent of Documents, when necessary. VISA and Mastercard credit cards are accepted, also. Orders for 100 or more copies to be mailed to a single address are discounted 25 percent. Orders by mail: U.S. General Accounting Office P.O. Box 37050 Washington, DC 20013 or visit: Room 1100 700 4th St. NW (corner of 4th and G Sts. NW) U.S. General Accounting Office Washington, DC Orders may also be placed by calling (202) 512-6000 or by using fax number (202) 512-6061, or TDD (202) 512-2537. Each day, GAO issues a list of newly available reports and testimony. To receive facsimile copies of the daily list or any list from the past 30 days, please call (202) 512-6000 using a touchtone phone. A recorded menu wiB provide information on how to obtain these lists. For information on how to access GAO reports on the INTERNET, send an e-mail message with “info” in the body to: info@www.gao.gov or visit GAO’s World Wide Web Home Page at: http://www.gao.gov United States General Accounting Office BulkRa@ Washington, D.C. 20548-0001 Postage & Fees Paid GAO I Permit No. GlOO I Official Business Penalty for Private Use $300 Address Correction Requested
Environmental Protection: Allocation of Operating Expenses to Strategic Goals and Objectives
Published by the Government Accountability Office on 1999-04-20.
Below is a raw (and likely hideous) rendition of the original report. (PDF)