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
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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)