S. HRG. 113–133 Senate Hearings Before the Committee on Appropriations Department of the Interior, Environment, and Related Agencies Appropriations Fiscal Year 2014 113th CONGRESS, FIRST SESSION DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE DEPARTMENT OF THE INTERIOR ENVIRONMENTAL PROTECTION AGENCY NONDEPARTMENTAL WITNESSES Department of the Interior, Environment, and Related Agencies Appropriations, 2014 S. HRG. 113–133 DEPARTMENT OF THE INTERIOR, ENVIRONMENT, AND RELATED AGENCIES APPROPRIATIONS FOR FISCAL YEAR 2014 HEARINGS BEFORE A SUBCOMMITTEE OF THE COMMITTEE ON APPROPRIATIONS UNITED STATES SENATE ONE HUNDRED THIRTEENTH CONGRESS FIRST SESSION Department of Agriculture Department of the Interior Environmental Protection Agency Nondepartmental Witnesses Printed for the use of the Committee on Appropriations ( Available via the World Wide Web: http://www.gpo.gov/fdsys/browse/ committee.action?chamber=senate&committee=appropriations U.S. GOVERNMENT PRINTING OFFICE 78–060 PDF WASHINGTON : 2014 For sale by the Superintendent of Documents, U.S. Government Printing Office Internet: bookstore.gpo.gov Phone: toll free (866) 512–1800; DC area (202) 512–1800 Fax: (202) 512–2104 Mail: Stop IDCC, Washington, DC 20402–0001 COMMITTEE ON APPROPRIATIONS BARBARA A. MIKULSKI, Maryland, Chairwoman PATRICK J. LEAHY, Vermont RICHARD C. SHELBY, Alabama, Vice TOM HARKIN, Iowa Chairman PATTY MURRAY, Washington THAD COCHRAN, Mississippi DIANNE FEINSTEIN, California MITCH MCCONNELL, Kentucky RICHARD J. DURBIN, Illinois LAMAR ALEXANDER, Tennessee TIM JOHNSON, South Dakota SUSAN COLLINS, Maine MARY L. LANDRIEU, Louisiana LISA MURKOWSKI, Alaska JACK REED, Rhode Island LINDSEY GRAHAM, South Carolina FRANK R. LAUTENBERG, New Jersey MARK KIRK, Illinois MARK PRYOR, Arkansas DANIEL COATS, Indiana JON TESTER, Montana ROY BLUNT, Missouri TOM UDALL, New Mexico JERRY MORAN, Kansas JEANNE SHAHEEN, New Hampshire JOHN HOEVEN, North Dakota JEFF MERKLEY, Oregon MIKE JOHANNS, Nebraska MARK BEGICH, Alaska JOHN BOOZMAN, Arkansas CHRISTOPHER A. COONS, Delaware CHARLES E. KIEFFER, Staff Director WILLIAM D. DUHNKE III, Minority Staff Director SUBCOMMITTEE ON DEPARTMENT OF THE INTERIOR, ENVIRONMENT, AND RELATED AGENCIES JACK REED, Rhode Island, Chairman DIANNE FEINSTEIN, California LISA MURKOWSKI, Alaska, Ranking PATRICK J. LEAHY, Vermont THAD COCHRAN, Mississippi TIM JOHNSON, South Dakota LAMAR ALEXANDER, Tennessee JON TESTER, Montana ROY BLUNT, Missouri TOM UDALL, New Mexico JOHN HOEVEN, North Dakota JEFF MERKLEY, Oregon MIKE JOHANNS, Nebraska MARK BEGICH, Alaska Professional Staff RACHEL TAYLOR GINNY JAMES RYAN HUNT LEIF FONNESBECK (Minority) BRENT WILES (Minority) Administrative Support TERI CURTIN COURTNEY STEVENS (Minority) (II) CONTENTS WEDNESDAY, APRIL 24, 2013 Page Environmental Protection Agency .......................................................................... 1 TUESDAY, MAY 7, 2013 Department of the Interior: Office of the Secretary ............................................. 61 WEDNESDAY, MAY 22, 2013 Department of Agriculture: United States Forest Service ................................... 131 Nondepartmental Witnesses ................................................................................... 191 (III) DEPARTMENT OF THE INTERIOR, ENVIRON- MENT, AND RELATED AGENCIES APPRO- PRIATIONS FOR FISCAL YEAR 2014 WEDNESDAY, APRIL 24, 2013 U.S. SENATE, SUBCOMMITTEE OF THE COMMITTEE ON APPROPRIATIONS, Washington, DC. The subcommittee met at 9:35 a.m., in room SD–124, Dirksen Senate Office Building, Hon. Jack Reed (chairman) presiding. Present: Senators Reed, Udall, Begich, Murkowski, Cochran, Blunt, and Johanns. ENVIRONMENTAL PROTECTION AGENCY STATEMENT OF BOB PERCIASEPE, ACTING ADMINISTRATOR AND DEPUTY ADMINISTRATOR OPENING STATEMENT OF SENATOR JACK REED Senator REED. I would like to call the hearing to order and wel- come everyone. Good morning. On behalf of the Interior, Environ- ment, and Related Agencies Appropriations Subcommittee, wel- come. This is our first budget hearing this year. It will be a hearing on the fiscal year 2014 budget request for the Environmental Protec- tion Agency (EPA). I am very pleased to welcome Acting Adminis- trator Bob Perciasepe to testify before the subcommittee. Mr. Ad- ministrator, thank you. And also, we are grateful that Acting Chief Financial Officer Maryann Froehlich is also with you. Thank you, Maryann. Let me make a few acknowledgments before we begin. First, I would like to thank and recognize my ranking member, Senator Murkowski, not only for joining us this morning, but for her great efforts over the last several years to work collaboratively and effec- tively to craft these budgets, which are very challenging. I simply could not have a better colleague and partner in these endeavors than Senator Murkowski. And I want to personally thank her for these efforts, and also for her very talented staff. Thank you, Senator. I would also like to acknowledge that we have added four new members to the subcommittee this Congress: Senators Udall, Merkley, Begich, and Johanns. I welcome each of these Senators and look forward to their contributions. At some point this morning, the Chairwoman, Chairwoman Mi- kulski might arrive. When she does, I will at that point, at the ap- (1) 2 propriate moment, suspend and give her an opportunity to make any statement that she might want. But we are very gratified to have Senator Mikulski as the chair- woman of the full committee. She served many years on this sub- committee, and she has a particular appreciation and regard for the efforts of the EPA. So we are multiply fortunate in that regard. Now, turning to the budget, the President’s fiscal year 2014 budget request includes $8.15 billion for EPA. That amount is $173 million or 2 percent less than the fiscal year 2013 enacted level of $8.32 billion. Unfortunately, there is not a lot of good news to discuss in this reduced budget request, but there are a few items that I wanted to highlight as we begin this conversation, including a 6-percent in- crease to EPA’s operating programs above the fiscal year 2013 level. Within that amount, I am pleased that the administration pro- poses $2 million for a geographic program to restore southern New England watersheds. I worked closely with the EPA for several years on this effort. It is extremely important, not just to Narra- gansett Bay, but to the surrounding waters in Massachusetts and Connecticut. So I am grateful that the EPA leadership has moved forward on this initiative. The budget request also provides $73 million for the Chesapeake Bay Program and flat funds the National Estuary Program at $27 million. It includes a new $60 million E-Enterprise Initiative to im- prove electronic data collection and sharing to ease the reporting burdens on regulated entities, and we may get into that in the questioning. And finally, it is worth noting that the request also includes a nearly 5-percent increase in grants that help States and tribes run their environmental permitting and monitoring programs, includ- ing increases in safe air and water pollution control grants. Of course, despite these good investments, I am disappointed with the overall budget level. This is the fourth year in a row that EPA’s budget request has contracted, which makes it difficult for this subcommittee to hold the line on the EPA budget when our final bill is enacted. And I am particularly concerned about the specific areas in this budget that were identified for cuts. I am most disappointed that the largest reductions, again, were made to clean water and drink- ing water State Revolving Funds (SRF) which are cut by 19 percent less than fiscal year 2013 levels. I really find it hard to understand how these proposed cuts square with the President’s focus on job creation and infrastructure development. You know, we have discussed these statistics before in this subcommittee, but they are worth repeating. Just take my home State, and we could take the State of any of my colleagues at this dais. In Rhode Island alone, we need $1.5 billion in identified needs for clean and drinking water projects; that is $1.5 billion in the smallest State in the country. Yet, the State is only slated to re- ceive $15 million in water infrastructure grants in this budget re- quest, which is about $3 million less than what I expect them to receive in fiscal year 2013. 3 Mr. Perciasepe, I know EPA faced tough decisions when you put this budget together, but it just does not make sense why we should focus such large cuts in programs that create jobs and help meet an enormous public health need, infrastructure need, eco- nomic productivity need in every State in this country. And since every $1 we spend for the SRF generates more than $2 in projects on the ground, that means we are walking away from opportunities to further leverage Federal investments with local funds and other funds. I am also concerned about a number of other reductions to the budget, including your proposal to eliminate $10 million in BEACH Act grants that help Rhode Island and other coastal States. And I do not understand why your budget, again, proposes to eliminate nearly $10 million in funding for a centralized environmental edu- cation program. We have just been through two major hurricanes in the last sev- eral years, Irene and Sandy, and the expectation is that we will have more hurricanes. That means our beach erosion is going to be exacerbated. And unless we take steps to just try to modify these beaches and protect them, we are going to lose not only beaches, we are going