Transferring Environmental Evaluation Func Tions to the Environmental Quality Council H.R. 11952
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STflTF tWVFRSUY tIBRAffiQ TRANSFERRING ENVIRONMENTAL EVALUATION FUNC TIONS TO THE ENVIRONMENTAL QUALITY COUNCIL "GOV ERNM EN l = Storage H E A R IN G BEFORE A SUBCOMMITTEE OF THE COMMITTEE ON GO VE RN ME NT OP ER AT IONS HOUSE OF REPRESEN TATIVES KSU LIBRARIES KSU NINE TY -FIRST CONGRESS FIR S T SE SS IO N ON H.R. 11952 TO REO RGANIZ E T H E EXECUTIV E BR AN CH OF T H E GO VE RN ME NT BY TRA N SFER R IN G FU NCTI ONS OF VA RIOU S AGE NC IE S REL ATI NG TO EV ALU ATI ON OF T H E E FFEC T OF CER TAIN AC T IV IT IE S UPON T H E EN VIR ONM EN T TO TH E EN VIR ON MEN TA L QU AL ITY COU NC IL , AND FO R OTH ER PU RPO SES JU LY », 11M5D P ri nte d fo r th e use of th e Com m itt ee on Gov ernm en t O pe ra tion s U.S. GOVERNMENT PR INTING OFF ICE 31-981 O WASHING TON : 1969 ____ COMMITTEE ON GOVERNMENT OPERATIONS* WILLIAM L. DAWSON, Illinois, Chairman » CHET HOLIFIEL D, California FLO REN CE P. DWYER, New Jersey JACK BROOKS, Texas OGDEN R. REID, New York ‘ L. H. FOU NTAIN, North Carolina FRA NK HORTON, New York JOHN A. BLATNIK, Minnesota JOHN N. ERLENBORN, Illinois ROB ERT E. JONES, Alabama JOHN W. WYDLER, New York EDWARD A. OARMATZ, Maryland CLA RENCE J. BROWN, Ohio JOHN E. MOSS, California GUY VANDER JAGT, Michigan DANTE B. FASCELL, Florida JOHN T. MYERS, Indiana HENRY S. RE USS, Wisconsin WILLIAM O. COWGER, Kentucky JOHN S. MONAOAN, Connecticut GIL BERT GUDE, Maryland TORBERT H. MACDONALD, Massachusetts PAUL N. McCLOSKEY, Jr., California WILLIAM S. MOORHEAD, Pennsylvania PAUL FIN DLEY, Illinois CORNELIUS E. GALLAGHER, New Jersey JOHN H. BUCHANAN, Jr..Alabama WILLIAM J. RANDALL, Missouri LOWELL P. WEICKER, Jr., Connecticut BENJAMIN S. ROSENTHAL, New York JIM WRIGHT, Texas FER NAN D J. ST GERMAIN, Rhode Island JOHN C. CULVER, Iowa FLOYD V. HICKS, Washington Christine R ay D avis, Staff Director James A. Lanigan, General Couneel Miles Q. Romney, Associate General Counsel J. P. Carlson, Minority Counsel William H. Copenhaver, Minority Professional Staff C o n serv a tio n an d N atu ral R e so u r c e s S u bcom m it tee HE NRY S. REUSS, Wisconsin, Chairman JIM WRIGHT, Texas GUY VANDER JAGT, Michigan FLOYD V. HICKS, Washington GIL BERT GUDE, Maryland JOHN E. MOSS, California PAUL N. McCLOSKEY, Jr., California Phineas I ndritz, Chief Counsel Laurence D avis, Assistant Counsel Edna G ass, Professional Staff Member Josephine Scheiber, Research Analyst Gerald S. Schatz, Professional Staff Member Catherine L. Hartke, Clerk (III CONTENTS Pag e Text of H.R. 11952____________________________________________ 3 Text of Executive Order 11472___________________________________ 12 Text of S. 1075__________________________________ - ------------------ 26 Statement of Dr. Lee A. DuBridge, Director, Office of Science and Tech nology, accompanied by Dr. John L. Buckley, Technical Assistant; and Frank Pagnotta, Executive Officer__________________...__________ 14 Additional material submitted for the record: Letter from Phillip S. Hughes, Deputy Director, Bureau of the Budget, to Hon. Henry S. Reuss, dated July 7, 1969, re statement on H.R. 11952------------------------------------- 43 (in) TR AN SFER RING ENVIRONMENTA L EVA LUA TION FUNC TIO NS TO THE ENV IRONMENT AL QUA LITY COUNCIL WEDNESD AY, JU LY 9, 19 69 H ouse of Representatives, Conservation and Natural Resources Subcommittee of the Committee on Government Operations, Washin gto n, D.G. Th e subcom mittee met at 10 :10 a.m., in room 2247, Ra yb urn House Office Building , H on. H en ry S. Reuss (chairm an of the subcommittee) presiding. Mem bers presen t : Re prese nta tives Hen ry S. Reuss, Jo hn E. Moss, Guv V ander Jagt, Gilbert Glide, an d Pa ul N. M cCloskey, Jr. Sta ff presen t: Ph ineas In dr itz, ch ief counsel; Laurence Davis, as sistan t counsel; and J. P. Carlson, minority counsel, Com mittee on Gov ernment Op era tions. Mr. Reuss. I )r. Du Bridge, a numb er of o ther members will be here in a minute but I think in the intere st of yo ur time we sho uld get sta rte d. Ac cordingly, the Sub com mittee on Conse rvation and Natur al Resources will be in order. Our purpo se is t wofold: To welcome you, Dr. Du Bridge, and t o get to know you because our committee jur isdic tio n and yo ur directo rsh ip of the Office of Science and Tec hnology have a good deal in common and we adm ire very much y our record o f achievem ent before coming here and what you have done since you have come here—a nd we are just delig hted to have th e op po rtu nity o f working with you. Secondly, we are here to receive the views of the executive b ran ch on our bill, H .R. 11952, which bea rs t he cosp onsorship of all the members of this subc omm ittee , as well as th at o f Con gressm an Jo hn A. Bl atnik, chair ma n of the Execu tive and Legis lative Reorg aniza tion Sub com mittee. In essence, what H.R. 11952 does is, first, to give statutor y recog nition to the En vironm ental Qu ality Council set up by the Execu tive order of May 29, 1969, and to tran sf er to it a num ber of specified en vironme nta l fun ctions of various executive branch agencies while re taining those functio ns in th e agencies themselves. Secondly, the bill sets up a decla rat ion of nation al env ironm ental policy fpiite sim ilar to the decla ration o f national economic policy con tained in the Em plo ym ent Act of 1946. In addition it sets forth an en vironmental bill of ri gh ts governi ng each Am erican plus a set of duties of a gen eral env ironm ental natur e th at all Federal agencies are su p posed to b ear in mind. (!) 2 Th ird ly, i n section 3, we would request from yo ur Council an annual con servation and environ mental repo rt and the n provide th at th at re po rt be stu died by the respective Government Op era tions Com mittees of the House an d Senate. H.R. 11952 is a somewhat na rro wer bil l, as you know , th an those subm itte d b y a good many Members of Con gress—M r. Dingell, myself, Senator Muskie, Senator Jackson—which broader bills in general set up a sep ara te ind epende nt council of env ironm ent al or con servation or ecological adv isers and in some cases give to th at advisory council the power to block certain administ rativ e action by oth er agencies. I think there is much to be said for an ind ependent council of c on ser vation adv isers and actually there is no thing inconsistent, in my jud gm ent, between such a separate ind epe ndent council and the in tra- Cab inet agency of which you are the Execu tive Di rec tor un de r the En vironm ental Q uality Council Executive o rder. We adopt the rather more modest appro ach in this bill of taking what there is, wha t the Presiden t has set up by Execu tive order, and what is in being, and trying to reg ula riz e t he relation ship betw een th at and the Congress. (The texts of H.R. 11952 and of E xecutive Order 11472 follo w:) 3 91st CONGRESS 1st Session H. R. 11952 IN TH E HOUSE OF RE PR ES EN TA TIVE S J une 9,1969 Mr. Reuss (for himself, Mr. Blatnik, Mr. Gude, Mr. H icks, Mr. McCloskey, Mr. Moss, Mr. Vander J agt, and Mr. Wright) introduced the following bill; whicli was referred to the Committee on Government Operations A BILL To reorganize the executive branch of the Government by trans ferring functions of various agencies relating to evaluation of the effect of certain activities upon the environment to the Evironmental Quality Council, and for other purposes. 1 Be it enacted by the Sen ate and House of Representa- 2 tives of the United Sta tes o f Am erica in Congress assembled, 3 TRANSFER OF FUNCTIONS 4 Sectio n 1. (a) There are hereby transferred to the 5 Environmental Quality Council (hereafter referred to as 6 Cou ncil), established by Executive Order 11472 of May 29, 7 1969 (34 F.R . 86 93 ), the executive branch functions per- 8 taining to evaluating effects upon the environment which may 9 result from the activities authorized in the following statutes: I 4 1 (1) Activities of the Secretary of the Inte rior and of 2 all components of the Departm ent of the Inte rior under: 3 (A) the Dish and Wildlife Coordination Act (Act 4 of March 10, 1934, as amended, 16 U.S.C. 661-666 c) ; 5 (B) section 12 of the Watershed Protection and 6 Flood Prevention Act, as amended (16 U.S.C. 1008) ; 7 (C) section 16A of the Soil Conservation and Do 8 mestic Allotment Act, as amended (16 U.S.C.