Committee on Resources

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National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA)

Summary

Environmental policy in the United States (and to a large extent internationally) is led and ultimately controlled by the Council on Environmental Quality (CEQ) which was created by NEPA. CEQ is in the Executive Office of the President and comprises the President's top advisors on the environment.

CEQ is the involved in such far afield projects as the American Heritage Rivers Initiative, the Kyoto Protocol, all environmental aspects of the Fiscal Year 1999 omnibus spending bill, automotive innovation, Environmental Impact Statements, the roadless moratorium in national forests, the National Petroleum Reserve-Alaska, and the new Lands Legacy Initiative-to name a few.

Colloquially, CEQ includes the Office of Environmental Quality (OEQ) who staff the Council.

Definition

NEPA stands for the National Environmental Policy Act of 1969. NEPA includes the Environmental Quality Improvement Act ("EQIA") which was enacted 4 months later in 1970 and which deals with similar subject matter.

Elements of the Acts

NEPA contains 4 basic elements:

1. A judicially unenforceable statement of national environmental ideals;
2. A requirement that federal agencies include a detailed statement on environmental impact in every proposal for legislation as well as for major Federal actions significantly affecting the quality of the human environment-i.e., Environmental Impact Statement (EIS) or Environmental Assessment (EA);
3. Establishment of the Council on Environmental Quality (CEQ), the Chair of which is Presidentially appointed with the advice and consent of the Senate.
4. A requirement that CEQ publish an annual report on the status of the environment.

1. Establishment of the Office of Environmental Quality (OEQ) to be the professional and administrative staff and support for the Council on Environmental Quality;
2. Establishment of the position of Deputy Director of the Office of Environmental Quality, to be Presidentially appointed with the advice and consent of the Senate;
3. Establishment of the Office of Environmental Quality Management Fund to receive advance payments from other agencies or accounts that may be used solely to finance joint studies and interagency projects.

• The Committee on Resources has authorizing jurisdiction over the Council on Environmental Quality and the Office of Environmental Quality.
• The Committee on Resources has authorizing jurisdiction over the Environmental Protection Agency's Office of Federal Activities ("OFA"), to which (by Memorandum of Understanding subsequently memorialized into law) the primary responsibility for examining EIS's and EA's was sloughed from CEQ.
• The Appropriations Subcommittee on Veterans, HUD, and Independent Agencies appropriates the money for CEQ and OEQ and EPA's OFA.

• This year is NEPA's 30^th anniversary of passage by Congress.
• Since enactment, neither NEPA nor EQIA have had any broad change to address their evolving and bipartisanly acknowledged problems.
• Oversight will continue into specific instances which demonstrate the need for streamlining NEPA.
• This spring the Acting Chair of CEQ, George Frampton, will go before the Senate for potential confirmation (probably before the Energy and Natural Resources Committee as well as definitely before the Environment and Public Works Committee).
• EQIA has not been reauthorized for numerous Congresses, though it is the authority for all of the funding of OEQ, which in turn is the vast majority of the funding for what is colloquially called CEQ.

At a full Resources Committee hearing on March 18^th, 1998, this Administration admitted that it has "not well implemented" NEPA and testified to some shortcomings of NEPA:

• the huge proliferation of a purely paperwork bureaucracy;
• the unwarranted and unwise level of minutia into which NEPA delves;
• the sham of public participation when decisions have really been made already;
• the lack of collaboration among Federal agencies;
• the Federal confrontations with state, local, and tribal governments;
• the intolerable delays in the disjointed process;
• the overly technical nature of the paperwork;
• the excruciatingly large amount of paperwork;
• the needless duplication of work;
• the endless litigation of NEPA; and
• thus the waste of taxpayers' money which can be better spent.

Funding

• CEQ is perpetually funded at $1,000,000.
• OEQ has variable funding that has steadily increased of late.

The Fiscal Year 1997 appropriation was $1,150,000.
The Fiscal Year 1998 appropriation was $1,436,000.
The Fiscal Year 1999 appropriation was $1,500,000.
The Fiscal Year 2000 appropriation is $1,675,000.

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