We convene today to examine recommendations by the Inspector General and gla. Gao. This mission is never more important than during times of natural disasters, like the one in the gulf coast we are experiencing now in Hurricane Harvey with another hurricane about to hit the florida coast. I want to express my sincere sorrow to everyone impacted by the storm. Hurricane harvey is one of the worst natural disasters the United States has ever faced, and still too early to tell the devastation that has displaced thousands of people. Members on both side of the aisle present in sichuans who have experienced loss as they begin to rebuild their lives from this national tragedy. During the storm and in the aftermath, epa plays a Critical Role in the federal response to Hurricane Harvey. While epa is in the midst of initial response efforts, their work is on the begun. We look forward to monitoring their response and learning the full extent of the Environmental Impact and the challenges ahead. Committee has the opportunity to learn about ways to strengthen the epa, including highlighted on a limited unimplemetions, nted recommendations. On what we reflect face in florida and arica. The constitution provides congress with the authority to conduct oversight on the executive branch. Out waste,root fraud, and abuse at federal agencies such as the epa. Oig often make recommendations on the ways to improve the effectiveness and efficiency of agencies such as epa. Today the committee will learn that even when epa agrees with recommendations, it may take years to implement them, and some are never fully adopted by the agency. As a result, many open multipleations span administrations, some dating as far back as the bush administration. Atle epa adopts regulations the rate of the federal average, according to the most recent semiannual report released to hasress in may of 2017, epa an opportunity to save 103 million as a result of open recommendations. 56 with due dates set in the future. Epa haswill testify been fermented 191 of the 300 recommendations recommended since 2007. For example, epa oig conducted an investigation into flaws during fiscal year 2015 and 2016. While they laughed and of sin of which contractors have concerns,n security oig recommended a process for developing a process to identify these contractors, but they are not expected to implement this until 2018. This is particularly troubling because grants comprise most half of epas budget, most 4 billion annually. This may impact the agencys ability to efficiently monitor results and administer costs. Budget tot have the administer grants effectively. Standardized grant and progress reports, all 12 recommendations in these reports remain on and lamented. These are some of the many reports and audits conducted by oig and gao. We will Work Together to find solutions to solve these issues. , with things looming in florida and texas, we better not find out the epa has stalled on anything that has caused any harm. We know there is a great deal of Water Pollution because of sewer systems and increasing mosquitoes in texas. We dont know if that has to do with Water Management issues in the jurisdiction of epa. We will keep a close watch on all of those and see if there any errors that occurred. I thank our Witnesses Today for their dedication to making sure epa is carrying out its mission. I want to welcome upgrade of gomez. Their we appreciate service and sacrifice during Hurricane Harvey and its aftermath. Mr. Chairman, thank you for convening this hearing today. The hearing subject, while important, pales in comparison to the true oversight needed of the trunk Environmental Protection agency. Bpa is and always has been a critical partner twostate and communities background partner to our states and communities back home. Helping protect the air we breathe and the water we drink. I thank the professionals and scientists at epa for their work. President trump and and administrator scott pruitt have a different vision. They have been acting to weaken support for our communities back home that comes through the epa. It is troubling that epa administrator pruitt has not appeared before the energy and Commerce Committee to date. This committee has direct oversight of epa, and it is unprecedented and unacceptable that the administrator has not appeared before the committee. The importance of epa is particularly clear as texas learns more about the extent of the destruction caused by Hurricane Harvey. There is nothing like a Disaster Response that demonstrates how critical the chemical superfund and other epa local initiatives are to the health and safety of our neighbors. I know all too well the devastation massive hurricanes , andring to communities the recovery from such a storm is long and challenging. Our thoughts are with the residents of puerto rico, the virgin islands, and floridians as they are in the path of another dangers storm. Hurricane harvey slammed into the gold coast as a hurricane for category four. The death toll is likely to rise in the coming weeks. Saw him at i just the other subcommittee, represents the city of houston, and saw much of the district flooded. Our thoughts are with him and his district at this time. Mr. Gomez, i want to thank you for being here at a time that i am sure is difficult for you and your family. The epa has been a key agency is finding to harvey. For this reason, this hearing should be a timely and step in exploring how to strengthen the agency as it supports local responders and begins to assess the possible Environmental Impact of the flooding. This hearing is devoted to much less significant topic, the scope of environmental risks caused by this crisis are critical. There have been reports of fires at chemical facilities from which may result in the release of toxic pollutants. There are also possible reports of damage to begin gas tanks, which if true leaking gas tanks, which if true epa will have to assess. 41ording to epa, 13 of the former toxic waste sites in harvey have flooded. The city of houston contains 450 petrochemical plants. These have contributed 74 substanceof hazardous emissions into the air. We need the expertise of the epa to prevent and mitigate such releases. The Trump Administration has been working overtime to weake e epa. It is showing at a time of disaster. This raises ongoing concerns over safety water. Over 4500 Drinking Water systems are impacted by potential floodwaters. Staff are on the ground to help your this committee should consider oversight hearings in texas in the near term. Todays hearing rather than focusing on the big picture examines on implemented recommendations for epa at a time when the real issue is the decimation of the epa professional workforce recommended by President Trump and administrator pruitt. The overall epa has never been more important. Mr. Chairman, i am deeply troubled by the direction of the agency under the Trump Administration, and i implore you in my republican colleagues to conduct true oversight of the damage being done to our bedrock Environmental Protections built through decades of bipartisan work. We need to do it before deep and lasting damage is inflicted across america. Waging anepa is aggressive rollback of environmental and human health oversight. Repealing or delaying rulemaking, and attacking fundamental science. The Trump Administration proposed extreme budget cuts that cut to the heart of our local communities and threaten the health and environment of americans in every state. The trunk budget would epas billion, nearly 2. 6 reduce the professional workforce there by over 3000 employees, and the damage will be done to our air quality, diesel admission reductions, let safety. Emission reductions, lead safety. This is not acceptable. This needs oversight. The ongoing troubles at the gulf dangers ofsents the the extreme assault on epa. About ensuringus the agency is able to protect human health and the environment, we must Work Together to conduct true oversight of the fundamental damage being done to this agency and our neighbors back home. Thank you. Mr. Walden for five minutes. I think the gentleman. Our committee staff, the Oversight Committee has worked diligently throughout the last several weeks in Clear Communication with the various agencies involved with the hurricane. This hearing was put together before harvey had a name. We will do our oversight, continue to. At the appropriate time, i anticipate the delegation will go and hold hearings or do appropriate review. I am one when there is an emergency going on tries to stay out of the way of the First Responders and let them do their job. At the right time, we will do that. We will have administrator pruitt before a committee sooner rather than later. I share frustration that there has been a long delay in getting some of these positions filled, partly by our friends in the senate, but the time has come for these agency has to come before our heads to come before our committee. They will. I appreciate subcommittee chairman murphy having this in his opening comments. We care deeply about what has happened in texas and what is happening in florida. My own district is on fire. Much destruction there. All of these things matter. We want to talk about air quality. We could use your support on some of our forestry legislation. We know these Recovery Efforts will continue for years. Recovery from any disaster whether it is Hurricane Harvey or Hurricane Irma or destructive wildfires learning out in the west requires coordination at every level of the government. Epa is critical to that. Withhallenges faced Hurricane Harvey are significant. Theys hearing represents first opportunity to hear from the epas office of the Inspector General and the Governmental Accountability Office about recommendations that could enable the agency to better achieve its job. We have read about areas of concern that have been commented upon by oig and gao but remain on implemented. Many of the not implement it recommendations span multiple administrations and represent longstanding challenges for the agency. Epa has failed to complete an agencywide workload analysis in more than 20 years. Both oig and gao have identified issues that generate serious concerns of whether it be a adequately monitors the activities of its contractors and grant recipients despite a significant portion of its annual budget being awarded to third parties. I believe all americans want to help the environments themselves and their families and their communities. I want to thank Alfredo Gomez and alan larsen for joining us today for providing testimony and expanding on their findings and recommendations. I want to recognize and thank ews who are neph serving the houston fire department. Thank you for their efforts as First Responders. I am looking forward to active discussion this morning regarding actions epa can take which will enable the agency to better accomplish its core mission. Back myad yield remaining time. Thank you, mr. Chairman. It has been a week and a half since Hurricane Harvey it texas. As the scope of the disaster remains to be known, thousands are displaced by the flooding. In 2012, my district was hit hard by hurricane sandy. I had never seen worst storm damage in my lifetime. For many it was a worstcase scenario, lives lost, businesses lost. Facing historic levels of destruction in the wake of hurricane party. Our fellow members of congress including five members of this committee are working hard with local officials to help those affected by the storm. As the cleanup continues, many Human Health Risks exist. We have seen chemical plants on fire, fuel tanks leaking, mass release of pollutants into the air. By theeply concerned potential risk to human health by the exposure of Hazardous Materials kept at these sites. The Trump Administration recently delayed amendments to the Risk Management program, which included safety requirements for companies that store large quantities of dangerous chemicals. Incremental issues resulting from the hurricane also underscore the need for robust implementation of the Emergency Planning and Community Rights to know act. Communities have the right to know important because about the types and amounts of harmful chemicals police in their neighborhoods. Today we are discussing recommendations by epa Inspector General and the government Accountability Office regarding epa, and we want to thank our witnesses for their testimony. I would argue recommendations for improvement epas performance are part of a wider need to ensure the agency is highperforming, efficient, and effective in a couple showing their mission of protecting human health and the environment. Over the last six months, epa has been doing Everything Possible to operate in secrecy. Administrator pruitt has no interest in transparency. That should be unacceptable to every member of this committee. Repeatedlyor pruitt ignores oversight requirements for this committee. Trump epa has dismissed scientists from important Advisory Boards and proposed severe budget and staffing reductions at epa. These actions serve to direct undermine its core mission. Epa is key to respond to current disasters like natural natural disasters like Hurricane Harvey. That number is going to increase dramatically in the coming weeks abouter Hurricane Katrina 1600 epa staff and contractors at work in the Gulf Coast Region worked in response and cleanup activities in addition to thousands of epa employees supporting from epa headquarters and offices around the country. We need to ensure the epa will have the employees in place to conduct this critical work. I want to work with you mr. Chairman to make sure we have a robust epa. The committee must conduct robust oversight of the agency. Lets also conduct ongoing oversight over epa and other agencys efforts to assist the gulf coast rebuilding. Attacking fundamental science, and to propose extreme budget and staffing options will do nothing but undermined epas efforts to protect human health and the requirement that environment. I am concerned. I hope we can Work Together. Thanks to everyone. Yield back. Thank you, mr. Chairman. Consent unanimous that written statements will be entered into the record. I will introduce our panel. First is alan larsen, counsel to the Inspector General for the Environmental Protection agency. Wilson have Alfredo Gomez who serves as the director for the moment for the government Accountability Office. Discuss open and unimp recommendations to epa. Do you have any objection to taking testimony under oath . You have the ability to be advised by counsel. Do either one of you has to be advised by counsel . I will swear you in. These were the testimony you are about to give is the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth . Both have answered in the affirmative. You are now under a. Oath. We will begin with you mr. Larsen. Could you turn your microphone on, please . Pull it close to you. Mi on now . You are. Thank you members of the subcommittee. I am alan larsen, counsel for the Inspector General for the Environmental Protection agency and the chemical safety and hazard investigation board. I thank this committee for highlighting the importance or acting on oig recommendations. As you know, the office of Inspector General cannot direct agency actions. Our impact is through our recommendations, which can result in substantial cost savings, but only if an agency chooses to implement them. Our oig undertakes a riskbased work planning process to determine which issues we will review during the coming year. Our plan is always subject to change as we inevitably receive hotline requests and congressional requests we conduct those reviews and issue final reports, which generally include one or more recommendations to address our findings. As required by the Inspector General act, the epa oig publishes accusative risk of unimplemented recommendations in our reports to congress. As recently we cited warty three recommendations with has to completion dates and 56 with future dates. Cited 43 recommendations with past due completion dates and 56 with future dates. I will cite some of the recommendations that remain lemented. In july, 20 something, we completed a review of the processes the epa uses to verify Agency Contractors have the training needed to protect the agency from cyber attacks. Wareound the epa is una of the number of contractors who require special training. Keeping a list of contractors that need special training and report this information to its chief Information Security office. While the agency has committed to implement and a process by verifying that contractors are properly trained, our recommendation remains u nimplmented. Another audit completed in august of 2014, we looked at the agencys oversight of Cloud Computing initiatives. Without lack of oversight over vendors resulted in missed opportunities or significant savings. Epa paid over 2 million for services that were not fully rendered or did not comply with federal requirements. We recommended several corrective actions to the agency such as improving policies and performing documented costbenefit analysis. To date they have not fully incremented our recommendations. 2017, we completed a review of rico funds. Ricoeported the Puerto Government Development Bank did thehave funds to honor combined balance of 188 million. 78 million is at risk due to puerto ricos financial crisis and the restoration of funds in the near future is unlikely. Evaluateended epa options to restore the funds or implement better strategies fulfill the needs of puerto rico. Tole epa has committed better Grant Funding procedures, built on oig recommendations are still unimplemented. We will continue to work actively with epa and Keep Congress fully advised. Accomplishing our work requires sufficient appropriate funding from congress. Our funding represents a fruitful investment for the american taxpayer as oig achieved 22 in savings for every dollar appropriated to us. This concludes my prepared statement. Im happy to answer any questions. Thank you. Mr. Gomez, you are recognized for five minutes. Thank you. Members of the subcommittee, good morning. I am pleased to be here to talk to you about the status of the recommendations gao has made to epa. The mission of epa is to protect human health and the environment. We have conducted reviews focused on various aspects of vp operations, such as managing grants, force planning, and its programs. We have made numerous recommendations to improve its performance and efficiency and effect this of its operations and programs. I will focus today on two main areas, the status of epas gaolementation of recommendations, and how these reflect on programs, and benefits epa and others face from our work. We follow up on recommendations we have made report on the status to congress. Agencies have a responsibility to monitor and we now follow up with epa twice a year to determine the extent of which our recommendations have been implemented and the benefits that have been realized. Deficiency or that we have identified. With regard to the first area on the status of gaos recommendations, we found that of the 318 recommendations we made to epa, they implemented 191. Open orining 127 remain not implemented. To give you more information, for recommendations that we made over four years ago, recommendations from fiscal year 2007 until 2012, epa has implemented 77 . Or recommendations that we made 2013, last four years, the epa has implemented 34 . Iterience has shown that takes some time for implementations to be implemented. Sometime for recommendations to be implemented. Recommendations we have made fall into six broad categories such as management and operations, water related issues, and environmental contamination and cleanup. January 2017, we reported on epas management of grants which make up almost 50 of the agencys budget. The epa does not have sufficient information about the workload associated with these grants. Consequently, the agency is not able to effectively allocate staff across its offices and regions to month to manage the grants. Because it did not know the workload of its grants, it sometimes has to shift staff from other Mission Areas to address the work. We recommended that the epa collect data about workloads and use this data to inform staff allocations. Epa agreed with this recommendation and initiated steps to address it. We will continue to monitor its figure out the status of those recommendations are. We have also identified many benefits such as programmatic and process improvements. Example, we issued several reports on Drinking Water and Wastewater Infrastructure issues. In particular, we were reported on Drinking Water and Wastewater Infrastructure issues in rural areas. Found that the requirements such as separate environmental analyses for each program that they applied for resulting in delays and increased costs to communities. We recommended that epa and apartment of agriculture Work Together to develop guidelines to assist states in developing uniform processes and they have done so. In summary, our recommendations provide a Good Opportunity to improve the fiscal position of the government, that are served the public, and make Government Programs more effective and efficient. The epas implementations of our recommendations will help it and we its performance will continue to work with congress to monitor and draw attention to these important issues. Murphy,man congresswoman caster, this concludes my statement. I just want to add, thank you for your words of support. Mymy family in texas, nephews and the families in texas. I will recognize myself for five minutes for questions. Your organization has consistently highlighted epas failures. Mr. Gomez, can you explain how epas failure to assess its workforce and workload hinders its ability to respond to natural disasters like Hurricane Harvey and irma . Gomez we have talked about workforce planning it is important for the agency to have good information on workload. Data on workload is important because the agency does not really ensure that it has the right people in the right places with the right skills to accomplish the mission of the agency. Whether that is to focus on areas for a shortterm or longterm. We want to make sure that the agency has the information. It is something the agency has struggled with for decades. Thosel continue to make recommendations. I know the ig has made recommendations in the past. We think this is important. To ensure that they have the right people in the right places with the right skill sets in the right locations. How thisu tell me affects our ability to respond to the hurricanes . The igs work is directly in line with the gaos work in this area. We have issued reports with recommendations as of july of this year the agency has responded and acted on the last of the open recommendations. However, for the last several years including the current, management challenges report that we gave to the agency, we continue to highlight workforce planning as a challenge that the agency needs to address. Answer toe simple your question, mr. Chairman, is that if the agency does not know what its work requirements are, they cannot assign and align people to those requirements. , as mr. Re urging them says, to design data that will allow them to a line work with their workforce. E often find thesensiders recommendations to be critical. Epa response to Hurricane Harvey and prepare us for Hurricane Irma, are there any high priority recommendations . What are the hot priorities right now . This high priority letter that we sent to the epa we have done that since 2015. We look at the recommendations that the g ao has made. That the gao has me. We have a number of recommendations that are focusing on Water Infrastructure. One that does have relevance to harvey and other future disasters is the area of Water Infrastructure. For example, we have done work looking at how small and rural utilities use asset management. That is an important book to use to understand what infrastructure these utilities have. Wet hese areas are and and which are vulnerable. So when a disaster takes place, they are better prepared to respond and if they have to rebuild, they can rebuild with resilience in mind. We have made a number of recommendations. Getting the epa to work with the department of agriculture to come up with better guidelines and information to encourage the states and the utilities to use asset management. Small utilities are challenged because they do not have the Technical Expertise necessary. We should do whatever we can in the federal family to help these communities better prepare for these disasters. June, 2007, the gao issued a report that made several recommendations on Hurricane Katrina. One is still open after 10 years. Mr. Gomez, why is that still open . What we did in that report from 2007 is we were looking at epas response to katrina and also to the subsequent cleanup. One of the recommendations that we kept open over the years was we had recommended that epa work with other federal land granted to federal Land Management agencies to better coordinate cleanup. We did that because we found that National WideNational Wildlife refugees had been contaminated and it lasted for over a year. There was not really good planning to come together and cleanup that contamination. Some of the refugees were closed for over a year. What has happened since then, Congress Passed the postkatrina place better in National Preparedness and put in place a National Response epa has ain which the key role in responding to Hazardous Waste and oil spills. In theory, we expect that the epa is putting in place, it for example, in florida, any response that is needed as the hurricane may come to that region. We will look at that recommendation based on what is happening now and close that. My time has expired. Thank you, gentlemen. As the agency goes forward to implement what has not been implemented to date, it would seem that the trump that theytion, would have the ability to follow through with your recommendations. But the Administration Still failed to provide nominees for all leadership positions at epa. Most Regional Administrative positions are without leadership including region six in dallas. Weump administration blame a lot on the senate but you cannot put too much blame because the administration has not nominated people for deputy administrator, assistant administrator for the office of air and radiation, the chief financial officer. The assistant administrator for environmental in environmental information. Land and emergency management. Do you all agree that when you do not have folks in charge, that it complicates the ability of the agency to follow through with your recommendations . The short answer is yes. The longer answer is that we have career people that remain in place who do carry out the work of the agency. Indicate, the statutory mandates remain in place. And it is up to the agency to figure out a way to carry out those mandates. And it is more difficult if you do not have the leadership. I would agree that it is important to have all of the staff that you need at all levels of the agency to carry out the mission. Gao meetsd that the with folks at the epa every six months. Have you met with administrator pruitt . Is it typical that you would meet with the administrator or leadership to go over recommendations from gao . What our comptroller general likes to do is meet with all of the new cabinet secretaries. Gao is in the process of scheduling a meeting with administrator pruitt. And i would go to that meeting as well. But that has not been done. We have not scheduled it yet. You are just like the energy and commerce. Gentlemen, there is a disturbing press report that came out a few days ago that the epa has taken the unusual step of putting a political operative in charge of vetting grants that the epa distributes annually. Decisions tounding a former Trump Campaign aide with little policy experience. It really does appear like this is being politicized. This is from the washington post. Earlier this summer, on the same day that the senator from alaska best epa staffers were instructed to halt all grants to the Regional Office that covers alaska, washington, oregon, and ohio. That was quickly narrowed to alaska. Bush epar administrator said this is out of the ordinary. A politicalo screening on every grant because many were based on science and political appointees do not have that kind of background. Have you opened an investigation into what is happening here yet . We have read those reports. We have not received complaints. From congress, or members of the public. If you could or if you would, i would offer a general and specific answer. Epa hasral answer is always been a lightning rod. We get complaints on the one epa is ignoring its statutory obligations opened ane i believe investigation last week into administrator pruitts travel because it is so out of the ordinary. It says officials in the epas that prewitt was in oklahoma for nearly half of his first three months in office. That it looks like he is using taxpayer funds for this excessive travel. How long will it take the oig to get to the bottom of this investigation . In our world, we distinguish we arevestigations doing and audit an audit and they tend to take longer. We are looking at the specifics of mr. Pruitts travels as well as the robust controls that direct to travel in general. The chair recognizes mr. Griffith for five minutes. Mr. Griffith an investigation means you are looking into something that might have meansoing and an audit you are checking into the money to see if we need to put different parameters around the issue. Investigators tend to look at criminality. They can look at administrative violations. This is not either of those. Griffith this is just an audit to see if we can do better. Mr. Larson it is also looking to see if there were violations of agency requirements. I am concerned about the workforce and the workload questions. The Inspector Generals office they have notthat reported workload analysis in over 20 years. I guess what i am looking at talk is that we have heard today about a few months where certain positions are not filled but here we are looking at 20 years, both republican and democratic administrations, who have not gone into the epa and looked at their workload analysis. And then we see with Hurricane Harvey that we had 13 superfund sites that were affected. Am i not correct that had we performed a workload analysis overtime, all 13 of those would be cleaned up over time. And i also reference i remember testimony at a previous hearing in a different subcommittee where they were talking about a site in st. Louis that had not been acted on in decades also. Can you help me out are those things that wouldve helped before the disaster and in general if we had had a workload analysis . Mr. Larson my short answer is that it is difficult to draw a direct line between the lack of a workforce plan and a specific failure to be able to cover something. I think we can all say that if you knew more precisely where your requirements are, and how many people and what kinds of people you need to address those , you would probably have a better result. I cannot draw a direct one to one correlation. Gomez our point on the workforce planning has been exactly that. Data,erstand where from where your people are, what skill sets you need, the locations you need them in, so you have a better understanding of how to meet the mission. Doing a workforce analysis would help you do that better. Mr. Griffith it would help us as legislators as well. We hear all the time that people need more money. If i know you need more money because you are going to help instead ofnities just sending edicts down from creates bigthat problems. If you have a workload analysis, we might figure out where to appropriate money more advantageously to prevent problems before they would happen. Whether you have issues like harvey, flint, michigan, or issues in rural areas like mine. I do appreciate that as well. Thank you and thank you for putting that in your oral and written testimony. Mr. Larson i have one more comment. Programoffice of evaluations has a current project underway looking at. Uperfund workforce planning we will keep you and your staff informed on the progress of that effort. Mr. Griffith i have greatly i greatly appreciate that. We are just beginning the Hurricane Harvey efforts. It will continue for years. The Environmental Impacts already occurring and those that have yet to be seen is there anything that you see that is not being done by the epa currently . I know it is really early. Mr. Larson it is always a dilemma for us. Said, you dooldin not want to wade into the middle of the cleanup effort that you dont want to wait so long that your efforts are valueless. We are always trying to figure out when it is that we get into it. The i fall back on is National Response framework that and it doesluded to give certain responsibilities to the epa. We cannot mandate that epa take any specific steps. We would fact, i think evaluate if they took the appropriate steps under the framework. Oig not see a role for the jumping in right now in the middle of the cleanup effort. Mr. Griffith thank you. Thank you, mr. Chairman. , want to remind my colleagues i heard my colleague from virginia talking about superfund cleanup in action, in reality there is no superfund. I had a bill for years to try to fund. E superfund trust the republicans first took the congress, it is ancient history, with Newt Gingrich as the speaker, it is it expired. Thatged him and democrats came to renew it but he refused. I still have the bill out there and i would ask at any time if our chairman or the speaker would allow us to reauthorize the Superfund Trust Fund because then we would have the money to do these cleanups. On in annual basis, i go before the appropriators. And i ask for more funding. And we always get significantly less than what we ask for. It is nice to talk about superfund cleanup, but the reality is that it was essentially stopped the republican congress. Not to say that they are totally to blame but they certainly were the ones and you can bring it up anytime and i will support you passing it in committee or on the floor. I just wanted to say i wanted to thank the epa oig for scepting the committee request to review the travel of mr. Pruitt. The Trump Administration has launched continuous assaults against science and proposed significant cuts to the epa budget and staff that threatens to undermine his best that threatens to undermine the mission. 49 recommendations focused on environmental contamination and cleaner. These include taking actions for improving cleanup management of Hazardous Waste sites and responding to disasters like Hurricane Katrina. Recommendations ncing epas response i think one of the areas that we see epas recommendations contributing to the response with harvey and other future disasters is in the area of Water Infrastructure. We have recommended that epa work with states and others to assist the small communities. We have heard that in texas, there were many Water Systems under boil water notices. And over 50 were actually shut down. We think that it is really important in the area of asset management, which is an important tool for the utilities to use, to understand what they have, what are the areas that are vulnerable so they can toress them and use funds build them or restore them. And build in resilience so they are better prepared. That is the one area i would call a tension based on our recommendations where there is some immediate benefit. Keepdo not want to repeating the budget cuts that the Trump Administration has proposed to the epa buyouts and all kinds of things with fewer employees including hundreds of positions in the epas district six headquarters in dallas. Let me ask you about these proposed cuts to your office. Current and expected budget limitations impacting Staffing Levels and the ability of the epas office of Inspector General . Larson it is a serious challenge to us. Had to cut our workforce, year by year by year, and we are down from 360 or so down to 270. And we anticipate having to go fewer than that. Based on the most likely budget scenarios. Original president s Budget Proposal were to be a doctorate by congress, we would have to cut very substantially the amount of work that we did. Gave you a, we fairly detailed explanation of where the cuts would occur. Basis, do, on an annual we plan for the work that we would hope to do based on how much value the project would bring in terms of cost savings or changes in how epa does business. Fewerl have to do many such projects in any given year based on the likely budget outcomes. Thank you. Thank you, mr. Chairman. Mr. Collins, you are recognized for five minutes. I may go down a different road. Talking about mr. Gomez, if i , and i amer 10 years looking right now at the environmental area and the suggestions you made for still spillted for prevention. Do you prioritize these recommendations in some way . With a ranking system . When you see Something Like this, 10 years have gone by, could i assume that these would have been considered lower priority . At some point, do you revisit that with someone . And who with that someone be . Or are these just thrown into as catchr and catch can, they work on these and not on those. I am trying to wrap my mind around the day by day interaction between your agency and the folks that are supposed to implement it to make sure that high priority things are done and the squeaky wheel is addressed. Us betterlp understand how that works . Mr. Gomez we take the recommendations from the epa very seriously. Wheree a process in place we are actively following recommendations we made in the last four years. What can happen to some of the older recommendations is we learn from the agency that they are not going to implement it or we make an assessment that things have changed or it is no longer a priority. We will close it. There are recommendations that are old, older than four years, that we are still keeping track of. We have an indication that epa is still working and we hope they will take action. Any time andk at open up any recommendation that was not implemented if we think it is important or if others have brought it to our attention. Our recommendations are public so you can go to any of our reports. You can click on the recommendation status. You do we do have the separate letter that we mentioned earlier. General sendsr out calling attention to recommendations that we see is a high priority. For epa, we have identified those recommendations that deal with managing toxic chemicals and some that deal with Water Infrastructure and pollution of our waters. That letter can also change year from your. If we go through the history and identify other recommendations that we think are important. We work with epa in an ongoing basis. Formally, we go to them twice a year with a long list of our recommendations. Here they are. They are still open. Let us know which ones we can close. We do that twice a year, formally. That is helpful. I think sometimes we do not understand how that all works. Mehink it is reassuring to like you have pretty good interaction. Making them aware and they are listening. There are some recommendations that the agency may disagree with us. We make it to a point where both sides disagree. We may still think it is a good recommendation. There are some like that. Epa has taken our recommendation seriously and they want to close them out. A want to do what we are saying. Some of our recommendations might take longer to do. I. T. Y recommend that an system may be revised or a new one be put into place. That might take a little longer. I appreciate that overview. That was helpful. Chairman, i yield back the balance of my time. I recognize ms. Clark for five minutes. Like mr. Pallone, my district in new york received substantial damage from sandy. We are very sensitive to the conditions on the ground in houston and concerned about the rest of Hurricane Season quite frankly. Standing up a robust operation is critical at this time. There have been a number of reports about unfolding Environmental Concerns stemming from harvey. Esther larson, i understand that your role at epa may not directly involve you in emergency situations, but could you inform us of the epas role to responding to unfolding environmental threat . As mr. Gomez alluded to earlier, the primary set of responsibilities that epa has stemmed from the National Response framework which came after some of the earlier natural disasters. Epa hasns that importantlity as an agency and it has a primary responsibility for certain functions. The areas where we would expect to see epa involved are assessing and addressing fuel shortages, monitoring public Water Systems, securing , and ofd sites assessing conditions at Major Industrial facilities. Gao evaluate the epas efforts to the response of the environmental threats posed by Hurricane Season . We looked at the katrina Recovery Efforts. That was something that we did. We are happy to assist congress with any oversight you would like us to do as a result of Hurricane Harvey. Mr. Larson, addressing the numerous cleanup issues related ,o the flooding from harvey will involve a lot of the local and federal government. What role do you envision your Office Playing to ensure that toeral money the epa uses contract for harvey cleanup will be safeguarded from fraud and abuse . We are going to do two things. Epa oig specific work. I also want to mention that the organization of igs across the federal government has learned from the past and in the past has had a disaster systems working group. Which is basically the ids from the various agencies that are going to have to play a role here. Epa will be participating in that effort. This agencywide or government wide oig effort to make sure that everyone is doing what they need to do and not duplicating each other. For ourselves, we will probably be looking at contracting issues , whether there was fraud involved that could take the form of audits or investigations. Was their criminal activity going on or was there sloppy practice with regard to contracting. We would see areas fairly early on getting involved in. Given the post harvey cleanup will be lengthy and costly, and i am assuming that we will be hit with irma and other hurricanes what team do you believe your will be interested in examining . Whatever Congress Asks us to do. What isseen from becoming clear in texas with the superfund sites and the water that arecture systems down, those are areas we could look at it we can have discussions with anyone in Congress Interested in having gao look at the response efforts. I cannot emphasize enough that we need to address any environmental threats to the residents of the harvey affected region and perhaps florida. My thoughts are with the people of houston, the responders of assisting on the scene and let us be sure to get these folks what they need to help them get that on their feet. With that, i yield back. I recognize mr. Castillo for five minutes. mr. Gomez, i would like to start with you. Your written testimony mentioned that in 2015, the epa awarded 3. 9 billion in grants to state and local governments were important projects such as repairing infrastructure, improving air quality and cleaning up Hazardous Waste sites. Gao found weaknesses in epas ability to manage these grants are effectively. Would you elaborate on the weaknesses that gao identified in epas grants Management Procedures . Have these Grant Management inefficiencies and weaknesses impacted grant recipients . Have these, inefficiencies contributed to the wasting of grant money or made it more difficult for recipients to use Grant Funding for its intended purposes . We have done a body of work on grants management. That particular report where we recipients, where they were doing duplicative reporting. Currently under the grants management at epa, grant recipients have to provide information and data. Placestified a number of where there is duplicative reporting by the recipients. That epaecommended identified all of those places and do away with the duplications. Not having toare spend a additional time and additionalo do that reporting. That is one area where we called attention to it. And also for epa to streamline. They do have a streamlined initiative in place. We are calling attention to those places where they can do away with duplication so the recipients can carry on with the grants and not have to do a lot of reporting. Mr. Larson. The oig made similar findings with respect to two areas of improvement for the epa regarding grants. Do you have anything to add . I wish i did. Noted,esentative clarke i am an expert in some areas, not so much in others. What i would be happy to do is organize and get back to you and your staff with the primary findings we have had in those areas. Thank you. We now recommend we now recognize dr. Ruiz. The epave heard about role in the Emergency Response program for natural disasters like Hurricane Harvey. Coordinating efforts with fema. I am interested in your efforts to coordinate with. To reach out done and engage with tribes . , we have not reached out to anybody. Point, we do this not wander onto the battlefield while the batter is while the battle is underway. The National Effort that i mentioned earlier, it is going to coordinate among the tribes and the states. Important not to neglect the sovereignty of tribes and the role they have in order to maintain their environment during natural disasters. Reaching out to them and corn eating some tribes have equipment and technology that can help Disaster Response like we have seen in my district with liente band of indians. They have put out some wildfires. I would highly recommend that you start coordinating with tribes as a sovereign nation and a governmental entity themselves. They can be very helpful for the region. The oigs review of the epas response to environmental threats, what are some of the that werned from might see for future storm threats in an area where the ig might consider additional audit work . Unfortunately, we had katrina. We had superstorm sandy. We have learned from both. Among the things that we learned were that the coordination between epa and the corps of engineers was not necessarily what it could have been or should have been. Coordination with state and local officials could have been better. Those to thessed agency. Presumably, this time around you will see better coordination. Most likely we will be coming in and seeing if that occurred. Are you going to prepare to rss that . That . Assess i cannot commit to us doing that but i would think that we would. Numberou were to pick a one barrier for you to do your , what would that be . I am sorry i do not mean to sound dense but are you talking about epas response or oigs evaluation of epas response . What would you say epas barrier is to doing its job. You are putting me in a position of answering for them but i would say people and money. I would say in the areas that we are seeing unfolding like Water Infrastructure and at the superfund sites in texas that are flooded, is making sure that they have enough people on the ground to respond to those two immediate areas where there are potentially risks involved. I would say that is a barrier that they should have enough folks there to address it right now. What can congress due to address that barrier . View, you are ready have got the substantive requirements in place like the clean air act, the clean water act. It is up to the epa to execute on that. They need the people and the policy determination to carry forward. I think it is what you are doing now, the oversight. Of looking to see how that is being done. And even after the fact, how it was done and could it be done better. The oversight is the diagnostic workup. You are saying the diagnosis is the lack of funding and people. Treatment is the next step. You cannot just diagnose the problem and walk away. You have to give the treatment to the patient. The treatment will be the funding and people to bring more people into the situation. Myave disaster training in background. That is where i am speaking from. Thank you very much. Rooksnow recognize miss ms. Brooks. Thank you for your work to improve the epa. We have been very focused on the people. Have noted, its is about the people, but i am concerned that this agency, for , has notriod of time accepted your recommendations when it comes to people. And when it comes to their workforce. In 2010, gao issued a report recommending the epa established mechanisms to evaluate workforce planning. People, placement of people. But,recommendations the recommendation is currently closed and on implemented and unimplemented. We try a recommendation for four years. Obviously, we had done some recent work focused on grants management and workforce issues. That is a large part of epa. Currently,d us that they are giving workforce planning a priority. Howre going to look to see much of a priority that is and in fact, what they are going to do. We have been talking about it is basically about data. They do not have good workforce data. They dont have good information about the types of work that each of their staffs are doing. If you do not have that data, you again do not insure that you have the right you do not ensure that you have the right people in the right place with the right skills. Those are the Management Issues that you are dealing with them. It sounds like this is not new. Any sense what funding goes epas to private sector contract work versus the Public Sector work . In our 2010 report, we did look at contractors. At that time, there were 6000 contractors at epa. I am not sure what that translates to in terms of budget but i think it is a considerable chunk of their budget. What we also found in that report is that contractors were not part of epas planning either. A were not incorporated. We learned from epa recently that they are still not incorporated in their planning. We think that is something that they should do. When they employ 6000 contractors, they are not taken into consideration for their Strategic Plans. Correct. Have they agreed recently to take those contractors into account with their plans . We have learned that they have not done it yet, still. The explanation they gave us is that omb did not require them in their planning to in to include contractors. It is fair to say is it , i have always been very concerned about information and for the ig, that is what you focus on as well. There are a number of contractors, as i understand. If some bad actors or wrongdoers want to read a bit of havoc want to wreak a bit of habit in the system, can you talk about the epa and access to Sensitive Data and what you have found ofut the information or lack information about the knowledge of epa and the access to Sensitive Data . Risk aswe talk about is opposed to actual problems that have manifested. That is, we have not investigated and Insider Threat where an individual breached his obligations and created a vulnerability. What we are talking about, if we thet address vulnerabilities, then the potential is out there. That is what we have been looking at. And we find that the agency does not know how serious a problem that is and they have not taken the steps to mitigate the potential risk that we have identified. Yourd that was just in july 2017 report that the agency just issued. That is correct. For recognize mr. Tonko five minutes. i want to express my deepest condolences to our fellow americans who are suffering the devastation of Hurricane Harvey. Everyone has witnessed this day by day reporting with deep concern and sadness for the folks that are enduring. An importantfore role to play in Disaster Response and recovery. Ensuring the Environmental Monitoring and remediation to preserve public health. If youtorms do not know are republican or democrat. There ought to be a universal approach. Epa has only be done if the resources and personnel to do so. This weekend, they released statements highlighting some of the work that they will have to do including assessing 13 existing superfund sites, addressing the many drinking and wasteWater Systems that remain damaged, assisting with testing for private wells and supporting local First Responders with monitoring and cleanup following chemical fires in crosby, texas. The need for a robust epa is outstandingly clear and massive budget and workforce cuts are not the answer. Beyond that, i have to believe that it is tremendously demoralizing to the professional staff of the agency, many of whom offer their lifetime career to the agency and the betterment of americans across the country. I want to thank you both this morning. Proposedmendations continue to make epa a more successful agency. The trumpet is sadly trying to trumptle the apa the administration is sadly trying to dismantle the epa. Gao released a report on epa on workforce planning. In march of 2010. It concluded that the agencys short. Had fallen the report concludes that agencies are at risk of not having the appropriately Skilled Workforce that they need to effectively achieve their missions. Are you generally familiar with that report of 2010 . Yes. Action to take address that . They have not, yet. Actions ut further will they be doing anything with respect to workforce planning to correct those numbers that they require . Still an outstanding recommendation to properly align its workforce plan with the Strategic Plan and the budget. The Trump Administration proposed cutting funding to the agency by about 30 . And reducing the workforce by some 30 800 employees. You have 50 programs to protect our air and water, address Climate Change they were highlighted for a limitation. Unbelievable cuts. This included the chemical in yourd, testimony today, you noted that itrch 2010 report depends in large part on whether they can sustain a workforce that possesses the necessary education, knowledge, skills and other competencies. Is that correct . Yes. We should all be concerned about how extreme the budget cuts proposed are and the reductions proposed would undermine the ability of the epa to accomplish its missions, especially in the face of disasters. These are troubling cuts. Proven to be the most foolish approach to an agency that was envisioned by president nixon to address the safe water that we drink, clean air that we breathe and the environmental benefits that should be associated with our rights as americans to enjoy that environment as fully as possible. I do appreciate the work that you are doing to draw the attention of the American Public and to thets essential elements that these agencies require in order to respond fully and effectively to their mission. And with that, i yield back. Seeing that we have no more members here, we will conclude this hearing. I would like to thank all of the witnesses and members of the agencies participating in this hearing. I know that a lot of this was along the lines of what we will be doing. We expect epa to take care of these issues. To have filled the positions needed and take some accounting of what is going on because we will be asking more questions about what has happened in terms of preparedness and response. None of us want to see any loss of life or property caused by an agency not fulfilling its responsibilities. Observations your and comments today. I remind members that they have 10 Business Days to submit questions. And i ask the witnesses to reply promptly and with that, this committee is a german. Ed. This committee is adjourn thank you. On cspan this morning, washington journal. Live with your phone calls and a look at todays headlines. That is followed by newsmakers with republican congressman mark walker of north carolina. Later, attorney general Jeff Sessions announcement on the Trump Administrations decision to end daca. Coming up on todays washington journal, we are joined by Eleanor Clift of the daily beast discuss theffrey to congressional agenda and other political news of the day. Then nick troiano of the centrist project talks about the 2018 midterm elections and efforts by his group to find centrist candidates. Washington journal is next. Host good morning. These are live satellite images from Hurricane Irma. At this hour, the storm is approaching the lower florida keys heading up the gulf coast, hitting tampa and st. Petersburg. Florida officials have ordered more than 6. 5 million residents to leave their homes, one of the largest emergency evacuations in u. S. History. Gov. Rick scott is warning the state could get up to 18 inches of rain. According to the associated press, st. Petersburg and tampa have not