Cabinet-Level Status for the EPA

One theoretical view of the issue is that creating a Department of the Environment and a Secretary of the Environment would have the effect of providing executive-branch sanction for management and direction of national environmental policy. In 1990, a veteran of environmental issues who had once been an administrator at EPA framed the key reasons in favor of establishing the agency as a full-fledged federal department by developing the background against which environmental issues took their place as important features of public policy after 1960. "Environmental protection today," he wrote, "is widely recognized as central to the long-term health and well-being of the American people" (Train, 1990, p. 7). Citing a full range of health, agriculture, and human-services issues that are important to the environment-related well-being of the American population, Train continued the discussion:

Yet the EPA does not have the status of the other government agencies with which it must work to protect the env

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rming, wetlands preservation and airborne toxins. In the eyes of critics, Bush's environmental policy is shaped not by [EPA head William] Reilly but White House Chief of Staff John H. Sununu and Budget Director Richard G. Darman, who oppose environmental protection at the cost of economic growth. Giving Reilly a new title will not change the dynamic, critics say" (Weisskopf, 1990a, p. A25). The weight of evidence is that subsequent events confirmed Dukakis's overall assessment of Bush as more inclined to favor development than control of the natural environment on one hand, and the public-relations orientation of Bush's 1990 declaration as being in favor of a Department of the Environment on the other. This emerged fairly early, during the period that Bush was involved in making cabinet-level appointments. For example, Bush's appointment of Manuel Lujan to the post of Secretary of the Interior "raised fears among environmentalists because of his pro-development philosophies while on the House Interior Committee. Environmentalists recall his staunch support of former Interior Secretary James Watt" ("Cabinet Confirmations," 1989, p. A7). Further, the caliber of Bush's cabinet officers charged with stewardship of the environm
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Approximate Word count = 2952
Approximate Pages = 12 (250 words per page)

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