Held by a house to oversight subcommittee, this is an hour and a half. All right, good morning, everyone. And welcome to our hearing in oversight and information subcommittee on energy and commerce. Finish the subcommittee convenes its hearing today to examine unimplemented recommendations by the Environmental Protection agencys office of Inspector General and Government Accountability office. Acting on these recommendations would improve epas ability to carry out its core mission. Protecting human health and the environment. This mission is never more important than during times of National DisasterNatural Disaster like the one in the gulf coast or experiencing right now in Hurricane Harvey or about to hit with another hurricane in the florida coast. First of all, on behalf of the committee i want to express my son sincere sorry to everyone impacted by the storm. Hurricane harvey is one of the worst National Disasters the United States has ever faced, and its still too early to tell the full extent of the devastation that has displaced thousands of people. Members of this committee on both sides of the aisle represent constituents experiencing loss and destruction from the storm, and our thoughts and prayers are with these families as they begin to rebuild their lives from this national tragedy. During the storm and in the aftermath, epa continues to play a Critical Role in the federal response to Hurricane Harvey. While epa is still in the midst of initial response lefters, its work has efforts, its work has only just begun. We look forward to monitoring the agencys response to the disaster and learn the full extent of the Environmental Impact and challenges that lie ahead. Loss and destruction of Hurricane Harvey make todays hearing each more important. Even more important. Excuse me. The committee has the opportunity to learn about ways to strengthen the epa including highlighting unimplemented recommendations that may improve epas ability to protect the environment and human health during Recovery Efforts or future Natural Disasters. And i go back and reflect on what were about to face in florida. And puerto rico and the disasters there, looming there. Now, the constitution provides congress with the authority to conduct oversight of the executive branch, and in partnership with the Government Accountability office and office of Inspector General, we Work Together to root out waste, fraud and abuse at federal agencies such as the epa. Through investigations and audits, we often make recommendations on ways to improve the efficiency and effectiveness of the epa. And after these recommendations are issued, gao and oig work with the agency to insure that the epa acts on their findings. Today the committee will learn 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 of the open recommendations span multiple administrations, some dating as far back as the bush administration. While epa adopts recommendations at a rate around the federal government average, there are still unimplemented recommendations in many critical areas of the agency. According to the oigs most recent semiannual report to congress released in may 2017, epa has the potential to save 103. 3 million by implementing oigs open recommendations. The semiannual report showed 43 open recommendations with past due completion dates and 56 with due dates set in the future. The gao will testify that epa has implemented 191 of the 318 recommendations made since 2007 with 127 recommendations still un implemented. Oig and gao have highlighted deficiencies in management and operations including concern about the security posture, Work Force Management and grant administration. For example, epa oig recently conducted an audit focusing on flaws related to epas Information Security posture during fiscal years 20152016. The oig reported that the agency lacks an understanding of which contract does the epa have responsibility, raising questions about the agencys network integrity. The oig recommended the epa develop a process for identifying these contractors. The epa is not expected to implement this recommendation until december 31st of 2018. Gao and oig have also uncovered waste and mismanagement in grant programs. This is particularly troubling because grants comprise almost half of the epas budget, about 4 billion annually. In 2016 gao found that epas grantmonitoring practice may impact the agencys ability to efficiently monitor results and increase costs. Additionally n2017 gao reports epa did not have the [inaudible] gao recommendations range from standardized in the form of grant recipient Progress Properties to developing a process to analyze workloads. All 12 recommendations this these two reports remain unimplemented. These are just some of the many reports and audits conducted by the oig and gao to. We will discuss more of them today. But they have done excellent work to highlight the problems within epa and find solutions to solve these issues, so im grateful for your work and look forward to hearing more about your findings. I want to adhere, with things looming in florida and with the tragedies in texas, i speak for the committee. We better not find out that epa has cause canninged anything thats caused any harm. We know theres a great deal of Water Pollution out this, were concerned the increase in zika mosquitoes in texas. We dont know if that has to do with issues with Water Management and other things within the jurisdiction of epa. We will keep a close watch on all those and see if theres any errors that have occurred relating to weaknesses in the agencies implementing things. So i thank our witnesses for course your dedication and work to insure that e be as epas carrying out its mission. Alfredo gomez has two nephews serving in texas. They doing okay . We appreciate their service and sacrifice during Hurricane Harvey and its aftermath. I turn to my colleague from florida, recognize her for an opening statement. Mr. Chairman, thank you for convening this hearing, and thank you to our witnesses for their work. The hearings subject, while important, pales in comparison of the true oversight needed of the trump Environmental Protection agency. Epa is and always has been a critical part patter in to our partner to our states and communities back home. Most of what epa does is to support our communities back home in cleaning up polluted sites, helping protect the air we breathe and the water we drink. And i thank the professionals and scientists at Environmental Protection agency for their work. But President Trump and administrator scott pruitt have a very different vision, unfortunately, and they have been acting to weaken support for our communities back home that comes through the epa. And it is particularly troubling that epa administrator pruitt has not appeared before the energy and Commerce Committee to date. This committee has direct oversight of the epa, and its simply unprecedented and unacceptable that the administrator has not appeared before the committee. Now, the importance of the epa is particularly clear as texas learns more about the scope and extent of the destruction caused by Hurricane Harvey. Theres nothing like a Disaster Response to that demonstrates how critical toxic chemical k superfund and other epa local initiatives are to the health ask safety of our neighbors. As a floridian, i know all too well the devastation that massive hurricanes can bring to homes, businesses and communities, and that recovery from such a storm is long, expensive and challenging. And our thoughts are with the residents of puerto rico, the Virgin Islands and floridians as theyre in the path of another extremely dangerous storm in hurricane irma. Hurricane harvey slammed into the gulf coast as a category four. So far it has left at least 60 people dead and billions of dollars in damage, and the death toll and estimated Cost Recovery is likely to continue to rise in the coming weeks. Ranking member of the subcommittee on health, representative jean green representative green represents the city of houston and has seen much of his district flooded, and our thoughts are with him and his constituents at this time. And, mr. Gomez, i want to recognize you for being here today at what is surely a difficult time for you and your family. The epa has been a key agency responding to harvey, and for this reason this hearing should be a timely and important step in exploring how to strengthen the agency as it supports local responders and begins to assess the possible Environmental Impact of the flooding, toxic releases. But this hearing, unfortunately, is devoted to a much less significant topic, the scope of potential environmental risk caused by this ongoing crisis while its still coming into are considerable. People are evacuating through dirty and con cam nateed floodwaters contaminated floodwaters, there have been reports of fires at chemical facilities which may involve the release of tocksic pollutants toxic pollutants, possible damage of leaking gas tanks at fuel facilities which, if i true, may pose Environmental Concerns that the epa will need to address. And im particularly concerned about reports of flooding at superfund sites and what damage they may have caused. 13 of the 41 former toxic waste sites in harveyimpacted area have flooded and may have experienced damage. Additionally, the city of houston contains approximately 450 petrochemical plants contributing to 74 incidents of excess air pollution since harvey hit, emitting more than one Million Pounds of Hazardous Substances into the air. See, our local communities need the expertise of the e be, a to prevent and mitigate such releases. But the Trump Administration has been work overtime to weaken epas ability to help back home. And now its really showing at a time of disaster. The storm also raises ongoing concerns of Drinking Water safety. According to epa, 4,500 Drinking Water systems are potentially threatened by flood waters, disrupted sewage systems. Now, after Hurricane Katrina, energy and commerce professional staff were on the ground to help. And this committee should consider oversight hearings in texas in the near term. But todays hearing, rather than focusing on the big picture, examines unimplemented recommendations for the epa at time when the real issue is the decimation of the epa professional work force proposed by President Trump and administrator pruitt. And yet we respond to the grave environmental and Human Health Risks of Hurricane Harvey and other catastrophes at this time, but the overall epa has never been more important. Mr. Chairman, im deeply troubled by the direction of the agency under the Trump Administration. And i implore you and my republican colleagues to conduct true oversight of the damage being done to our bedrock Environmental Protections built through decades of bipartisan work. And we need to do it before deep and lasting damage is inflicted across america. The trump epa is waging an aggressive role back of environmental and Human Health Protections through politicization of the agency, extreme proposed budget and staffing cuts, 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 trump budget would with slash epas budget by nearly 2. 6 3w8, reduce the professional work force there by over 3,000 employees, and the damage will be done to our air quality, diesel emission reductions, lead safety, and it goes on and on. Already there is evidence of conflicts of interest, favoritism towards certain businesses and grants changed to exact political revenge. This is not acceptable, and this is what needs oversight. The ongoing crisis unfolding on the gulf coast demonstrates the dangers of the Trump Administrations extreme assault on Environmental Protection. Mr. Chairman, we want to work with you to make sure that epa implements the work force and contractor recommendations, but if were serious about insuring that the agency is able to protect human health and the environment, then we must Work Together to conduct true oversight of the fundamental damage being done to this agency and our neighbors back home. Thank you, and i yield back. Thank you. Chair now recognizes the chairman of the full committee, mr. Waldman, for five minutes. Just in response to my friend from florida, our Committee Staff the Oversight Committee has worked diligently throughout the last several weeks in Clear Communication with the various agencies involved in the hurricane. This hearing was put together before harvey had a name, so we will do our oversight and continue to. At the appropriate time. I anticipate there will be a delegation that will go and hold hearings or do appropriate review. Im one when theres an emergency going on tries to stay out of the way of the First Responders and let them do their job. And so at the right time, well to that. And we will have administrator pruitt before our committee sooner rather than later. I share her frustration that theres 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 heads to become before our committee, and they will. Now, as to this hearing, i appreciate subcommittee chairman murphy having this and his opening comments. We care deeply about whats happened in texas, we care deeply about whats about to happen in florida. My own district is on fire and much destruction going on there. All these things matter. You want to talk about air quality . You know, we could use your support on some of our forestry legislation to reduce the fuel loads so we dont poison people with fires and destroy watersheds. Now, we know that these Recovery Efforts will continue for years. Recovering from any disaster whether its Hurricane Harvey or irma or destructive wildfires burning out of control throughout the west requires coordination at every level of the government. And the epa is a critical part of that. The challenges facing the epa that pertain to harvey are significant. I hope the Agency Seizes upon the lessons it learned in response to previous Natural Disasters such as hurricanes katrina and sandy. Todays hearing represents the first opportunity to hear from the epa office of Inspector General and the Government Accountability office regarding any outstanding recommendations that, if implemented, could enable agency to better achieve or do its job better. Well also examine some of the areas of concern that have been identified and commented upon by the oig and the gao, but whose recommendations remain unimplemented by the epa. We should be mindful, however, that many of the oig and gaos unimplemented recommendations span multiple administrations and, therefore, represent longstanding challenges for thing agency. For example, weve learned the epa has a failed to complete an agencywide workload analysis in more than 20 years. Similarly, both oig and gao have consistently identified issues that generate serious concerns as to whether epa has knowledge of or adequately monitors the activities of its contractors and grant recipients, despite the significant portion of the agencys annual budget thats awarded to third parties. Addressing these issues will increase transparency and accountability at epa in addition to enabling the agency to a make better informed budgetary decisions. I believe that all americans want a healthy environment, and id like to thank alan larsen from the oig and Alfredo Gomez for joining us to provide testimony and to expand upon their organizations findings and recommendations. Id also like to recognize and thank mr. Gomezs nephews who i understand are serving the houston Fire Department. Thank you for their work as First Responders who bravely have assisted so many of their fellow citizens during Hurricane Harvey. Im looking forward to a productive discussion this morning