Environmental Protection Agency Sets Blueprint For Revamping R&D Effort: ▪ Office of Research & Development will be realigned to strengthen organizational structure after performance reviews

The Environmental Protection Agency's Office of Research & Development (ORD) is headed for a major shakeup. Long underutilized by the agency and criticized for being overmanaged in recent studies, the office is now up for reauthorization by Congress and for reorganization by EPA Administrator Carol M. Browner. "An integral part of strengthening the quality of science at EPA will be the reinvigorating of our research program," Browner told the full House Committee on Science, Space & Technology during a hearing on July 27. "Our goal is nothing less than to create the premier environmental science organization in the country." Committee chairman George E. Brown Jr. (D.-Calif.) agrees that it is past time for EPA to upgrade the quality of its science. "Regrettably, EPA's ORD has failed to satisfactorily address research and research management issues, some of which were identified when I first became chairman of the environment subcommittee over 18 years ago," Brown says. "An ...