WASHINGTON, DC - Energy and Commerce Committee Chairman Greg Walden (R-OR), Environment Subcommittee Chairman John Shimkus (R-IL), and Oversight and Investigations Subcommittee Chairman Gregg Harper (R-MS) today sent a letter to Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) Administrator Scott Pruitt seeking further information regarding EPA’s reorganization plans, particularly as it relates to workforce analysis.
Walden, Shimkus, and Harper write, “The EPA has struggled for decades to determine whether the workforce at the agency has the appropriate skills and competencies to accomplish its mission. In fact, EPA has not conducted a workforce analysis in over 20 years, and the EPA Office of Inspector General (OIG) has cited the need to improve workload analysis as management challenges since 2012. These recommendations come in light of EPA developing plans to reorganize and restructure the agency."
At a September 2017 Oversight and Investigations Subcommittee hearing, the Government Accountability Office (GAO) raised concerns about the lack of data on EPA’s workforce and at a December 2017 hearing before the Subcommittee on Environment, Administrator Pruitt stated the agency was engaged in a workforce review process.
The members concluded, “Workforce analysis will undoubtedly inform EPA’s proposed reorganization as the agency attempts to more efficiently deploy its workforce. … To assist us in understanding more about EPA’s plans to reorganize the agency and how workforce analysis will factor into those plans, we request that Henry Darwin, EPA’s Chief of Operations, and other relevant personnel involved in this project provide a briefing to Committee staff on these matters."
