Word: epa
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Dates: during 1980-1989
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Burford leaves, but big problems linger for EPA on the Hill
...Burford was surrounded. White House aides were a solid Greek chorus subtly pressuring a recalcitrant President Reagan to let go his besieged Environmental Protection Agency chief. They convinced him that she was a roadblock to settling the dispute with Congress and restoring credibility and employee morale at the battered EPA. Burford's mentor in the Administration, Interior Secretary James Watt, advised her that her support was eroding and that she should consider quitting. Finally, shortly after 3:30 p.m. on Wednesday, she received a call from Reagan Friend Joseph Coors, a Colorado brewery mogul, who had been her faithful...
...feistiness had faded under the emotional strain of seeing her agency tarred by allegations ranging from perjury and conflict of interest by her top aides, to mismanagement and political favoritism. She also faced a congressional contempt citation for invoking, on Reagan's orders, Executive privilege to withhold subpoenaed EPA documents from House subcommittees. "She had come apart at the seams personally in the past two weeks," said one White House aide. "She was scared to death about going before Congress again...
...signals were subtle at first, diplomatic hints lobbed from the White House to the Environmental Protection Agency. Presidential Advisers James Baker and Craig Fuller were quoted as saying at midweek that, despite President Reagan's public expressions of confidence in beleaguered EPA Administrator Anne Burford, firing her had indeed become an option. The Administration had counted on its showy, if belated, one-two punch-buying out dioxin-tainted Times Beach, Mo., and bolstering Burford with five seasoned deputies-to cool the controversy that has paralyzed the agency. But it soon became apparent that the EPA tar baby...
...prepared to dislodge her, Burford insisted that she had done nothing wrong and would fight being "fed to the wolves." In a stunning public break with the White House, Burford told her aides, who dutifully leaked her remarks to the press, that Reagan and his advisers had botched the EPA crisis from start to finish. She said that she thought Reagan had received bad advice and that she had opposed his decision to withhold subpoenaed documents from House subcommittees probing charges of mismanagement, conflict of interest and political favoritism in the $1.6 billion Superfund program to clean up the nation...