Word: epa
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Dates: during 1980-1989
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Imaging, for example being forced to admit that you earn your keep at the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and respectfully humble yourself before a boss who is none other than Anne Burford. Jokes from the in0laws could wear thin after a short time...
Reagan's philosophies seemed destined to provoke a new brand of despair among Washington regulars. With telling prescience. Garry Trudeau last year penned several sketches of a distraught EPA employee whose premonitions of policy reversals sent him scurrying to the narrow ledge outside his office window. The scene could have transpired equally well at any number of federal agencies, such as the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission or the Department of Education...
While he didn't jump. Edward A. Kurent, a senior enforcement lawyer at the EPA, did resign last wek, saying his office can no longer do its job properly. Kurent cited "the fatigue and low morale of the staff" and pointed the finger at Burford for undermining the agency's enforcement efforts. Similar frustration prompted civil rights attorneys at the Justice Department to sign petitions twice last your opposting administration policy in that area...
...most likely--and frightening--explanation is that Burford is trying to dismantle the EPA. Her plan to slash federal support of state pollution-control efforts and to cut federal programs by up to 55 percent reveals her hostility to a nationally run system. Her adherence to Reagan's New Federalism is hardly surprising, but her inefficacy underlines the problems inherent in that philosophy...
Whether intentionally or not, Burford is not doing her job, controlling and cleaning up pollution. If she will not follow the Congressional mandate which created the EPA she should resign, leaving her agency free to clean itself up and recommit itself to making America safe...