Coalition Letter to Senate EPW Urging Action on EPA Assistant Administrator Nominees

Re: Ensuring a Fully Staffed and Functional Environmental Protection Agency

Dear Chairman Barrasso and Ranking Member Carper:

We are writing on behalf of millions of businesses, large and small, to urge you to move as quickly as possible to advance the four nominees currently pending before your Committee for Assistant Administrators of the United States Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). Our organizations represent many major sectors of the American economy—including aerospace, agriculture, apparel, automotive, building and construction materials, chemical and raw material production, consumer and industrial goods, distribution, electronics, energy, equipment manufacturers, food and grocery, footwear, healthcare products and medical technology, information technology, mining and metals, paper and wood products, plastics, retail, storage, tire manufacturers, and travel goods.

The mission of the EPA is to protect human health and the environment. However, more than eight months into the new Administration, the EPA lacks any Senate-confirmed Assistant Administrators to carry out this mission. The EPA’s activities have a significant impact on each of our industries, the products we make or the services we provide, and the millions of workers we represent. It is therefore of significant importance to our groups that EPA is appropriately and fully staffed. This holds especially true for individuals in key leadership positions. Consequently, to ensure that EPA’s vast workload can be efficiently and effectively achieved and implemented, we urge you and the Senate Environment & Public Works Committee to move expeditiously towards confirmation for the following nominees:

• Michael Dourson, for EPA Assistant Administrator, Office of Chemical Safety & Pollution Prevention;
• Matthew Leopold, for EPA Assistant Administrator, Office of the General Counsel;
• David Ross, for EPA Assistant Administrator, Office of Water; and
• William Wehrum, for EPA Assistant Administrator, Office of Air & Radiation.

We appreciate your assistance in this important and timely matter.