U.s. Environmental Protection Agency

National Environmental Policy and Quadrennial Review Needed U.s. Environmental Protection Agency

The Reports Consolidation Act of 2000 requires that the Office of Inspector General (OIG) annually identify Agency management challenges. On April 28, 2009, we issued a memorandum listing Fiscal Year (FY) 2009 management challenges for the U. S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA).1 One challenge urged EPA to apply threat and risk assessment methodologies in Agency priority setting and decisionmaking. In August 2009, we met with EPA officials to discuss updating the threat and risk assessments challenge for FY 2010. Based on that discussion, we reviewed and revised the FY 2009 challenge and conducted additional research on the need for a national environmental policy and a quadrennial review.