Air Pollution

This briefing report provides information on (1) reduction in the Environmental Protection Agency's fiscal year 1994 budget for its air quality program, (2) how the agency allocated reductions among various components of the air quality program, and (3) the extent to which the reductions affected efforts to meet requirements and deadlines set by the Clean Air Act Amendments of 1990.

GAO found that: (1) EPA reduced the air quality program's FY 1994 budget by $32 million; (2) EPA cut $25.4 million from the program's budget to comply with the $81 million reduction in the overall EPA budget for contracts, grants, personnel, research, and other activities; (3) EPA cut $825,000 from specific air quality programs and reprogrammed $5.7 million to fund high-priority initiatives; (4) the reductions significantly impacted some individual program components; (5) although $16.6 million was restored to the air quality program's budget, the funds were received too late to meet 1994 needs and were carried over to FY 1995; (6) EPA had difficulty in allocating the reductions because Congress and the Administration imposed certain constraints on its budget reduction options, and unprotected programs absorbed a greater proportion of the reductions; and (7) EPA will miss some important deadlines because of these budget reductions, particularly those for issuing pollution control standards and rules.