Resource Constraints, Leadership Decisions, and Workforce Culture Led to a Decline in Federal Enforcement
Publication Date
Description
The Office of the Inspector General has found that compliance monitoring activities, enforcement actions, and monetary enforcement results by the Environmental Protection Agency declined from 2007 through 2018 due to “Resource Constraints, Leadership Decisions, and Workforce Culture” (and continued to decrease in 2019 and 2020). The OIG determined that this decrease led to a commensurate decline in “environmental benefits” and declared that “[a] decline in the EPA’s enforcement activities may expose the public and the environment to undetected harmful pollutants.”
[To accompany Agency Update "OIG Finds Decline in EPA Enforcements Actions That May Increase Risks" from Brooks Animal Law Digest Issue No. 86.]