EPA's research budget is in a free-fall.

Scientists with the Environmental Protection Agency say the Bush administration's plans to close a minimum of 20 percent of the agency's laboratory infrastructure over the next four years represents a "crippling disinvestment in EPA's scientific capacity" and would put the EPA's mission "in jeopardy." In a "mass petition" signed by the presidents of 22 unions representing more than 10,000 EPA scientists and technicians, the group said the agency "is refusing to consult its own experts about the effects its plans will have on the ability of the agency to protect the environment."

The planned reductions are the result of a "budget-driven agenda that does not take into account the effects on the quality and quantity of work produced at EPA's laboratories," says the May 23 petition sent to members of Congress in charge of EPA oversight. It asks that Congress convene hearings on the EPA's efforts "to achieve deep cuts in research and development" and for a GAO study "of the advantages and disadvantages of future EPA decisions that impact laboratory capabilities and operations."

The EPA's research budget is slated to decline to less than $540 million next year, down from $595 million in 2006, $621 million in 2005 and $647 million in 2004. "Unfortunately, EPA's research program is in a chronically unhealthy state," says Bruce Coull, Dean Emeritus of the School of the Environment at the University of South Carolina and President of the U.S. Council of Environmental Deans and Directors with the National Council for Science and the Environment. The council recommends Congress appropriate a minimum of $700 million for EPA's Office of Research and Development. "The call for decisions to be made on the basis of science is almost a mantra used across the political spectrum," Coull told a recent hearing of the House Science Committee. "Yet, behind the rhetoric, a simple truth remains: without investment in science and its scientists, there can be no science-based decision making."

The need for environmental research is growing in areas such as endocrine disrupters, mercury poisoning, water quality, land restoration, sustainability, global warming's impact on human health, pollution prevention, economics associated with regulation and graduate fellowship programs.

The Bush administration request for EPA's overall 2008 budget is $400 million less than in 2007: $7.2 billion, a decline of 5.5 percent.

The petition is located at the Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility Web site: http://www.peer.org/news/news_id.php?row_id=861.

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