EPA Enforcement Nominee Called Unqualified
WASHINGTON, DC, May 9, 2002 (ENS) - John Suarez, the Bush
administration's second choice for the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency's
(EPA) top enforcement position, was challenged in Senate hearings Tuesday as
having insufficient experience for the job.
Suarez, whose nomination as Assistant Administrator of
the Office of Enforcement and Compliance Assurance (OECA) was sent to the
Senate last month, is a long time colleague of EPA Administrator Christie
Whitman, the former governor of
New Jersey
. Suarez has served as the director of the New Jersey Division of Gaming
Enforcement since 1999 and was previously Assistant Counsel to then Governor
Whitman.
In 1998, Suarez was special assistant to the director of
the Criminal Justice Division in
New Jersey
. From 1992 to 1998, Suarez was an assistant
U.S.
attorney in the District of New Jersey.
Despite his record of law enforcement, Suarez has little
or no experience with environmental issues, critics pointed out Tuesday in a
hearing before the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee.
Senator Jim Jeffords, the Vermont Independent who chairs
the committee, told Suarez he was "concerned that your legal experience
has not dealt with our environmental laws," which Jeffords noted are
"complex and often require extensive knowledge of the underlying case
law."
"The responsibilities of the position you have been
nominated to fill is a very important one," Jeffords said. "Our
environmental laws can be rendered meaningless without adequate
enforcement."
Senator Barbara Boxer, a California Democrat, said she
was concerned that Suarez "has no experience on the environment."
In August 2001, Boxer put a hold on the Bush
Administration's first OECA nominee, Donald Schregardus over concerns that
during his tenure as head of the Ohio Environmental Protection Agency, he
"too often took the side of the polluters, not the people or the
environment."
Boxer suggested that Suarez's nomination may be a new
strategy for the Bush administration to avoid effective enforcement of the
nation's environmental laws. Suarez "has been asked to enforce
environmental laws in an Administration that does not appear to want them
enforced," Boxer said, "and, furthermore, has ignored Congress's
mandate to provide the personnel necessary to enforce the laws."
"I believe that the Nation's environmental laws are
critically important to every American," Suarez told the Senate
committee. "I hope to have the opportunity to enforce those laws to help
ensure that all of us, especially our children, can enjoy cleaner air, purer
water, and better protected land for years to come."
Saying that he believes in "fairness,"
"flexibility," and a "cooperative approach" in working
with regulated companies and individuals, Suarez also noted that in the
"carrot and stick" model of motivating correct behavior, "I
believe that a good enforcement official has the stick and is not afraid to
use it."
In answer to the Democratic senators' concerns, Suarez
said he would ask current EPA staff for advice when needed. "I will
continue to learn the law," Suarez said.
In a letter to Senator Jeffords, a coalition of
environmental groups, including American Rivers, Friends of the Earth and the
Sierra Club, called Suarez was the least qualified person nominated as OECA in
the last 15 years.
"There is no evidence that Mr. Suarez has ever dealt
in any aspect of the enforcement of state or federal environmental laws,"
the groups wrote.
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