We Get Letters

In an average week EPA receives about 65 letters from Senators, Governors, and Congressmen. Many ask us to provide information or answer questions. EPA’s Office of Congressional and Intergovernmental Relations (OCIR) makes sure we respond to these requests. A timely response affects how and whether the elected officials are serving their constituents and is a reflection of whether EPA has its act together. Our current goal is to respond to every letter within two weeks or have a very good reason why we need more time to respond.

Aformer head of OCIR once said it would be ‘impossible’ to meet such a goal. All these letters must be routed to the correct individual at EPA who can draft a response. That person must draft the response and then it must be reviewed by their supervisor(s) as well as other offices, and sometimes other Departments, for accuracy, grammar, consistency, etc. Just having the wrong person out sick for a couple days can make this a tough goal to meet.

And, indeed, it is a very tough goal. In early 2006, EPA typically had 55 to 65 responses that were overdue. Then we decided to do the impossible. OCIR revamped the system to cut down on the number of reviews. Each EPA office was held more accountable for getting responses done swiftly. For instance, performance was tracked at senior staff meetings every Monday. Offices started getting on letters right away rather than wait until they were ‘late.’

So, what happened? On November 27, 2006 a pink gorilla joined the senior staff meeting to help celebrate the impossible: three consecutive weeks of no -- zero, zippo, nicht -- overdue responses. And we continue to keep the number very, very low (see table).

The man who said it was impossible to do this is now the Chief of Staff to the EPA Administrator. And while he is proud of EPA’s achievements, for some reason he doesn’t like to talk about this one very much.