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Washington, D.C.? Saying the proposed 11 percent Fiscal Year 2001 increase in funding for the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is "a good first step," National Treasury Employees Union (NTEU) National President Colleen M. Kelley told a House appropriations subcommittee today that increasing threats to the nation's environment and public health make

additional funding critical.,

Testifying before the House Appropriations Subcommittee on Veterans Affairs, Housing and Urban Development, and Independent Agencies, Kelley said, "The level of funding requested by the EPA should be viewed as a floor, not a ceiling. As the number and complexity of threats to our environment and to human health continue to increase, it is critical that the Congress provide additional funding for staffing at the EPA."

The Administration has requested Fiscal Year 2001 funding of $7.3 billion for EPA and $2.2 billion for the Better America Bonds program.

Kelley said the increased funding for core EPA environmental programs is essential for research and setting environmental standards, for enforcement and ensuring compliance with environmental laws, and providing essential assistance to states and local communities.

While applauding the subcommittee's commitment to funding technological improvements in EPA programs, Kelley said that "technology alone cannot possibly address the demands the agency now faces."

"The work performed by the men and women at the EPA is often taken for granted," said Kelley. "Yet, thanks to persistent science?based work by EPA employees, we are reducing air pollution, improving the quality of our drinking water systems, and allowing Americans to live longer and healthier lives."

Kelley called on the subcommittee to support funding that would allow EPA to continue and expand important work being done on several fronts, including: work done with states and localities to develop proposals to restore wetlands and to clean up our polluted rivers and lakes; efforts underway with industry and municipalities to modernize drinking water systems; ongoing research into children's vulnerabilities to exposure to lead and other harmful toxins; implementation of food safety standards aimed specifically at children as called for in the Food Quality Protection Act; promoting food supply safety with the development of alternatives to harmful pesticides; and, work being done to cleanup toxic Superfund and "brownfield" sites to restore abandoned industrial sites to productive economic use.

"These programs, as well as countless others within EPA need additional staffing to address the increasing demands of protecting and improving the health of the American public," Kelley told subcommittee members."

NTEU is the nation's largest independent federal employees union, representing some 155,000 employees in 24 agencies and departments, including nearly 2,000 EPA employees.