There are thousands of sites owned by the federal government that potentially require cleanup. Depending on how cleanup requirements are applied to individual sites, cleanup cost estimates vary widely and can range from many billions of dollars to over a trillion dollars. Funding for assessments and cleanups at these sites will be proposed in agency budgets, appropriatedby Congress, and financedby the American taxpayer. To date, the cleanup program has been driven by a plethora of federal, state, and local laws and regulations. Congress has complained about the cost and amount of time spent on "studies." By far, the two largest complaints from field managers are the overlapping and sometimes conflicting authorities of regulators and the equally frustrating, overlapping, and sometimes conflicting requirements of the Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation and Liability Act (CERCLA) and the Resource Conservation and Recovery Act (RCRA). The reauthorization of CERCLA and the Admmistration's efforts at executive branch improvements to the CERCLA and RCRA processes offer an unusual opportunity to recast the federal facilities program in a way that maximizes efficiency and partnering between federal facilities and regulators.
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