Careers

Natural Resources and Environment

Our Work
Recent Accomplishments
Ongoing Projects
Key Contacts

Our Work

The Natural Resources and Environment team supports Congress as it considers various bills related to natural resources and environmental issues that affect the lives of the American people on a daily basis. Our team contributes to these deliberations by providing fact-based analyses on a wide range of issues including efforts to ensure a reliable and environmentally sound energy supply, manage our nation’s land and water resources, protect the environment, reduce threats posed by hazardous and nuclear wastes, ensure food safety, invest in science, and manage agricultural programs.

In doing this work, our headquarters and field analysts concentrate mainly on the programs of the following agencies:

    • Department of Agriculture
    • Department of Energy
    • Department of the Interior
    • Environmental Protection Agency
    • Nuclear Regulatory Commission
    • Federal Energy Regulatory Commission
    • Army Corps of Engineers
    • National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration
    • National Institute of Standards and Technology
    • National Science Foundation
    • Patent and Trademark Office
    • Bonneville Power Administration
    • Tennessee Valley Authority
    • Council on Environmental Quality

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Recent Accomplishments

    • Helped to frame the challenging and complex choices associated with managing our nation’s natural resources.
    • Prompted improvements to the management of key environmental resources, such as fisheries, oil and gas, and forests.
    • Assessed climate change modeling and U.S. contributions to climate science.
    • Demonstrated the need to secure our nation’s chemical plants, offshore oil and gas wells, nuclear power plants, and nuclear weapons labs.
    • Demonstrated the need to revamp federal oversight of food safety.
    • Prompted the Department of Energy to better manage its efforts to clean up former nuclear weapons sites and to chart a path forward for long-term nuclear waste storage.
    • Prompted the Department of Agriculture to reduce its federal crop insurance program’s vulnerability to fraud, waste, and abuse.
    • Ensured that the Department of Energy takes important steps to improve its management of contracts and projects.
    • Prompted the Environmental Protection Agency to improve regulation of toxic chemicals and drinking water contaminants.

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Ongoing Projects

    • Assessing nuclear reactor safety, licensing, and environmental impacts of nuclear power.
    • Modeling impacts on gasoline prices and studying ethanol subsidies.
    • Examining the restoration of the Chesapeake Bay and the Florida Everglades.
    • Evaluating agencies’ success in stimulating small business innovation and research and in supporting commercialization of federally funded research and development.
    • Examining U.S. efforts to secure radiological material abroad.
    • Conducting research on oil pollution and oil spill prevention and clean-up technologies.
    • Evaluating the regulation of contaminants in drinking water.
    • Reviewing the Department of the Interior’s oversight of mining on federal lands, including for minerals such as uranium.
    • Determining the overlap of federal food safety programs and evaluating food safety concerns such as seafood safety, E.coli, and the safety of beef in school meals.
    • Assessing efforts to modernize the nation’s nuclear weapons complex and to secure vulnerable radiological material at home and abroad.
    • Assessing border-area resource issues such as rural water infrastructure needs and the impact of wildfires.
    • Supporting the efforts of the International Organization of Supreme Audit Institutions to look at environmental data.
    • Evaluating the implementation of the Department of Energy’s loan guarantee program.
    • Assessing the effects of closing the Yucca Mountain repository for high-level nuclear waste.

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Key Contacts

Managing Director: Mark Gaffigan

Directors: Gene Aloise, Anu Mittal, Frank Rusco, Lisa Shames, David Trimble

Phone: (202) 512-3841

Mailing Address:

U.S. Government Accountability Office
Natural Resources and Environment
Room 2T23
441 G Street, N.W.
Washington, D.C. 20548

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