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Personnel • Review OGC resources to consider reorganization of other attorney functions and leadership for consolidation into a Cross-Cutting Issues Law Office.

• Review telework policies and attorneys with permanent duty stations not at EPA headquarters or a regional office.

• Consider invoking the rotation of SES managers within OGC and ORCs to other EPA offices where appropriate.

• Monitor all external communications conveying a legal position.

• Donotallow public events at which the agency puts forth its legal position unless they are specifically approved (for example, agency webinars on sensitive issues).

Budget OGC’s budget will increase with consolidation of FTE funding that follows attorneys who come from other EPA offices.

• Reassess duplicative skill sets with the consolidation and allow for attrition if needed.

• Consider allocated resources for regional recruiting to increase geographic diversity from law schools from each state.

OFFICE OF MISSION SUPPORT (OMS)

OMS leads the agency’s core mission support functions to improve efficiency, coordination, and customer experience for internal customers, stakeholders, and the public, including protection of EPA’s facilities and other critical assets nationwide, acquisition activities (contracts), grants management, human capital, information technology, and information management activities.

Grant Reform

EPA now awards up to $30 billion in grants annually—up to half of the agency’s annual budget. Of these funds, $500 million is awarded as discretionary. This grantmaking—discretionary and otherwise—is driven by ideology instead of need. Of particular concern is a practice whereby numerous small-dollar grants are administered to a great number of grantees while larger grants are given to academic institutions. As a result, grant funds produce little to no meaningful improvements in the environment and public health and instead fund questionably