Order Code 97-97 ENR
Updated April 13, 2004
CRS Report for Congress
Received through the CRS Web
National Environmental Education Act of 1990:
Overview, Implementation, and
Reauthorization Issues
David M. Bearden
Analyst in Environmental Policy
Resources, Science, and Industry Division
Summary
The National Environmental Education Act of 1990 (P.L. 101-619) established a
program within the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to increase public
understanding of the environment. The program awards grants for developing
environmental curricula and training teachers, supports fellowships to encourage the
pursuit of environmental professions, selects individuals for environmental awards, and
sponsors workshops and conferences. Although the funding authorization expired in
FY1996, Congress has continued to appropriate funding since then without enacting
reauthorizing legislation. In recent years, annual appropriations for the program have
remained steady at around $9 million in total funding to support grants and other
program activities, and administrative expenses such as personnel costs and benefits.
While Congress has continued to appropriate funding for EPA’s environmental
education program, the Bush Administration did not request any funding to continue the
program in its budget proposals for FY2003, FY2004, and FY2005. In response to
widespread state and local support for the program’s continuance, Congress reinstated
its funding in FY2003 and FY2004. The Bush Administration’s proposal to eliminate
funding for the program once again may spark debate in the appropriations process for
FY2005. In addition to appropriations, reauthorization may also be addressed. Among
the key issues is whether specific criteria are needed to ensure that environmental
education activities supported by EPA are based on “sound science.” This report will
be updated periodically.
Introduction
The Environmental Education Act of 1970 (P.L. 91-516) established an Office of
Environmental Education in the Department of Health, Education, and Welfare to award
grants for developing environmental curricula and training teachers. Congress moved the
office to the newly formed Department of Education in 1979. However, in response to
the Reagan Administration’s efforts to transfer the federal role in many programs to the
Congressional Research Service ˜ The Library of Congress

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states, Congress eliminated the Office of Environmental Education in 1981. Several
years later, the 101st Congress enacted the National Environmental Education Act of 1990
(P.L. 101-619) to renew the federal role in environmental education and reestablish an
office of environmental education within EPA. In the law’s findings, the 101st Congress
stated that existing federal programs to educate the public about environmental problems
and train environmental professionals were inadequate and that increasing the federal role
in this area was therefore necessary.
EPA is authorized to work with educational institutions, nonprofit organizations, the
private sector, tribal governments, and state and local environmental agencies to educate
the public about environmental problems and encourage students to pursue environmental
careers. Environmental education involves learning ecological concepts to understand
the relation between human behavior and environmental quality, and developing the
knowledge and skills to analyze environmental problems and create solutions. The goal
of EPA’s environmental education program is to increase public knowledge about
environmental issues and provide the public with the skills necessary to make informed
decisions and take responsible actions to protect the environment. The program supports
activities to achieve these goals primarily through the awarding of grants. Since the
beginning of the program in FY1992, EPA has awarded grants for environmental
education projects in each of the 50 states, the District of Columbia, and U.S. territories
for teacher training, the purchase of textbooks, the development of curricula, and other
educational activities.
This report presents an overview of the National Environmental Education Act of
1990, discusses appropriations, examines EPA’s implementation of the law, and analyzes
key issues for reauthorization.
Appropriations
The funding authorization for EPA’s environmental education program expired at
the end of FY1996. However, Congress has funded it since then without enacting
reauthorizing legislation. Congress first appropriated $6.5 million for the program when
it was established in FY1992. Since that time, appropriations have remained around $7
million annually for grants and other program activities, excluding administrative
expenses such as personnel costs and benefits. Total funding has been higher than $7
million annually when these expenses are accounted for, at a steady level of about $9
million in recent years, including FY2004.
Departing from past congressional support, the President’s FY2005 budget request
does not include any funding for EPA’s environmental education program. The Office
of Management and Budget (OMB) gave the program a “Results Not Demonstrated”
rating as part of its government-wide assessment of federal programs. OMB indicated
that the absence of performance metrics for activities supported by grant awards made it
difficult to determine whether the program was achieving its goal of improving the
quality of environmental education. The Administration has used OMB’s rating as the
primary justification for its proposal to eliminate funding. The Administration also did
not request any funding for this program in FY2003 and FY2004, due to similar
arguments that the effectiveness of the program was questionable.

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Advocates of the program have pointed out that there have been long-standing
disagreements among educators about how to evaluate the quality of education in general,
and that the lack of performance metrics for educational activities is not unique to EPA’s
grant program. Such critics counter the Administration’s characterization of the
program’s effectiveness by arguing that grant awards have had a positive impact on a
national level with a small amount of funding relative to EPA’s total budget, and that the
program therefore should be continued. The activities supported by these grants have
generated significant state and local support. In response to state and local concern about
the proposed elimination of the program, Congress reinstated its funding during the
appropriations process for FY2003 and FY2004 with broad bipartisan support.
Overview and Implementation
The National Environmental Education Act authorizes EPA to award grants for
developing environmental curricula and training teachers, support fellowships to
encourage the pursuit of environmental professions, and select individuals for
environmental awards.1 EPA also consults with the Environmental Education Advisory
Council and the Federal Task Force on Environmental Education in conducting the above
activities and coordinating its efforts with related federal programs. In addition to these
activities, the law established a nonprofit foundation to encourage cooperation between
the public and private sectors to support environmental education. Each of these
activities is discussed below.
Office of Environmental Education. Section 4 of the law directed EPA to
establish an office of environmental education to implement programs authorized under
the law and coordinate its activities with related federal programs. EPA established the
Environmental Education Division within the Office of Communications, Education, and
Public Affairs to perform these functions.
Environmental Education and Training Program. EPA developed the
Environmental Education and Training Program to train education professionals to
develop and teach environmental curricula. Section 5 of the law directs EPA to award
an annual grant to a higher educational institution or nonprofit organization to operate the
program under a multiple-year agreement. The law requires EPA to reserve 25% of the
annual funding for its environmental education program to support the Environmental
Education and Training Program. Teachers, administrators, and related staff of
educational institutions as well as staff of state and local environmental agencies, tribal
governments, and nonprofit organizations are eligible to participate. The University of
Wisconsin at Stevens Point has been implementing this training program, under
agreement with EPA, since October 2000.
Environmental Education Grants. The Environmental Education Grant
Program supports activities that develop environmental curricula, study environmental
problems, train teachers, and foster environmental cooperation between the United States,
Canada, and Mexico. Educational institutions, state and local environmental agencies,
tribal governments, and nonprofit organizations are eligible for these grants. Section 6
of the law requires EPA to reserve at least 38% of the total funding for environmental
1 For additional information, refer to EPA’s website at [http://www.epa.gov/enviroed].

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education to support the grant program. The law limits a single grant to $250,000 and
reserves 25% of the grants for smaller amounts of $5,000 or less. A grant cannot exceed
75% of the cost to implement a proposed project.
Since FY1992, EPA has awarded almost $33 million in grants for environmental
education projects in all 50 states, the District of Columbia, and U.S. territories. Grant
recipients have provided more than $10 million in matching funds, and in some cases,
have reported matching funds that exceed individual grant awards. The competition for
grant awards has historically been stiff due to funding limitations. In recent years, EPA
has had the resources to award grants to about 20% of those who applied. In FY2003,
EPA selected over 175 recipients for a total of nearly $2.8 million in grant awards. EPA
issued a solicitation notice for FY2004 grant awards on November 12, 2003 (68 FR
64252), and accepted grant proposals through January 6, 2004. EPA traditionally
announces the grant recipients the following summer.
Environmental Fellowships. With authority provided under Section 7 of the
law, EPA administers the National Network for Environmental Management Studies to
encourage post-secondary students to pursue environmental careers. Students work with
an environmental professional at EPA on a specific project or conduct university research
under EPA’s direction. Since 1992, EPA has awarded approximately 100 fellowships
annually to students at more than 400 participating universities.
Environmental Education Awards. Section 8 of the law created four national
awards to recognize outstanding contributions to environmental education and training.
EPA announced the first recipients in 1993. The awards commemorate Theodore
Roosevelt for teaching, Henry David Thoreau for literature, Rachael Carson for
communications media, and Gifford Pinchot for natural resources management. EPA
also administers the Presidential Environmental Youth Awards Program to recognize
outstanding projects that promote local environmental awareness. Elementary and high
school students are eligible to compete annually. EPA selects a winner in each of its 10
regions. The recipients receive national recognition from the President and Vice
President of the United States and the EPA Administrator.
Environmental Education Advisory Council and Federal Task Force on
Environmental Education. EPA established an Environmental Education Advisory
Council and a Federal Task Force on Environmental Education under Section 9 of the
law. The council consists of 11 members representing a diverse range of public and
private expertise in environmental education and training. The council consults with
EPA and reports to Congress every two years on the quality of environmental education,
the implementation of the act, and its recommendations to improve environmental
education and training. The council has met at least once annually since 1992. The task
force coordinates EPA’s environmental education and training activities with related
federal programs. EPA chairs the task force, and its members have included
representatives from the Departments of Agriculture, Education, Energy, Health and
Human Services, and Interior, the National Aeronautics and Space Administration, the
National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, and the National Science Foundation.
The task force has met at least once annually since 1991.
National Environmental Education and Training Foundation. The
National Environmental Education and Training Foundation encourages cooperation

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between the public and private sectors to support environmental education and training.
Section 10 of the law established the foundation as a private, nonprofit organization with
a board of 13 directors who are responsible for insuring that its activities adhere to EPA’s
policies. The foundation operates several priority programs that focus on public health,
safe drinking water, business and the environment, communications, conservation, and
educational excellence in environmental fields of study. The foundation also awards
competitive challenge grants to encourage innovative non-federal activities in
environmental education and presents National Environmental Education Achievement
Awards to honor outstanding and scientifically accurate environmental education
programs. Additionally, the foundation supports annual research projects which examine
the public’s perception, awareness, and action regarding the environment, pollution
control regulations, and personal responsibility. The law requires EPA to reserve 10%
of the environmental education program’s annual funding to award a non-competitive
grant to help support the foundation’s activities.
Key Issues for Reauthorization
Although Members of Congress have broadly supported environmental education
on a bipartisan basis, there has been a continuing controversy at the local level over its
role in the classroom. There appears to be general consensus that educating students in
the ecological sciences and examining the potential impacts of human behavior on the
environment is appropriate for instruction. However, some critics argue that certain
textbooks and curricula misinform students by advocating specific measures to address
environmental problems, or by presenting unbalanced or scientifically inaccurate data on
particular topics.
The funding guidelines that EPA has developed for its environmental education
activities do not recommend a specific course of action or advocate a particular
viewpoint, and lobbying or political activities are designated as activities that are
ineligible for funding. However, the National Environmental Education Act does not
include specific criteria to insure that activities funded by EPA adhere to these guidelines,
nor does it include requirements for supported activities to be based on objective and
scientifically accurate information. The development of such criteria and requirements
has been a prominent consideration in past debate over the reauthorization of the law.
Thus far in the 108th Congress, legislation to reauthorize EPA’s environmental
education program has not been introduced. In each Congress from the 104th to the 107th,
reauthorization legislation has been considered, but not enacted. Most recently, two
reauthorization bills were considered during the 107th Congress (H.R. 1 as passed by the
Senate and S. 876 as introduced). Both bills would have authorized funding through
FY2007 and amended various aspects of the program. Both bills also would have
addressed the issue of whether environmental education activities are balanced and based
on scientifically accurate information by limiting funding eligibility to activities that are
“objective and scientifically sound,” although neither bill specified criteria to determine
how an activity would have met this requirement.

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