Summary: The Clean Air Act, last reauthorized and amended by the Congress in 1990, provides for several related programs designed to protect health and control air pollution. The Clean Air Act Amendments of 1990 established new programs and made major changes in the ways that air pollution is controlled. The amendments require the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to take several steps and specify a deadline for many of them. Most of these requirements are found in the amendments' first six titles; EPA has identified 538 such requirements, 361 of which have a statutory deadline. The amendments also set deadlines for states and local air pollution control agencies to respond to the rules promulgated by EPA. This report (1) provides information on the status of EPA's implementation of the requirements established by the 1990 amendments and (2) obtains views from state governments, local programs, industries that are regulated under the act, and environmental advocacy groups on issues that have either helped or hindered the implementation of the 1990 amendments. This testimony summarizes the April 2000 report GAO/RCED-00-72.
