13. Environmental Protection Agency · Major
Eliminate the Office of Enforcement and Compliance Assistance
Printed page 421 13. Environmental Protection Agency
“Returning the enforcement and compliance function to the media offices (air, water, land, and emergency management, etc.) and eliminating the stand-alone Office of Enforcement and Compliance Assistance, which has created a mismatch between standard-setting and implementation.”
What has happened
- Not started
OECA still exists: EPA's July 2025 reorganization realigned it (ten organizational units eliminated, business functions centralized, non-enforcement functions moved out) rather than dissolving it or returning enforcement to the media offices, and the agency organization chart updated 2026-01-08 lists the Office of Enforcement and Compliance Assurance as a headquarters office.
- EPA Announces Next Phase of Organizational Improvements … (2025-07-17: "changes to OECA … re-aligning enforcement with the law" — the office realigned, not dissolved)
- EPA FY2026 Congressional Justification addendum, Consolidation and Reorganization — OECA section: consolidation, "eliminating 10 organizational units", enforcement function retained
- EPA organization chart (updated 2026-01-08) — Office of Enforcement and Compliance Assurance listed as a headquarters office
Research log
What was searched, and what didn’t count as evidence
Research notes
- What happened instead of the ask is Evidence on the not started event above, because action against or beside an ask is shown with its citation: EPA realigned OECA rather than dissolving it or returning enforcement to the media offices. Held at not started, not attempted, because cutting units inside an office is not a step toward abolishing the office — the same reading applied to the FNS→FNA rename at #802.
- Negative search (2026-08-27): among the Federal Register documents we keep and search, including the notices, there is no EPA reorganization notice. The March 2025 “31 actions” list includes “enforcement discretion redirection” — a policy change, not a structural one.
- Action
- eliminate
- Object
- Office of Enforcement and Compliance Assistance
- ID
- 1044