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The evaluation, in a fashion consistent with current OMB PART requirements, should focus on three key questions:
1. Is the Habitat Program investing in the right areas to fulfill its mandates?
2. Are the Habitat Program efforts effective in achieving program goals/objectives?
3. How can the Habitat Program improve its effectiveness in fulfilling its goals/objectives?
Bruce McDowell
F. Stevens Redburn-Chair*
Consultant, National Academy of Public Administration. Former Chief, Housing Branch, U.S. Office of Management and Budget; Economist, Special Studies, U.S. Office of Management and Budget; Program Analyst, Office of Policy Development and Research, U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development; Director, Center for Urban Studies, Youngstown State University.
Daniel Fiorino*
Director, Performance Incentives Division, Office of Policy, Economics and Innovation, U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. Former positions with U.S. Environmental Protection Agency: Director, Waste and Chemical Policy Division; Associate Director, Office of Policy Analysis; Senior Policy Advisor to the Assistant Administrator for Policy, Planning, and Evaluation; Director, Information and Regulatory Systems Division; Chief, Regulation Management Staff, Standards and Regulations Division; Analyst Regulatory Reform Staff, Standards and Regulations Divisions.
Jeff Benoit
President , Restore America’s Estuaries. Former Director, NOAA Ocean Service, Office of Coastal and Resource Management. Mr. Benoit brings extensive knowledge and experience with NOAA costal enterprise activities and a variety of issues including habitat.
Disclosure statement of Jeff Benoit: First, I am potentially participating in this panel as an individual. I have an extensive background in coastal management, coastal habitat restoration policy, and state and federal government experience (including eight years at NOAA). I have also participated in many programmatic reviews including one for the National Sea Grant Office (Wisconsin Program) and two committees of the National Academies of Science, Ocean Studies Board (Chaired one committee).
Concerning potential conflict of interest, I offer the following disclosures:
1. I am currently the President and CEO of Restore America’s Estuaries (RAE), a 501(C) 3 organization based in Arlington, VA. RAE is composed of 11 local and regional conservation organizations located in coastal areas around the country. The mission of RAE is to preserve the nation’s network of estuaries by protecting and restoring the lands and waters. Funding for our work is supported through private donations, Foundation grants, and Federal agency grants. Part of the Federal agency support RAE receives is an annual grant from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, Community-based Restoration Program, under a three-year Partnership Agreement. The majority of the grant funds are re-granted to our 11 member groups to conduct restoration projects. A small portion of the grant funds cover basic administrative costs that RAE incurs, including a small portion of my salary.
2. RAE receives the NOAA funds through an annual application process, competing with many other entities. I am not involved in any aspect of ranking or rating of any of these applications, nor am I involved with any decisions regarding the re-granting of the funds to our member groups.
RAE actively works within NOAA and on Capitol Hill to support annual budget increases for NOAA restoration programs.
Emily Woglom
Senior Marine Policy Advisor, The Nature Conservancy. Former Office of Management and Budget examiner for the habitat program. Ms. Woglom brings extensive knowledge of the NOAA coastal and habitat enterprise as well as important linkages to TNC. In addition, she brings extensive knowledge and experience with OMB’s Program Assessment Rating Tool.
Disclosure statement of Emily Woglom: My current employer is The Nature Conservancy (TNC), a non-profit organization with a mission to preserve the plants, animals and natural communities that represent the diversity of life on Earth by protecting the lands and waters they need to survive. TNC has a cooperative agreement with the NOAA Restoration Center, an office that is part of the Habitat Matrix program. Through this cooperative agreement, TNC receives roughly $600,000 - $800,000 annually, from the Community-based Restoration and the Open Rivers Initiative programs combined. TNC then works with the Restoration Center to request proposals and competitively select projects for funding. TNC offices, as well as outside parties, are eligible to receive project awards. Additional project funding for match is provided by TNC. The cooperative agreement is a competitively awarded, 3 year agreement. As a member of The Nature Conservancy’s US Government Relations team I play a role in facilitating and maintaining the relationship between TNC and the NOAA Restoration Center. In addition, individual TNC chapters may also apply for other funds made available through the NOAA Habitat programs. I have not been, nor do I plan on being involved in reviewing, scoring, or approving competitive proposals under the TNC - NOAA Habitat partnership.
In my current job as Senior Policy Advisor for marine issues at TNC, I routinely provide testimony and express TNC opinions to Congress and the Administration. These statements and testimony can and have included recommendations for funding for NOAA Habitat programs as well as other recommendations for changes in program execution. These statements represent TNC’s interests in these programs as they may affect our partnerships with NOAA and the funding and execution of TNC projects. If I serve on the panel, I would be representing myself and not TNC.
The Nature Conservancy has signed on to an agreement between PPL Corporation, the U.S. Department of Interior’s Bureau of Indian Affairs, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, and National Park Service; Penobscot Indian Nation; American Rivers; Atlantic Salmon Federation; Natural Resources Council of Maine; Trout Unlimited; the State of Maine and Maine Audubon. The agreement sets out the terms for a reconfiguration of hydropower and restoration of diadromous fish habitat in the Penobscot River watershed. To date the partners involved in this project have secured approximately $15 million in federal funding for the restoration project, including $10 million through the NOAA Habitat program in FY 2008. This funding was included in the President's Budget for FY 2008, when I was the OMB program examiner for the NOAA accounts, and subsequently appropriated by Congress. TNC along with it's partners continue to seek federal funding and involvement from the NOAA Restoration Center to complete the project. I am actively engaged in lobbying Congress for funding and support for this project and NOAA's involvement in it.
In addition, because of my work on the Penobscot River Restoration Project while a program examiner at OMB, I have ethics constraints that prevent me from "representing" to executive branch employees on this project. As such I cannot meet with or communicate with NOAA, or other agency officials or staff on matters related to this particular effort.
Mid-stream
Meeting 1: June 6, 2008 (Meeting open to public)
Meeting 2: September 3, 2008 (Meeting open to public)
Jonathan Tucker
Senior Research Analyst
jtucker@napawash.org
(202) 204-3649
* Academy Fellow
¹ EA Engineering Science and Technology is serving as the funding mechanism for the transfer of funds for this project.
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