Good - too many offices spread around. From Utility DIVE:
Is the EPA shutting down its Chicago office?
Dive Brief:
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- Budget cuts at the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency could mean closure of the Chicago regional office, according to the Chicago Sun Times. The office would be consolidated with operations in Kansas, the paper reported.
- A second regional closure is reportedly planned, but so far the identity of that office remains under wraps. Last month the Trump administration released a proposed budget called for reducing EPA funds by more than 30%, alongside a 6% cut at the Department of Energy.
- However, EPA officials are now pushing back on the rumor, telling reporters "at this time, our discussions have not veered into the subject of an office closure."
Dive Insight:
Last month's revelation that the White House wants to slash the EPA budget by almost a third sent a shock through the industry, and now details are leaking out about how those cuts might be accomplished. The Chicago Sun Times says EPA's Region 5 office is on the chopping block; it serves Illinois, Indiana, Michigan, Minnesota, Ohio, Wisconsin and 35 Native American tribes.
A couple of things: the states of Illinois, Indiana, Michigan, Minnesota, Ohio, Wisconsin and the 35 Native American tribes are not going to be without representation, this representation is just going to move from Chicago - a very corrupt and expensive city for business - to somewhere in Kansas. This is about a five hundred mile move - not catastrophic and what with email and Skype, relocating an office should not be any major headache if everyone is operating efficiently.
The basic problem is that our government has grown way to large in the last 100 years starting with Woodrow Wilson through L. B. Johnson (Lyin' Bastard), Nixon, Carter and Obama. Our government is not financially sustainable and we need to either cut spending or come to grips with the fact that we are passing a crushing debt on to the next several generations - our children.
There are some people who need the social safety nets - it is needed. Fraud and gaming the system? Not so much. What gets me is the massive duplication of effort from multiple agencies in the government as well as the huge number of programs that were founded on something that sounded good as opposed to something that actually works.
When was the last time you ever heard a bureaucrat say this:
The work we set out to do has been completed successfully, let us all have dinner at a really nice restaurant and then tell the Federal Government that we are no longer needed.
I rest my case...
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