Environmental Protection: Collaborative EPA-State Effort Needed to Improve Performance Partnership System

Pursuant to a congressional request, GAO discussed the National Environmental Performance Partnership System (NEPPS), focusing on: (1) grants and agreements made under NEPPS between the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and states; (2) progress that EPA and the states have made in developing results-oriented performance measures to be incorporated into NEPPS agreements and grants to the states; (3) how EPA oversight may or may not have been changing in states that were participating in NEPPS; and (4) the extent to which the use of these performance partnership agreements and grants had achieved the benefits envisioned for the states and the public.