Superfund: Proposals to Remove Barriers to Brownfield Redevelopment

GAO discussed the Senate Committee on Environment and Public Works' efforts to support the cleanup and redevelopment of abandoned and idled business properties, commonly known as "brownfields", focusing on: (1) legal barriers that the Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation and Liability Act, commonly known as Superfund, present for redeveloping brownfields; (2) types of federal financial support that states and localities would like to help them address such properties; and (3) how liability and funding provisions in two legislative proposals pending before Congress respond to the legal barriers and funding needs identified in GAO's work.