Bush Supports Move to Elevate EPA to Cabinet : Environment: Backers say that the change will enhance the agency’s influence. Lawmakers hope to have the bill to the President by Earth Day.

WASHINGTON--President Bush endorsed legislation Wednesday that would make the Environmental Protection Agency the 15th Cabinet-level department, and leaders of the drive told him they hope to have a bill ready for his signature by the April 22 observance of Earth Day.

Speaking at a news conference one day after the legislation was introduced in both the House and Senate, Bush told reporters he had concluded that environmental issues “are so important that they must be addressed at the highest level of government.”

His endorsement reflected a turnaround from his initial opposition to expanding the Cabinet.

The move is expected to have overwhelming support within Congress and the environmental community. Although the change would be largely symbolic, supporters said it would enhance the influence of the environmental agency and its administrator.

“The President’s endorsement means that the bill will now speed through the Congress,” said Fred Krupp, executive director of the Environmental Defense Fund. “It has symbolic importance, certainly, but it is also substantive. By giving the EPA administrator a seat at the Cabinet table, there will be an environmental voice that will create a different kind of Cabinet dynamic.”

Sen. John Glenn (D-Ohio), a principal sponsor of the Senate bill, had been discussing the measure with Bush since last June in an effort to get the President’s endorsement.

The measure has bipartisan sponsorship in both houses of Congress. Sen. William V. Roth Jr. (R-Del.) joined Glenn in introducing the Senate version, and Reps. John Conyers Jr. (D-Mich.) and Mike Synar (D-Okla.) joined Frank Horton (R-N.Y.) and William F. Clinger Jr. (R-Pa.) in offering a similar measure in the House.

The EPA was created during a surge of public interest in environmental issues in 1970. After languishing during the early years of the Ronald Reagan Administration, the agency has come to exercise powerful influence as a watchdog and enforcer of clean air and water laws.

EPA Administrator William K. Reilly often has attended meetings of the Bush Cabinet and has operated as a de facto member of the Administration’s top policy councils.

Supporters of the legislation said official Cabinet membership will mean that environmental considerations will be addressed sooner in national policy discussions and budget decisions.

In addition, they said, the EPA will be positioned to deal more effectively with other government agencies, such as the Department of Energy, with which it has significant conflicts.

Sources said the elevation probably would not result in a significant expansion of the agency or its functions. And while Bush’s endorsement was warmly received, some lawmakers were quick to note that the step in itself would mean little unless the administrative rearrangement is accompanied by vigorous environmental policy.

“It’s not enough to just pull an extra chair to the Cabinet table,” said Sen. Albert Gore Jr. (D-Tenn). “This Administration has to prove this represents a substantive commitment to policy action, not just a new decorator at the White House.”

The legislation would make the EPA the 15th Cabinet agency, joining the departments of Agriculture, Commerce, Defense, Education, Energy, Health and Human Services, Housing and Urban Development, Interior, Justice, Labor, State, Transportation, Treasury and Veteran’s Affairs.

In addition to making the EPA a Cabinet-level department, the Glenn-Roth bill would create a Bureau of Environmental Statistics to collect, coordinate and resolve conflicts in environmental data and establish an interagency committee on global environmental change.