Opinion ID: 358776
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: Absolute Positions on NEPA Applicability

Text: 13 The plaintiffs' position is simple and logical. NEPA requires all agencies of the Federal Government to prepare an EIS to accompany every recommendation or report on proposals for legislation . . . significantly affecting the quality of the human environment. 17 The EIS guidelines of CEQ, the body established by NEPA to implement that statute, defines an  action subject to the EIS requirement: 14 Actions include but are not limited to: 15 (1) Recommendations or favorable reports relating to legislation including requests for appropriations. 18 16 The other prerequisite of an EIS requirement, that the action significantly affect the environment, has been given a broad reading in favor of obtaining the benefits of an EIS in instances of borderline environmental significance. 19 Thus, according to the plaintiffs, an EIS is required in connection with the FWS's budget proposal for funding the upcoming fiscal year's operation of a program with great environmental significance, the NWRS. 20 17 The defendants counter that the FWS's proposal to OMB is only an intermediate step in the budget process and that only the actual Budget submitted by the President could be considered a proposal for legislation, and that this presidential submission would be the earliest action possibly triggering NEPA. 21 Defendants deny that NEPA imposes any obligation on OMB in its preparation of the Budget; they rely on the confidentiality of the budget process, See 31 U.S.C. §§ 15, 24; and they claim that OMB and FWS are not agencies either within the meaning of the Administrative Procedure Act, 5 U.S.C. § 551(1), or under NEPA when they are acting as advisers and staff assistants to the President in making his Budget. 18 A similar issue has arisen in connection with the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA), 5 U.S.C. § 552, and its applicability to entities within the Executive Office of the President. In Soucie v. David, 145 U.S.App.D.C. 144, 448 F.2d 1067 (1971), without deciding whether the APA definition of agency includes the President, we held the Office of Science and Technology (OST) to be an agency based on congressional understanding of its role assigned by the reorganization plan in which it was created and in which its position was equated to the Budget Bureau. 22 Congress added a definition of agency in the 1974 FOIA amendments to include: 19 . . . or other establishment in the executive branch of the Government (including the Executive Office of the President) . . . 23 20 The legislative history makes it clear that Congress adopted the Soucie result. The Conference Report states: 21 With respect to the meaning of the term Executive Office of the President the conferees intend the result reached in Soucie v. David, 448 F.2d 1067 (C.A.D.C.1971). The term is not to be interpreted as including the President's immediate personal staff or units in the Executive Office whose sole function is to advise and assist the President. 24 22 Preparation of the Budget is an aid to Congress as well as an instrument of presidential policymaking and control over the executive bureaucracy. OMB has a statutory duty to prepare the Budget, in addition to its multitudinous other management, coordination, and administrative functions. 25 Congress signified the importance of OMB's power and function, over and above its role as presidential advisor, when it provided, also by amendment in 1974, for Senate confirmation of the Director and Deputy Director of OMB. 26 Thus, OMB is not totally exempt from the FOIA by its definition of agency. We are equally convinced that OMB is not exempt by definition from NEPA. Exactly what NEPA requires of OMB in the budget process in general is not presented on this appeal and awaits OMB's response to the district court's declaratory judgment that it is OMB's function, at least in the first instance, to delineate the appropriate scope of a NEPA obligation that would be both feasible and meaningful. 23 We now turn to the question of what NEPA requires, annually or occasionally, in connection with decisions about the operation of the NWRS.