Opinion ID: 390180
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 4

Heading: Participation of Assistant Administrator Hawkins

Text: 111 LIA argues that the lead standards must be invalidated because of the participation of EPA Assistant Administrator David Hawkins in the rulemaking proceedings. Hawkins is head of EPA's Office of Air, Noise, and Radiation. In that capacity he supervised development of the lead (and other) air quality standards and formally recommended adoption of the 1.5 ug Pb/m 3 standard to the Administrator. 122 Before he joined EPA Hawkins was a staff attorney with the Natural Resources Defense Council, Inc. (NRDC). 123 LIA alleges that while at NRDC Hawkins was very much involved in the lead standard issue as an attorney for NRDC, and in this capacity represented NRDC on the lead standard issue    before Congress and the National Air Quality Advisory Committee   . 124 And it contends that because of this prior involvement Hawkins should have been disqualified from participating in the lead standards rulemaking proceedings under the well-established rule that a government official may not participate in a matter in which he earlier participated in a representative or investigative capacity either within or without the agency. 125 Citing this court's decision in Amos Treat & Co. v. SEC, 306 F.2d 260 (D.C.Cir.1962), 126 LIA argues that Hawkins' participation in the rulemaking proceedings violated its right to due process. In addition, LIA contends that Hawkins' participation deprived the lead standards proceedings of the appearance of fairness which this court in the Amos Treat case described as essential to the administrative process. The only appropriate remedy, in LIA's view, is for this court to vacate and remand the lead standards to EPA for further consideration without the participation of Assistant Administrator Hawkins. 112 Petitioner's objection to Hawkins' participation in the lead standards rulemaking faces a threshold obstacle which LIA must surmount before we can consider the merits of its claim. Section 307(d)(7)(B) of the Act, 42 U.S.C. § 7607(d)(7)(B), provides that (o)nly an objection to a rule or procedure which was raised with reasonable specificity during the period for public comment (including any public hearing) may be raised during judicial review. Exceptions to this requirement are permitted if the objection concerns an issue that was of central relevance to the outcome of the rule, and if it was impracticable to raise the objection during the comment period or if the grounds for the objection only arose after the comment period had expired. Id. LIA did not raise the issue of Hawkins' disqualification until after the final regulations had been promulgated. It first brought the matter to the Administrator's attention on December 8, 1978, two months after the final regulations were published in the Federal Register, when it raised the issue in its Petition for Reconsideration and Stay of the order adopting the final lead air quality standards. 127 113 LIA presents a number of arguments in support of its view that its failure to present its objections to Hawkins' participation during the public comment period as required by statute should not preclude this court from considering the merits of the claim. First, it denies it was aware of any grounds for Hawkins' disqualification until November 27, 1978, when a newspaper reported that Hawkins was recusing himself from participating in an EPA decision concerning listing of arsenic as a hazardous pollutant under Section 112 of the Act, 42 U.S.C. § 7412. 128 Noting that the general rule governing disqualification requires such claims to be raised as soon as practicable after a party has reasonable cause to believe that grounds for disqualification exist, Marcus v. Director, Office of Wkrs' Comp. Programs, 548 F.2d 1044, 1051 (D.C.Cir.1976), LIA argues that its conduct satisfied this test since its Petition for Reconsideration was filed two weeks after the newspaper report was published. In addition, it suggests that its challenge to Hawkins' participation falls within the statutory exemption for objections that arose after the public comment period. Second, LIA contends that the issues raised by Hawkins' participation in the proceedings are of sufficient importance to invoke this court's inherent jurisdiction and responsibility to decide whether there occurred here such an inroad upon the integrity of the decisional function of the independent agency as to require the court sua sponte to set aside the whole or any part of the regulations. American Public Gas Ass'n v. 114 1 (30) Taking petitioner's last argument first, we find LIA simply wrong in suggesting that Section 307(d)(9)(B), in allowing the court to set aside agency actions which violate constitutional rights, somehow releases it from the obligation to present its constitutional claims to the Agency in timely fashion, as specified by the Act. By the very terms of the statute Section 307(d)(7)(B)'s timeliness requirement applies to all objections, not just nonconstitutional challenges. Moreover, LIA's interpretation of the statute would give parties to Clean Air Act proceedings a powerful weapon for delaying and sandbagging Agency action. They could simply refrain from presenting their constitutional objections to the Agency's action until after the Agency had announced its final decision, then raise the issue before the reviewing court and obtain a reversal of the Agency's decision, and thereby compel the Agency to institute new proceedings. It is difficult to believe that a Congress that has expressed concern about the need for expeditious attainment of the goals of the Clean Air Act 130 would give parties affected by regulations issued under the Act such a potent weapon for delaying Agency action. Furthermore, LIA seriously misconstrues the decision in Porter v. Califano, supra, if it interprets it as suggesting that a litigant may present his constitutional objection to a reviewing court after failing to bring it to the Agency's attention in timely fashion. The Fifth Circuit's statement that the intent of Congress    was that courts should make an independent assessment of a citizen's claim of constitutional right when reviewing agency decision-making, 592 F.2d at 780, merely acknowledges that a reviewing court owes no deference to the agency's pronouncement on a constitutional question. It in no way suggests that a litigant who neglected to present his constitutional claim to the administrative agency in timely fashion may not be precluded from raising it before the reviewing court. 131 Accordingly, LIA's objection to Assistant Administrator Hawkins' participation in the lead standards rulemaking is properly before this court only if one of petitioner's other two arguments succeeds in preserving the challenge. 115 1 In connection with LIA's claim that it first had cause to believe Hawkins should have been disqualified after the final regulations had been published, it is important to note that LIA appears to advance two theories in support of its view that Hawkins' participation in the rulemaking was improper. Both theories are founded on a suggestion that Hawkins may have been biased. First, LIA invokes the doctrine of conflict of interest, pointing out that NRDC was responsible for the litigation which forced the Administrator to list lead as a Section 108 pollutant, and that NRDC was a participant in the lead standards rulemaking. 132 Under this theory the mere fact of Hawkins' past position with NRDC a participant in the proceedings would allegedly justify the inference of bias. Second, LIA makes much of the allegation that Hawkins himself had been very much involved in the lead standards issue while he was employed at NRDC and had represented NRDC in the matter. While it is possible to construe this claim as further support for LIA's conflict of interest charge, it also seems to suggest that LIA believes Hawkins' prior involvement with the lead standards raises a prejudgment question. Bias theoretically could be demonstrated under this theory by pointing to specific conduct on Hawkins' part that reveals he had made up his mind about the specific factual and legal issues raised by the standard-setting exercise before the rulemaking proceedings began. Although LIA makes little attempt to distinguish these theories, we believe they deserve separate consideration, and we conclude that only on the prejudgment claim can LIA surmount the threshold procedural barrier. 116 Accepting LIA's claim that Hawkins played a major role in EPA's decisionmaking, and assuming for the moment that LIA's allegation of conflict of interest can be sustained, we are unable to perceive any basis for LIA's suggestion that it could not have raised this issue with the Administrator during the public comment period. We must presume that LIA knew that NRDC was responsible for the litigation which led to the listing of lead as a Section 108 pollutant, if only because the preamble to the proposed lead standards specifically noted this fact. 133 Nor can LIA claim ignorance about Hawkins' involvement in the lead standards rulemaking at EPA. He was a member of the EPA panel that received testimony at the public hearings on the proposed standards, and he was specifically introduced as the Assistant Administrator for Air and Waste Management. 134 Representatives of LIA, including its counsel, were present at these hearings. Finally, it is reasonable to assume that LIA or any other group that was involved in Clean Air Act dealings with EPA knew that Hawkins had been employed by NRDC before he came to EPA. Thus LIA either knew or should have know about whatever possible conflict of interest problem may have been posed by Hawkins' participation in these proceedings before the comment period expired. Yet at no time during the two years that this rulemaking took place did LIA object to, or even ask any questions about, Hawkins' participation. If LIA really believed that Hawkins' participation raised a conflict of interest question, it would have raised the issue at the time. 135 Of course, it may be that LIA made a conscious tactical decision not to raise this question until after the rulemaking was completed, hoping to persuade the reviewing court to remand the standards to EPA and thereby delay the rulemaking. In any event, since LIA failed to present its conflict of interest claim to EPA in timely fashion, the statute precludes it from raising this issue before this court, and so we need not address the merits of LIA's conflict of interest theory. 136 117 To the extent that LIA's objection to Hawkins' participation in the lead standards rulemaking rests on a prejudgment theory, LIA's claim that it only became aware of the grounds for his disqualification after the final regulations were adopted is slightly more plausible. Thus, while even this claim is difficult to believe, 137 we have examined the merits of LIA's prejudgment argument. We conclude that in the circumstances presented by this case Hawkins' disqualification from the lead standards rulemaking is unwarranted. 118 First, nothing in the record indicates that Hawkins was involved with the particular issues raised in the lead standards rulemaking while he was at NRDC. In this connection it is important to spell out precisely what Hawkins' activities concerning lead were at NRDC. In the affidavit he filed with this court Hawkins affirms that he did not have any significant personal participation in NRDC's efforts to have EPA list lead as a Section 108 pollutant, including its judicial action against EPA, or any other NRDC activity that concerned lead. 138 Hawkins did represent NRDC at a meeting of the National Air Quality Advisory Committee held on November 14, 1974, when the NRDC lawyer responsible for the lead issue was unable to attend. 139 At this meeting he articulated NRDC's previously stated position that the Administrator was required to list lead as a Section 108 pollutant. 140 In addition, Hawkins testified on behalf of NRDC at a Senate Subcommittee hearing in 1975, and in his testimony referred to lead as an example of EPA's refusal to promulgate air quality standards for a pollutant even after the statutory criteria mandating a standard had been met. 141 This reference to the lead listing controversy was a small section of a prepared statement he read at the hearing, most of which dealt with the unrelated issue of possible amendments to the Act that would preempt state authority. 142 Hawkins resigned from NRDC before he joined EPA, and he never appeared in or in any way participated on NRDC's behalf in the EPA proceedings to establish air quality standards for lead. 119 This description of Hawkins' lead-related activities while at NRDC reveals two fatal deficiencies in LIA's objection to his participation in the lead standards rulemaking. First, LIA's contention that Hawkins was very much involved in the lead standards issue as an attorney for NRDC, 143 is a gross exaggeration. His articulation of NRDC's previously stated position on the lead listing controversy at two public forums hardly amounts to active involvement in this matter. Second, and more important, his testimony does not even come close to suggesting that Hawkins had prejudged the precise issues in this case because he never even adverted to them. Hawkins' statements addressed only the question whether the Act required EPA to list lead as a pollutant under Section 108, an issue that was ultimately resolved by the NRDC litigation. This question is entirely separate from the issues that were raised in the lead standards rulemaking. The former involved a narrow question of statutory interpretation whether or not the Administrator's function to list pollutants under Section 108 is mandatory once the conditions specified by the Act are satisfied. See Natural Resources Defense Council, Inc. v. Train, supra, 411 F.Supp. at 867. There were no factual issues in this controversy, since EPA conceded that it had made the factual determinations required by Section 108. Id. The lead standards rulemaking, on the other hand, was concerned with deciding the level at which air quality standards for lead should be set. While these proceedings also raised questions of statutory construction to be sure, of different provisions of the Act they primarily required decisions about policy and fact, most of which involved difficult scientific and technical questions 144 As such, the issues and administrative process involved in listing lead as a Section 108 pollutant are quite separate and different from the issues and process involved in setting ambient air quality standards for lead under Section 109. And any views that Hawkins may have held or expressed concerning the lead listing controversy provide no evidence of his having prejudged, or even having any prior involvement with, the issues that confronted him in the lead standards rulemaking. 145 120 LIA's inability to present any evidence to support a claim that Hawkins may have prejudged the precise factual and legal issues raised by the lead standards proceedings distinguishes this case from the prior involvement decisions of this and other circuits on which LIA relies. In Amos Treat & Co. v. SEC, supra, we ruled that it was improper for a member of the Commission to participate in an adjudicatory proceeding when, before he became a Commissioner, he had, as director of the Commission's Division of Corporate Finance, supervised the initiation and conduct of the investigation which resulted in the proceeding. 146 The court held that it was a violation of the notion of fair play inherent in due process for a member of an investigative or prosecuting staff (to) initiate an investigation, weigh its results, perhaps then recommend the filing of charges, and thereafter    participate in adjudicatory proceedings   . 306 F.2d at 266. And in American Cyanamid Co. v. FTC, 363 F.2d 757 (6th Cir. 1966), the Sixth Circuit disqualified Chairman Dixon of the FTC from an adjudicatory proceeding because he had previously served as Chief Counsel and Staff Director of a Senate Subcommittee which had conducted an investigation into many of the same legal and factual issues that were before the Commission. Significantly, the court's decision in that case was based on the depth of the Subcommittee's investigation of the precise factual issues which were presented in the proceedings before the Commission, the very active role Mr. Dixon had played in the conduct of the investigation, and the uncontroverted evidence in the record which indicated that he had formed conclusions about the particular factual issues that were before the Commission. 147 121 In both these cases the intimate involvement of the decisionmakers in the investigation of the same factual and legal issues they were then called upon to adjudicate made it inevitable for a disinterested observer to conclude that they had in some measure adjudged the facts as well as the law    in advance of hearing (the cases). Cinderella Career & Finishing Schools, Inc. v. FTC, 425 F.2d 583, 591 (D.C.Cir.1970) (emphasis added), quoting Gilligan, Will & Co. v. SEC, 267 F.2d 461, 469 (2d Cir.), cert. denied, 361 U.S. 896, 80 S.Ct. 200, 4 L.Ed.2d 152 (1959). 148 In contrast, Hawkins' only involvement with the lead listing controversy was his appearance as a spokesperson on a public issue at a public forum, and even this involvement appears to have been partly fortuitous. Nothing in his statements suggests that he had prejudged any of the legal questions that were presented by the lead standards rulemaking. More important, insofar as both Amos Treat and American Cyanamid require a showing that the decisionmaker had formed conclusions about the particular facts of the case, nothing in the record indicates that Hawkins had taken a position apparently inconsistent with an ability to judge the factual issues that had to be resolved in setting air quality standards for lead fairly. And there is most certainly nothing in the record which suggests that Hawkins had prejudged the issue of the level at which the air quality standards for lead should be set. Accordingly, we find no basis for requiring Hawkins' disqualification from the lead standards proceedings on prejudgment grounds. 149 122 To be sure, by publicly articulating NRDC's position that the Administrator was required to list lead as a Section 108 pollutant Hawkins may have advocated promulgation of air quality standards for lead, and such advocacy might appear to make his participation in the subsequent EPA proceeding to set the standards improper. The short answer to this view is that, according to the cases, a decisionmaker is (not) disqualified simply because he has taken a position, even in public, on a policy issue related to a dispute, in the absence of a showing that he is not 'capable of judging a particular controversy fairly on the basis of its own circumstances.'  Hortonville Joint School Dist. No. 1 v. Hortonville Education Ass'n, 426 U.S. 482, 493, 96 S.Ct. 2308, 2314, 49 L.Ed.2d 1 (1976), quoting United States v. Morgan, 313 U.S. 409, 421, 61 S.Ct. 999, 1004, 85 L.Ed. 1429 (1941). This test has been applied in deciding disqualification questions involving judges as well as administrative agency decisionmakers participating in adjudicatory proceedings. See, e.g. Laird v. Tatum, 409 U.S. 824, 831-836, 93 S.Ct. 7, 11-14, 34 L.Ed.2d 50 (memorandum of Rehnquist, J.); Antonello v. Wunsch, 500 F.2d 1260, 1262 (10th Cir. 1974); Goodpasture v. TVA, 434 F.2d 760, 765 (6th Cir. 1970); Knoll v. Socony Mobil Oil Co., 369 F.2d 425, 430 (10th Cir. 1966) (judges); FTC v. Cement Institute, 333 U.S. 683, 702-703, 68 S.Ct. 793, 804, 92 L.Ed. 1010 (1948); Carolina Environmental Study Group v. United States, 510 F.2d 796, 801 (D.C.Cir.1975); Corning Glass Works v. FTC, 509 F.2d 293, 303-304 (7th Cir. 1975); American Cyanamid Co. v. FTC, supra, 363 F.2d at 765-767 (agency decisionmakers). 123 The rule could hardly be otherwise, particularly with respect to administrative agencies which are created for the specific purpose of accomplishing certain tasks. Agency decisionmakers are appointed precisely to implement statutory programs, and so inevitably have some policy preconceptions. See Carolina Environmental Study Group v. United States, supra, 510 F.2d at 801. As Professor Davis has pointed out: 124    A Trade Commissioner should not be neutral on anti-monopoly policies, and a Securities and Exchange Commissioner should not be apathetic about the need for governmental restrictions.    125    The theoretically ideal administrator is one whose broad point of view is in general agreement with the policies he administers    . ( 150 126 To be sure, a different question may be presented if it can be shown that an agency decisionmaker has exhibited the type of single-minded commitment to a particular position that makes him or her totally incapable of giving fair consideration to the issues that are presented for decision. This is not, however, such a case. Nothing in the record suggests that Assistant Administrator Hawkins was incapable of considering the issues raised by the lead standards proceedings fairly. 127 Thus far we have examined Hawkins' participation in the lead standards proceedings under the prejudgment test that has been applied in adjudicatory proceedings. It is, however, beyond dispute that due process may impose different procedural requirements in an adjudication than are imposed in a rulemaking. United States v. Florida East Coast R. Co., 410 U.S. 224, 244-245, 93 S.Ct. 810, 820-21, 35 L.Ed.2d 223 (1973); United States v. Allegheny-Ludlum Steel Corp., 406 U.S. 742, 92 S.Ct. 1941, 32 L.Ed.2d 453 (1976). Our opinion in Amos Treat explained that (j)ust exactly how the concept of 'due process' is to be applied will vary with the type of proceeding involved    , Amos Treat & Co. v. SEC, supra, 306 F.2d at 263, and it discussed at length the reasons why the result in that case was mandated by the adjudicatory nature of the SEC proceedings. Id. at 263-264. See also American Cyanamid Co. v. FTC, supra, 363 F.2d at 766-767. LIA is unable to point to any cases involving rulemaking proceedings in which a court has held that a decisionmaker's prior involvement with the issues presented in the proceedings, whether within or without the agency, is sufficient ground for requiring his or her disqualification. 151 To the contrary, a division of this court recently held that Cinderella's prejudgment test does not apply to rulemaking proceedings. 152 Ass'n of Nat'l Advertisers, Inc. v. FTC, 627 F.2d 1151 (D.C.Cir.1979). Judge Tamm's opinion for the court contains an illuminating discussion of important distinctions between rulemaking and adjudication, and the consequences of these differences for standards of disqualification, which we will not repeat here. See id., 627 F.2d at 1162-1165, at 1170-1174. See also id., 627 F.2d at 1175-1181 (Leventhal, J., concurring). And under the prejudgment test for rulemaking announced in that case a clear and convincing showing of an unalterably closed mind on a matter critical to disposition of the proceeding there can be no question but that Hawkins' disqualification from the lead standards rulemaking is unwarranted. 153