EPA investigators and attorneys are questioning the agency's enforcement efforts - including decisions to assign criminal agents to EPA Administrator Christie Whitman's "personal security detail" - as the number of cases referred for federal prosecution by the agency drops, according to OMB Watch.

Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility (PEER) recently released a survey of agency investigators and enforcement attorneys, finding that nearly 70 percent of the 120 respondents disagreed or strongly disagreed with the statement, "The EPA criminal program is headed in the right direction."