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OCTOBER 2004 |
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ENRLS Members Remember the Late Anne Gorsuch, Reagan EPA Administrator: By Connie Courtney Westfall
Anne Gorsuch, the controversial EPA Administrator under President Ronald Reagan, died this summer. Several of our ENRLS members worked at the EPA or the DOJ during her tenure, and shared some of their recollections.
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Fran Phillips first met Ms. Gorsuch when she was the Acting Regional
Administrator at EPA Region 6.
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Fran Phillips, then Acting Regional Administrator at EPA Region 6, met Ms. Gorsuch for the first time when Ms. Gorsuch came to Dallas to address the Dallas Environmental Law Section. Earlier that month, Ms. Gorsuch had wiped out the public information office and moved all the lawyers out of the Enforcement Division. The rumor of the week was that the “Ice Queen” was going to eliminate the enforcement function altogether and fire the enforcers. The furor had begun, the media packed the Belo, all the EPA Region 6 staffers were afraid of losing their jobs, and Fran had to introduce Ms. Gorsuch to the crowd. Immediately before the program began, Ms. Gorsuch turned to Fran and asked if she looked all right. Fran saw that Ms. Gorsuch had a large tuft of hair standing on end. Fran weighed her options. Tell her the truth now and be fired. Or tell her that she looked fine, and be fired after Ms. Gorsuch saw the “Alfalfa” on the 6:00 news. Fran took a deep breath and timidly squeaked, “You might want to check your hair in the back.” Fran was not fired.After this beginning, the two continued to build a professional relationship based on honesty and frankness. Ms. Gorsuch asked Fran to represent the regions on budget issues and Fran thereafter had to repeatedly remind Ms. Gorsuch to “check her back.” Sometimes she listened to Fran and sometimes she didn’t.
According to Fran, “ Despite an electric stare and a tough mindedness that justified her reputation for being cold, Anne Gorsuch was a beautiful woman—she looked like Suzanne Pleshette. And, of course, on a personal level, she cared deeply about her convictions.” (Fran later became a partner with Gardere & Wynne.) |
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Kirk Sniff worked with Ms. Gorsuch at EPA Headquarters, writing op-ed pieces and speeches for her.
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One of the EPA headquarters’ employees who was spared his job was Kirk Sniff, now managing partner of Strasburger & Price. Kirk was the Director of the Office of Legal and Enforcement Policy, which was a staff office of the Office of General Counsel. His duties included writing responses to Congressional reports, speeches, and op-ed pieces for publication for Ms. Gorsuch. He enjoyed working with her and thought she was extremely intelligent; even though she invariably would take his cautious, polite, lawyerly pieces and inject them with fierce invective that he would then try to talk her out of. He rarely succeeded.
In one response to a Dingell report that was published in USA Today, Ms. Gorsuch insisted on using the term “unprincipled” over and over again. (Something along the lines of “In his unprincipled report of yesterday, the unprincipled chairman arrived at a number of erroneous and unprincipled conclusions.”) While she may have had a point, Kirk’s concern was that the senior people at the EPA (who knew Kirk had written the piece) would think he was such a poor writer that he had to resort to using the same adjective repeatedly.
Kirk also remembers accompanying Ms. Gorsuch on one of her trips to Capitol Hill. When they returned, they found that the elevator that she normally took to her office on the 12 th floor was out of order so she and her entourage crowded onto the public elevator. Ms. Gorsuch stood out. She had a full-length mink coat on and a lighted cigarette. D.C. had recently adopted the first anti-smoking ordinance of its kind and there was a fresh “No Smoking” sign in the elevator.
In the crowd on the elevator that day was one of the EPA’s mail guys with his cart. The mail at EPA Headquarters was delivered by mentally-challenged people, and they were usually very popular with the staff, like members of the family.
Sure enough, when the elevator doors closed, the mail guy pointed to the new sign and said to Ms. Gorsuch very politely, “Ma’am, you can’t smoke in the elevator.” She looked at him with her fierce blue eyes and while puffing on her cigarette, asked, “What’s your name?” He complied, and Ms. Gorsuch nodded at her secretary who was with her to write it down. The rest of the crowd held their breath. At the next stop, everyone who could got off the elevator as fast as they could regardless of whether it was their floor or not. (The mail guy was there long after Ms. Gorsuch was forced out.)
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Carol Dinkins was at the Department of Justice when there was a constitutional showdown over the production of EPA enforcement
documents. |
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Carol Dinkins was at the Department of Justice during Ms. Gorsuch’s tenure at EPA. Carol remembered what a stir Ms. Gorsuch caused when she announced to Congress that EPA, under the recently enacted Superfund, would avail itself of joint and several liability. Ms. Gorsuch ended up at the center of a controversy with Congress, refusing to produce enforcement documents at the instruction of the President, exercising executive privilege. In the midst of the dispute, Carol and the Deputy Attorney General walked to Ms. Gorsuch’s office at EPA for a meeting. As they were on the elevator at EPA, a custodian got on with a huge trash bin full of documents. The Deputy AG cracked “Producing documents for Congress, I see.” The custodian chuckled knowingly.
On another occasion, Carol and Ms. Gorsuch were invited to the White House for a luncheon in honor of women appointees. Ms. Gorsuch was the designated host for Carol’s table. Toward the end of the luncheon, the waiter set before each of them a bowl on a platter, with a fork and spoon. No one knew what to do. They sat, stared at the mysterious place setting, and looked at each other dumfounded. After a few moments, Ms. Gorsuch spoke up. “I believe that this is a fingerbowl, and the fork and knife are for our dessert.” Carol said that she was forever grateful for Ms. Gorsuch’s social tip that day. (Editor’s note: My Mother informs me that if I am ever confronted with a finger bowl, I am not to dunk my fingers in it, but should place the napkin in the bowl and use the napkin to clean my hands). Carol later returned to her practice at Vinson & Elkins.
Ms. Gorsuch resigned after just 22 months after being cited for contempt of Congress for refusing to produce the requested documents. A few days before her resignation, she told Attorney General William French Smith, “I am a small fish on the way to the big fry.” Her account of her tenure at EPA was published in the 1986 book, Are You Tough Enough? The book is out of print, but used copies are available for as low as 89 cents at Amazon.com.
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/offer-listing/007008940X/ref=dp_pb_a//102-6840305-4712156?condition=all
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