7 U.S.C. § 5402 — Office of Agricultural Environmental Quality

(a) Establishment. The Secretary must establish an Office of Agricultural Environmental Quality in the Department of Agriculture. This chapter calls it the “Office.”

(b) Director. The Secretary appoints the Office’s director. The Director must have shown technical expertise and experience in agriculture and environmental matters.

(c) Staff.
(1) Appointments. The Director may appoint employees needed to carry out this section. They must include people with professional expertise in environmental quality, including agricultural production, water quality, wetlands, wildlife conservation, soil conservation, and agricultural-chemical use.
(2) Liaisons. At the Secretary’s request, the Environmental Protection Agency Administrator and the Secretary of the Interior must each detail at least one employee with agriculture and environmental-quality expertise to the Office. The Department of Agriculture reimburses their agencies. The detailed employees serve as liaisons between their agencies and the Department and help the Director carry out this section. A detail may last no more than 3 years.
(3) Additional staff. At the Secretary’s request, the head of any Federal agency may detail that agency’s employees to the Office, with reimbursement, to help the Director.

(d) Duties of Director.
(1) General duties. The Director must help the Council develop a Department-wide and agency-specific environmental-quality policy statement, an implementation plan, and an annual agricultural-environmental-quality report as section 5403 requires. The Director must coordinate and monitor Department activities involving environmental-quality programs and initiatives and the interpretation of Department policies affecting environmental quality. The Director serves on the Council and as its Executive Director.
(2) Additional duties. The Director must also (A) recommend goals and specific programs, initiatives, and policies that balance production agriculture’s needs with environmental concerns; (B) advise the Council about developing, carrying out, and reviewing Department-agency activities so they are consistent with Department environmental-protection goals; (C) coordinate environmental policy within the Department through program managers and between the Department and Federal agencies, regional authorities, State and local governments, land-grant and other colleges and universities, and nonprofit and commercial organizations on environmental-quality programs and actions; (D) coordinate the Department’s environmental-quality data, information, programs, and initiatives; (E) develop the plans and reports required by this chapter; and (F) provide staff needed to support the Council.