Thomas E. Kelly

Tom Kelly has served EPA in a variety of senior management capacities since 1977. In June 1996, Tom was appointed as EPA's Small Business Advocacy Chair under the Small Business Regulatory Enforcement Fairness Act (SBREFA). In that role Tom ensures that EPA's rule writers consider the needs of small entities (including small businesses, communities, and non-profit organizations) by conducting thoughtful outreach and seeking appropriate accommodations under the law to support affordable compliance with environmental rules. He also chairs multi-agency Small Business Advocacy Review Panels. With the participation and advice of small-entity representatives, these Panels involve EPA, the President's Office of Management and Budget, and the Small Business Administration in the review and improvement of draft regulations that might impose a significant economic impact on a substantial number of small businesses or communities.

Previously, for over twelve years Tom Kelly directed EPA's regulatory development process, with responsibility for the Agency's conformance with numerous administrative statutes, including the Administrative Procedure Act and the Regulatory Flexibility Act, as well as the requirement for Executive Review of regulations by the President's Office of Management and Budget.

Tom has long been involved with Regulatory Negotiation and other non-traditional means to involve affected parties more directly in EPA's rulemaking activities. He is an expert on Federal rulemaking, program design and evaluation, and, in particular, national environmental programs.

Tom is a civil servant whose career has spanned more than thirty years across three Federal agencies. He holds a BA in English Literature from Wesleyan University in Connecticut and an MA in Sociology from the American University in Washington, DC. He is married to the former Sara Delano, with whom he has reared three grown children. He has long been active in public schools and other civic affairs in his adopted home of Arlington, Virginia.