Government and Environmental Policy The purpose of US public policy law is to implement restrictions in an attempt to solve problems, as can be seen with the Clean Water Act Public policy has also been employed to reform the Endangered Species Act of 1973. While the U.S. government is noble in its efforts to preserve the environment through these acts, the internal structure of public policy often delays their efforts. effectiveness. This paper will explore the many ways in which factors such as horizontal implementation, divided government, and other forms of public policy influence the environmental legislation involved in the above-mentioned acts. The major factors involved in the Endangered Species Act of 1973 involve horizontal implementation structure and divided government. Before we can discuss how these policies influence environmental legislation, a brief description of each must be clearly explained. When our government was founded, a system of checks and balances was implemented between the executive, judicial, and legislative branches to ensure that no one part of the government gained too much power. While this limits the power of any one person in government, it often slows the ability to govern because it can be difficult to reach consensus with so many people working together. Another problem is that there are also many subgovernments that influence legislation, such as interest groups like the Sierra Club, administrative agents like the Environmental Protection Agency, and congressional committees. As these groups add to the total number of people working on legislation, the original noble ideology of making policies for the good of the nation is nullified. Furthermore, because there are so many differences of opinion, few drastic changes are made, instead small incremental changes. changes are made that take a long time and delay the effectiveness and implementation of the legislation. In addition to this chaotic turmoil, four steps must be implemented to pass a bill. These are initiation and definition, formulation and promulgation (legitimation), implementation and evaluation. The most relevant of these steps is horizontal implementation when considering the Endangered Species Act and the Clean Water Act. This policy is the process of putting a law into effect after it has been legitimized. Congress......half of the document......ne." (Adler, p. 1) The goals of the law established by Congress were to eliminate toxic discharges into significant bodies of water by 1985, improve the quality of water for marine and freshwater life by 1983, and for all “toxic pollutants in toxic quantities” in water. Of course, this act has met with mediocre success, and only through the continued cooperation of the branches of government further progress can be made has been shown how different branches of government, different administrations and different policies all worked together to delay the implementation of the Endangered Species Act and the Clean Water Act of the early 1970s, although these processes operate in a system of governmental checks and balances as this country's founders desired, the effectiveness of laws requires many years of careful compromise to become meaningful.REFERENCES1 Adler, Robert W., et al. DC 19932. Horton, Tom "The Endangered Species Act : too hard, too weak, too late." (1992) Audubon vol. 94 pages. 68-74