Anne Gorsuch
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Anne Irene McGill Gorsuch Burford ( ; April 21, 1942 – July 18, 2004), also known as Anne M. Gorsuch, was an American attorney and politician. Between 1981 and 1983, while known as Anne M. Gorsuch, she served under President Ronald Reagan as the first female
Administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency The administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency is the head of the United States Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), and is thus responsible for enforcing the nation's Clean Air and Clean Water Acts, as well as numerous other environ ...
(EPA). Her son is sitting Associate Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States Neil Gorsuch.


Early life and education

Born Anne Irene McGill in Casper, Wyoming, she was one of seven children of Joseph John McGill II, a surgeon, and Dorothy Jean (née O'Grady). She grew up in
Denver Denver () is a consolidated city and county, the capital, and most populous city of the U.S. state of Colorado. Its population was 715,522 at the 2020 census, a 19.22% increase since 2010. It is the 19th-most populous city in the Unit ...
, where she attended St. Francis DeSales High School. During three consecutive summers, she took classes in Spanish at the
National University of Mexico The National Autonomous University of Mexico ( es, Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México, UNAM) is a public research university in Mexico. It is consistently ranked as one of the best universities in Latin America, where it's also the bigges ...
.Anne M. Gorsuch (Burford) profile at EPA website
/ref> She studied at the
University of Colorado at Boulder The University of Colorado Boulder (CU Boulder, CU, or Colorado) is a public research university in Boulder, Colorado. Founded in 1876, five months before Colorado became a state, it is the flagship university of the University of Colorado sy ...
, earning a
Bachelor of Arts Bachelor of arts (BA or AB; from the Latin ', ', or ') is a bachelor's degree awarded for an undergraduate program in the arts, or, in some cases, other disciplines. A Bachelor of Arts degree course is generally completed in three or four year ...
degree in 1961 at the age of 19. She then attended the
University of Colorado Law School The University of Colorado Law School is one of the professional graduate schools within the University of Colorado System. It is a public law school, with more than 500 students attending and working toward a Juris Doctor or Master of Studies in ...
where she received a Juris Doctor degree in 1964 at the age of 22; she became the youngest woman admitted to the Colorado Bar at the time. McGill participated in the undergraduate Honors Program and
Mortar Board Mortar Board is an American national honor society for college seniors. Mortar Board has 233 chartered collegiate chapters nationwide and 15 alumni chapters. History Mortar Board was the first national honor society for college senior women ...
society, and was an editor of the University of Colorado Law School's
law review A law review or law journal is a scholarly journal or publication that focuses on legal issues. A law review is a type of legal periodical. Law reviews are a source of research, imbedded with analyzed and referenced legal topics; they also pr ...
. She was awarded a Fulbright Scholarship to study criminal law for one year in
Jaipur Jaipur (; Hindi: ''Jayapura''), formerly Jeypore, is the capital and largest city of the Indian state of Rajasthan. , the city had a population of 3.1 million, making it the tenth most populous city in the country. Jaipur is also known ...
, India, and she and her new husband David Gorsuch travelled there together.


Early legal and political career

Gorsuch was first employed as an attorney with a bank trust department, then as an assistant district attorney for Jefferson County, Colorado, and as deputy district attorney for the City of Denver, Colorado. Subsequently she was a corporate attorney for Mountain Bell Telephone. In 1975 she was elected to the Colorado House of Representatives, and served in office for two two-year terms. She was voted Outstanding Freshman Legislator, but was considered by some to be a member of the "House Crazies," a group of "conservative lawmakers intent on permanently changing government." In 1980, Gorsuch served on President-elect Reagan's transition team as a member of his Advisory Committee on Intergovernmental Relations. Shortly after Reagan was inaugurated, Gorsuch was nominated as administrator of the EPA. The nomination was unanimously confirmed by the Senate three months later on May 5, 1981."Nomination of Ann McGill Gorsuch To Be Administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency"
February 21, 1981.


EPA Administrator

Gorsuch based her administration of the EPA on the New Federalism approach of downsizing federal agencies by delegating their functions and services to the individual states. She believed that the EPA was over-regulating business and that the agency was too large and not cost-effective. During her 22 months as agency head, she cut the budget of the EPA by 22%, reduced the number of cases filed against polluters, relaxed Clean Air Act regulations, and facilitated the spraying of restricted-use pesticides. She cut the total number of agency employees, and hired staff from the industries they were supposed to be regulating.Sullivan, Patricia
"Anne Gorsuch Burford, 62, Dies; Reagan EPA Director"
''The Washington Post'', July 22, 2004; p. B06.
Environmentalists contended that her policies were designed to placate polluters, and accused her of trying to dismantle the agency.


Thriftway Company

Thriftway Company, a small oil refinery in
Farmington, New Mexico Farmington is a city in San Juan County in the U.S. state of New Mexico. As of the 2020 census the city had a total population of 46,624 people. Farmington (and surrounding San Juan County) makes up one of the four Metropolitan Statistical Area ...
, asked Gorsuch for a meeting to discuss the regulations limiting lead content of gasoline, the program under Section 211 of the Clean Air Act designed to reduce the amount of lead in gasoline in annual phases, and to receive relief from the standard. In December 1981, while EPA was developing revisions to those regulation at the request of the Reagan Administration, Gorsuch met with representatives from the company, who asked her to excuse Thriftway from compliance with the lead limits because "the company faced financial ruin if it could not obtain quick relief from the regulations". Gorsuch did not commit herself in writing but she did tell them they could count on her promise as the word of the EPA Administrator that she would not enforce the regulations.


Superfund

In 1982, Congress charged that the EPA had mishandled the $1.6 billion toxic waste Superfund by taking certain inappropriate and potentially illegal actions including withholding disbursements in order to affect a California political campaign. When Congress demanded records from Gorsuch, she refused and as a result became the first agency director in U.S. history to be cited for contempt of Congress. The stand off ended in late February 1983, when Richard Hauser, the White House deputy counsel, confirmed one or more Reagan Administration officials had in fact reported to the White House that they had heard Gorsuch say at an Aug. 4 1982 luncheon that she was holding back more than $6 million in Federal funds to clean up the
Stringfellow Acid Pits The Stringfellow Acid Pits are a toxic waste dump, and a Superfund site, located in Jurupa Valley, California, United States, just north of the neighborhood of Glen Avon. The site became the center of national news coverage in the early 1980s, ...
toxic waste site near Los Angeles to avoid helping the Senate campaign of former Gov.
Jerry Brown Edmund Gerald Brown Jr. (born April 7, 1938) is an American lawyer, author, and politician who served as the 34th and 39th governor of California from 1975 to 1983 and 2011 to 2019. A member of the Democratic Party, he was elected Secretary of ...
of California, a Democrat. The White House then abandoned its court claim that the documents related to this incident could not be subpoenaed by Congress because they were covered by
executive privilege Executive privilege is the right of the president of the United States and other members of the executive branch to maintain confidential communications under certain circumstances within the executive branch and to resist some subpoenas and othe ...
and the EPA turned the documents over to Congress. Gorsuch immediately resigned her post effective March 3, 1983, citing pressures caused by the media and the congressional investigation."Burford Resigns As Administrator of Embattled EPA"
''Toledo Blade'', Mar 10, 1983, p. 1


EPA legacy

Looking back at her tenure several years later, Gorsuch expressed pride in the downsizing done under her watch and frustration at the program backlogs and lack of staff management skills that she encountered while at the helm of the agency. She said there was a conflict between what she was required to do under a "set of commands from Congress," and what her own priorities were, although she felt that by the end of her administration, she had developed a way of resolving those conflicts. In her retrospective, Gorsuch admitted that she and her staff "were so bogged down in the fight with Congress over the doctrine of executive privilege, that the agency itself seemed hardly to be functioning," but claimed that despite appearances the agency still functioned. Her 22-month tenure was considered "one of the most controversial of the early Reagan administration."


Subsequent career

Gorsuch was promised another job by Reagan, and in July 1984, he appointed her to a three-year term as chair of the National Advisory Committee on Oceans and Atmosphere, a move that was criticized by environmental groups."Washington: Bad Choice, Worse Timing"
''Time'', July 16, 1984.
She described the post as a "nothing-burger", and both the House and the Senate passed non-binding resolutions calling on President Reagan to withdraw the appointment. Ultimately, Gorsuch chose not to accept the position.
''Time'', Aug. 13, 1984.
After leaving government service, she wrote a 1986 book about her experiences titled ''Are You Tough Enough?'' She then worked as a private attorney in Colorado until her death.


Personal life

Anne McGill married David Gorsuch after finishing law school. They divorced in 1982 while she was serving as EPA Administrator. The couple had two sons, J. J. and
Neil Neil is a masculine name of Gaelic and Irish origin. The name is an anglicisation of the Irish ''Niall'' which is of disputed derivation. The Irish name may be derived from words meaning "cloud", "passionate", "victory", "honour" or "champion".. A ...
, and a daughter, Stephanie. Neil Gorsuch became an
Associate Justice Associate justice or associate judge (or simply associate) is a judicial panel member who is not the chief justice in some jurisdictions. The title "Associate Justice" is used for members of the Supreme Court of the United States and some sta ...
of the
United States Supreme Court The Supreme Court of the United States (SCOTUS) is the highest court in the federal judiciary of the United States. It has ultimate appellate jurisdiction over all U.S. federal court cases, and over state court cases that involve a point o ...
in 2017. In 1983, Gorsuch married Bureau of Land Management head and rancher Robert F. Burford, with whom she had previously served in the Colorado House of Representatives. A divorce from Burford was pending when he died in 1993. Gorsuch died from cancer in 2004 in
Aurora, Colorado Aurora (, ) is a home rule municipality located in Arapahoe, Adams, and Douglas counties, Colorado, United States. The city's population was 386,261 at the 2020 United States Census with 336,035 residing in Arapahoe County, 47,720 residing in ...
, aged 62.


References


External links


Washington Post obituary for Anne Gorsuch
* {{DEFAULTSORT:Gorsuch, Anne 1942 births 2004 deaths Administrators of the United States Environmental Protection Agency American prosecutors Deaths from cancer in Colorado Lawyers from Denver Republican Party members of the Colorado House of Representatives Politicians from Casper, Wyoming Politicians from Denver Reagan administration controversies Reagan administration personnel University of Colorado alumni Women state legislators in Colorado 20th-century American women lawyers 20th-century American lawyers Fulbright alumni