EPA Official Appointed CPSC Budget Chief

WASHINGTON, D.C. (September 27) -- The appointment of Kirke Harper as the Director of the Office of Budget, Program Planning and Evaluation of the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission was announced today by CPSC Chairman Susan B. King.

Harper, 38, currently serves as Acting Director of the Offices of Regional Liaison and Intergovernmental Relations for the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. In the summer of 1978 he was one of six members of an Office of Management and Budget (OMB) task force which evaluated CPSC's management structure and selected programs.

As BPPE Director, Harper will serve as CPSC's principal official responsible for preparing the agency's annual budgets and operating plans. Harper also will direct the evaluation of CPSC's effectiveness in accomplishing its established program goals.

Harper and the approximately 20 other BPPE Office staffers will report to the Executive Director of the Commission. This newly created office has been designed to integrate these key management functions within one unit, as well as to better coordinate CPSC evaluation and planning functions.

Harper has worked in Regional and Intergovernmental Operations at EPA since November 1, 1977, after serving as the Acting Associate Administrator in that agency's Office of International Activities. He also worked for more than two years as EPA's Special Assistant for Executive Communications and in EPA's Office of Noise Abatement and Control. Harper also has worked as a budget examiner and a management analyst in OMB.

A native of Ohio, Harper graduated from Ohio State University in 1963, and served as an intelligence officer in the U.S. Army from 1967 to 1969.

In joining CPSC, Harper will be classified within the Senior Executive Service as an ES-3 (currently an annual pay rate of $47,500).

Harper resides in Arlington, Va., with his wife, Linda, and their three daughters, Jill, Jana and Lee.