evidence: The hearings on EPA, held in summer 1970, essentially supported the President. The House Government Operations Subcommittee on Executive and Legislative Reorganization, chaired by Congressman Chet Holifield of California, convened on July 22, 23, and August 4, to take testimony on Reorganization Plan Number 3. Lead witness Russell Train gave it unqualified support, predicting that its "vision of clean air and water...will provide us with the unity and the leadership necessary to protect the environment." Roy Ash testified the following day about the fragmented state of pollution control, the continuation of which "will seriously limit our solving the problem even as we expand our commitment to preserve and restore the quality of our environment." [...] Congressman John Dingell of Michigan presented the only serious alternatives to Reorganization Plan Number 3. A strongwilled conservationist, Dingell wondered why the EPA encompassed neither water and sewer programs in the Departments of Agriculture and Housing and Urban Development, nor the environmental operations of the Defense and Transportation Departments. He proposed that instead of erecting EPA, the House consider a more comprehensive, cabinet-level Department of Environmental Quality. Despite his suggestion, both subcommittees approved the President's proposal and issued reports: the Holifield Committee on September 23, the Ribicoff panel six days later. Having cleared all its statutory hurdles, on December 2, 1970, the Environmental Protection Agency would at last open its doors.