DPRA researches and analyzes case law, regulations, statutes, and proposed legislation when our clients have a legal research question about their program. We support our clients' policy development efforts by researching, developing, and analyzing policy alternatives to identify the best policy option. DPRA also tracks legislative activities, analyzes and summarizes legislation, prepares analyses of competing legislation, and develops legislative cost models to support our clients legislative activities or legislative monitoring efforts.
Our Services

  • Cost Drivers Study and Containment Options: The Department of Finance, Greater Northwest Territories (GNWT), wanted to explore cost containment options for its two largest departments – Health and Social Services and the Department of Education, Culture and Employment. DPRA performed a comprehensive analysis and cost drivers study using 15 years of historical data. We developed integrated spreadsheet models to evaluate different expenditure scenarios. DPRA prepared a report that presented various cost containment options and their impacts on service quantity and quality for the Department of Finance’s consideration.

  • CERCLA §104(e) Delegation Request: US EPA’s Office of Site Remediation Enforcement (OSRE) received a request for delegation of CERCLA §104(e) information gathering authorities from the city of Lodi, California. DPRA designed a methodology to compare state hazardous waste information gathering authorities to the federal authorities available under CERCLA §104(e). We researched and analyzed the statutes and regulations for 22 states that had been RCRA authorized, and concluded that state law was functionally equivalent to federal law. On the basis of this analysis, OSRE concluded that delegation of federal authority was unwarranted and the city of Lodi’s request was denied.  

  • Superfund Legislative Cost Model: US EPA’s Office of Site Remediation Enforcement (OSRE) needed a standard methodology for estimating the costs of proposed legislation during legislative reauthorization of the Superfund program. DPRA determined that modifying the program’s budget model and adding a new legislative policy module to it would be the most expeditious means of accomplishing OSRE’s objective. DPRA research all of the legislative proposals that had been offered to date, and built a legislative policy module to address all possible combinations of legislative provisions that had already been proposed. During the 105th, 106th, and 107th Congresses, DPRA used to model to evaluate nine major legislative proposals. In most cases, we were able to complete the analysis and document our results in less than two weeks.