The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is the primary federal agency responsible for enforcing environmental laws, including those governing air and water quality and the disposal of hazardous wastes. Created by an executive order issued by President Richard M. Nixon in 1970, it consolidated disparate environmental programs previously distributed among several agencies. The EPA both issues the regulations to carry out the nation’s environmental laws and, in conjunction with the states, enforces those regulations. The EPA has been a lightning rod for criticism from conservatives, who have charged that the agency’s regulations are not based on science, are too expensive and stifle business. In 1995 one conservative member of Congress went so far as to compare the EPA with the Gestapo. Despite such attacks, the agency’s programs have remained intact. For example, attempts by President Ronald Reagan’s EPA administrator to weaken the agency resulted in her resignation.