Despite a change in the presidential administration in 2001, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency's (EPA's) enforcement activity continues at the pace of the late 1990s. Much has been made of a decline in civil and criminal fines from fiscal year (FY) 2001 to FY 2002. Civil penalties collected by EPA declined from $101.6 million in FY 2001 to $55.6 million in FY 2002; criminal fines have declined from $94.7 million in FY 2001 to $62.2 million in FY 2002. This decline seems to reflect a fluctuation in penalty levels, as opposed to any material change in EPA enforcement policy under the Bush Administration. Indeed, the evidence supports this, with similar fluctuations in fines occurring in the late 1990s. Criminal fines have varied in recent years but remain well above 1980s levels, with a record $169.3 million in FY 1997, a decrease to $61.5 million in FY 1999, and $121.9 million in FY 2000 Similar fluctuations have occurred in civil penalties, with $141 million in FY 1999, a decrease to $54 million in FY 2000, and an increase to $101 million in FY 2001. It would be incorrect to conclude from the declines in penalty assessments from FY 2000 to FY 2001 that environmental enforcement had been rolled back.