New York State officials need good data to confirm whether federal clean air laws are working to protect public health and the Adirondacks from harm. Sadly, in November 2020, the Government Accountability Office (GAO) issued a report stating that the nation’s air quality monitoring system is losing its ability to keep track of the damage being done. In its report “Opportunities to Better Sustain and Modernize the National Air Quality Monitoring System” GAO said U.S. Environmental Protection Agency personnel and state agencies told them their “infrastructure is aging while annual EPA funding for state and local air quality management grants, which cover monitoring, has decreased by about 20 percent since 2004.”