U.S. Representative Ed Markey (D-MA), chairman of the House subcommittee on energy and environment, has requested that Congress's investigative arm, the Government Accountability Office (GAO), investigate the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission's performance when it comes to the safety of aging and proposed new reactors, such as their vulnerability to natural disasters or the destabilizing climate, as well as industrial fires within nuclear power plants. Markey also called upon GAO to investigate NRC's oversight of the financial ability of shutdown reactors to adequately clean up radioactively contaminated soil and groundwater during decommissioning, given leaking buried pipes and inadequately funded decommissioning funds. See Markey's press release, and letter to GAO.