Am I a coward?

During reading the book (Vig, 2009) assigned this week, in my aspect as a public officer, I feel sympathetic toward the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) because the EPA has been harshly criticized due to their irresponsibility, so called “a collision of responsibilities” (p. 150). Especially, when the case of the “inappropriate [political] interference” on the Mercury emissions conducted in the Bush administration was revealed, the EPA brought discredit on to itself.
However, I am thinking about how hardly the EPA has been struggling to overcome various constraints such as the pressure from variety interest groups, political powers, and so on. I am glad to read some comments on the hardness of performance of the EPA in the book. I was totally understood on the citation of the National Academy of Public Administration:
“The EPA lacks focus, in part, because Congress has passed more than a dozen environmental statutes that drive the agency in a dozen directions, discouraging rational priority-setting or a coherent approach to environmental management. The EPA is sometimes ineffective because, in part, Congress has set impossible deadlines and unrealistic expectations, given the Agency’s budge” (p. 153).
I could say that it is the reality faced with the other Agencies as well as the EPA. I am worry if I am a coward to look for execuse to avoid my responsibility as a public officer.