[Congressional Record Volume 140, Number 48 (Thursday, April 28, 1994)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Page E]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Printing Office [www.gpo.gov]


[Congressional Record: April 28, 1994]
From the Congressional Record Online via GPO Access [wais.access.gpo.gov]

 
        CABINET ELEVATION OF THE ENVIRONMENTAL PROTECTION AGENCY

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                      HON. WILLIAM F. CLINGER, JR.

                            of pennsylvania

                    in the house of representatives

                        Thursday, April 28, 1994

  Mr. CLINGER. Mr. Speaker, as we all take note of the Earth Day 
festivities, one can not help but reflect that another Earth Day has 
come and gone and still the Environmental Protection Agency has not 
been elevated to a Cabinet-level department. Frankly, this was one of 
President Clinton's first environmental priorities. Elevation of the 
EPA is more than symbolic because of the EPA's role in international 
negotiations. Every industrialized country, with the exception of one 
other, has a cabinet level environmental department. But one more time 
the legislation has gotten bogged down, and the blame lies squarely on 
the shoulders of the administration.
  Unfortunately, as I and many of my colleagues have indicated from the 
beginning this course of events was entirely predictable. There were 
only two paths to travel. We could elevate the agency by providing a 
clean straight up elevation without any bells or whistles and do so 
easily and cheaply. Or alternatively, we could consider a bill that 
contains numerous extraneous provisions to inflate an already bloated 
EPA bureaucracy. This latter path was chosen. In doing so, it became 
clear that there were several other issues, such as risk assessment of 
environmental regulations, which Congress signalled were on the table. 
Once the door was opened, all relevant issues needed to the debated and 
considered by Congress but this was not allowed to occur.
  If we had traveled down the path with a clean elevation, which I have 
consistently advocated, we could have had a Department of Environmental 
Protection just in time for Earth Day 1994. At this point, however, EPA 
Cabinet legislation may never see the light of day and we will probably 
see many more Earth Day celebrations come and go without a Cabinet-
level environmental agency.

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