[Congressional Record Volume 141, Number 65 (Friday, April 7, 1995)]
[House]
[Page H4419]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                      CONTRACT ON THE ENVIRONMENT

  (Mr. VENTO asked and was given permission to address the House for 1 
minute and to revise and extend his remarks.)
  Mr. VENTO. Mr. Speaker, with the new Republican majority, Americans 
had hoped for the best. Now we know, after 3 months, to expect the 
worst in terms of Republican partisanship, serving special interests, 
not the American people and family.
  As citizens all across America prepare to celebrate the 25th 
anniversary of Earth Day, the silver anniversary, tarnished and 
corrosive effect is taking place on the environment. I am deeply 
troubled, and Americans are, that in our Nation's Capital the 104th 
Republican Congress is working furiously to destroy almost all that has 
been accomplished in the last three or four decades.
  This Contract on America has turned into a contract on America's 
landscapes, on our parks, on our wildernesses, on America's air, 
contract on America's drinking water, on America's rivers and natural 
and historic resources and this contract will take a terrible toll.
  This environmental assault is an insult to the American people. But 
the American citizens can do
 something about it the next 3 weeks. You can make our policymakers see 
the light or feel the heat. They need to be forcefully reminded that 
environmental policies and laws are not brutally attacked, were not 
forged through partisan warfare. They were not the work of Democrats or 
Republicans alone; rather, they are uniquely derived from years of 
deliberation, of listening and responding to core conservation values.

  That is right, let us have some conservation in those that claim to 
be conservatives in this Congress.
  Those environmental laws and policies have been derived from the 
ethic of the American people. These policies are based on the wisdom of 
Americans who by experience, education, and ethics understand that 
there are some areas of this vast Nation that should not be despoiled.
  Let us take back the environment. Let us make these individuals that 
are advancing these policies see the light or feel the heat.

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