[Congressional Record Volume 141, Number 193 (Wednesday, December 6, 1995)]
[House]
[Page H14142]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                  REPUBLICAN CUTS HURT THE ENVIRONMENT

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under a previous order of the House, the 
gentlewoman from Connecticut [Ms. DeLauro] is recognized for 5 minutes.
  Ms. DeLAURO. Mr. Speaker, I rise this evening to express my dismay at 
the devastating cuts to the environment and environmental programs that 
my Republican colleagues are really shoving through this Congress. 
Without question, these cuts will spoil our Nation's water, air, and 
land.
  I am delighted to join my colleague the gentlewoman from New York 
[Mrs. Lowey], in listening to her comments, and I applaud my colleague 
the gentleman from New Jersey [Mr. Pallone], who is organizing people 
tonight to speak on this issue. I commend him for his leadership on 
environmental policy.
  I am pleased to join my colleague the gentlewoman from New York [Mrs. 
Lowey] also in sponsoring legislation for the cleanup of Long Island 
Sound.

                              {time}  1930

  This is one of our real concerns about what is happening with regard 
to the environment, and without question, the cuts, as I said, will 
spoil our Nation's water, air, and our land.
  Americans can take great pride in the progress that we have made over 
the years in cleaning up our Nation's environment.
  But Republicans, the Republican majority, are really turning back the 
clock. They are wiping out decades of improvement to the environment 
and giving polluters a license to pollute. They are not achieving this 
through open debate where we could have a back and forth on these 
issues, but they are doing it through funding cuts that are hidden in 
massive spending bills that the Congress is taking up.
  I also want to commend my colleagues on the Republican side of the 
aisle who, in fact, have stood up to the pressure and turned back 
legislation that is harmful to the environment. Time and again, this 
year and over the decade, Democrats and Republicans have come together 
in a spirit of bipartisanship to protect the environment. That has been 
true over and over again in our Nation's history, and unfortunately 
that kind of bipartisanship is being rent and pulled apart. Despite the 
bipartisan efforts, the Republican majority is taking a wrecking ball 
to environmental protections in this country.
  More than $1.5 billion will be slashed from the Environmental 
Protection Agency's budget next year. Slashing EPA's budget by more 
than 20 percent will cripple the agency's ability to ensure that our 
water is safe to drink and our air is safe to breathe. The Federal 
Superfund Program, which cleans up our Nation's worst hazardous waste 
dumps, will be cut by nearly $300 million in 1996. This is another 20 
percent cut from current spending levels. In my own congressional 
district, the Superfund has been responsible for clearing up the 
Raymark Superfund site. From 1919 to 1984, Raymark Industries spewed 
asbestos, lead, dioxins, and PCB's throughout Stratford, CT. The homes 
of neighborhood families and local businesses as well as the parks 
where children play and the schools they all attend were all severely 
contaminated by this toxic waste, and now, due to Superfund, this site 
may soon become clean enough to develop as a retail shopping center. As 
a matter of fact, there is a developer who is ready to put in a $50 
million project in this area.
  EPA's work at Raymark is a wonderful success story in the making, and 
working with State and local officials, the EPA has been effective, 
efficient, and responsive, and I might add the State has been 
effective, efficient, and responsive, as well as the local community 
and the local government. Their tireless efforts have made Raymark the 
Nation's model for accomplishing the cleanup work that Superfund was 
designed to do.
  Do my Republican colleagues really believe that Americans would 
rather balance the budget than clean up toxic waste in American 
communities? Look at any child, look them in the face and explain this 
to them. The question is, as the President has done this evening in 
vetoing the budget, which, I might add, 60 percent of the American 
public wanted him to veto the budget because of what was being done in 
Medicare, Medicaid, the environment, turning the clock back on 
environmental legislation, and in tax fairness to working Americans; 
the public does not want to see the budget balanced under any set of 
circumstances and giving up our principles and giving up the movement 
forward we have made in these areas.
  Let us have individual votes on environmental cuts. Then Americans 
will truly understand what this new majority in the Congress stands 
for. I urge my colleagues to vote against spending bills that contain 
environmental cuts.

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