[Congressional Record Volume 142, Number 33 (Tuesday, March 12, 1996)]
[House]
[Pages H2103-H2104]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                    CUTTING ENVIRONMENTAL PROTECTION

  The SPEAKER pro tempore (Mr. Metcalf). Under a previous order of the 
House, the gentleman from New Jersey [Mr. Pallone] is recognized for 5 
minutes.
  Mr. PALLONE. Mr. Speaker, I rise tonight because of my concern over 
some of the statements that were made by my colleagues on the 
Republican side during this last 1 hour where they talked about the 
Republican cuts, budget cuts on the environment and the changes that 
the Republican leadership have proposed with regard to environmental 
protection.
  Particularly, reference was made to the fact that President Clinton 
was in my State, New Jersey, yesterday and was highlighting the fact 
that this Congress, this Republican Congress, under Speaker Gingrich 
and the Republican leadership, has done everything possible to turn 
back the clock or try to turn back the clock on environmental 
protection. The President was in New Jersey because of this concern 
over the Superfund Program, which is used by the Federal Government to 
try to force polluters, those who caused hazardous waste sites, to 
clean up their pollution, to spend the money to do it, and where the 
polluter cannot be found or the polluter is bankrupted or the 
corporation has ceased to exist anymore, the Federal Government steps 
in to do the cleanup itself.
  The President was highlighting the fact that under the Republican 
leadership's proposals and the vast cutbacks that they have made in 
appropriations or spending for the Environmental Protection Agency, a 
number of Superfund sites in the State of New Jersey will not be 
cleaned up this year. In fact, the many shutdowns of the Federal 
Government which affected the EPA at many Superfund sites, the cleanup 
has either not occurred or was slowed down completely, in many cases at 
a considerable cost to the Federal Government. And what he was saying 
is that this cannot be allowed to continue, that we cannot allow this 
Republican leadership to turn back the clock on the Superfund Program 
to make it so that our environmental laws are not even enforced for 
lack of money to hire people to do the enforcement, which is 
essentially what is happening.
  Now today, our environmental task force on the Democratic side, we 
have a task force that is trying to address environmental concerns and 
point out how the Republican leadership is cutting back and turning the 
clock back on the environment. Well, our Democratic task force issued a 
report based on a hearing we had a few weeks ago. The report, which I 
have here, shows dramatically the impact of the budget cuts that the 
Republicans have put forward on the environment.

  What it shows, essentially, is that the Republicans are trying to 
hide a very dismal record. Anti-environmental legislative riders have 
been attached to appropriation bills, disproportionate budget cuts have 
targeted environmental programs, and curbs on enforcement activities 
have been widespread, which let polluters off the hook and sends the 
cleanup bill to the taxpayers.
  We talk about, in the report, how the Republicans have specifically 
targeted environmental programs for particularly deep budget cuts. In 
other words, we know that we have to spend less and we have to downsize 
the Federal Government, but the Environmental Protection Agency has 
received a disproportionate share of these overall cuts. Overall 
funding for the EPA was cut by 21 percent. Pollution enforcement, the 
cops on the beat, the environmental cops on the beat, have been

[[Page H2104]]

cut by 25 percent. What that means is that you have these environmental 
laws on the books but you do not have any way of enforcing them. The 
polluters know if no one is out there watching them and they continue 
to pollute, discharging materials, violating their water discharge 
permits, discharging into waters and harbors, they do what they think 
they can get away with.
  I would venture one other thing we found in our report and found in 
the forum, the cuts in environmental enforcement do not save money. In 
other words, the Republican leadership argues if we cut back on this 
environmental enforcement, somehow we are going to save money.
  Nothing could be further from the truth. I mean, essentially what 
happens is that the environmental cop on the beat, if you will, those 
who go out there to find the polluters, they do not find them, they do 
not issue them summonses and, as a result, no fine is incurred and the 
Treasury actually loses money because they are not penalizing the 
polluters.
  In addition, a lot of times, when pollution takes effect, it costs 
even more money in the long run to clean it up, whether it is the 
water, whether hazardous waste, whatever it happens to be, so the 
bottom line is it costs the Federal Government more money in the long 
run.
  Some of the previous speakers on the Republican side also made the 
argument we do not need the Federal Government involved in all of this 
enforcement activity because the States can do it. I think the 
gentleman from Florida mentioned that almost every State or every State 
now has an environmental protection agency or something like it. But 
the reality is that the Federal Government sets preliminary standards, 
whether it is clean water, clean air, hazardous waste cleanup, whatever 
it happens to be. Without those Federal standards in place, many States 
simply have not historically established standards similar to the 
Federal ones. So I just wanted to point out we could talk all night. Of 
course, my time is up now. I just wanted to point out this fact. This 
Republican leadership is turning the clock back on the environment. I 
am glad the President came to New Jersey to point that out today.

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