[Congressional Record Volume 142, Number 43 (Tuesday, March 26, 1996)]
[Senate]
[Pages S2886-S2887]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                       TRIBUTE TO SENATOR MUSKIE

  Mr. BAUCUS. Mr. President, this morning we were sad to learn of the 
passing of one of our most distinguished former colleagues, Senator 
Edmund Muskie of Maine.
  Ed Muskie served our Nation in many ways. He was a soldier. A 
Governor. The first chairman of the Budget Committee. The Secretary of 
State. The Democratic Party's candidate for Vice President.
  He also was responsible, in large part, for one of the most positive 
and profound legislative achievements of postwar America: the passage 
of the environmental laws of the 1970's, to clean up our Nation's air, 
water, and waste.
  Remember what things were like 25 years ago. We had experienced 
decades of industrial growth without environmental protection. Lead in 
the air caused brain damage in children. Toxic waste dumps all across 
the country caused cancer. The Cuyahoga River even caught fire.
  Something had to be done. And, as chairman of the Environmental 
Protection Subcommittee of the Environment and Public Works Committee, 
Ed Muskie saw that it was. He worked tirelessly to create bipartisan 
support for landmark environmental laws.
  The Clean Water Act, requiring rivers and streams to be fishable and 
swimmable; the Clean Air Act, cutting emissions from cars and 
factories; the Safe Drinking Water Act; the Endangered Species Act.
  These laws are not perfect. But, on the whole, they have been 
remarkably successful. Our air is cleaner. Lead

[[Page S2887]]

emissions fell nearly 90 percent. To put it another way, we took nearly 
five ounces of lead out of the sky for every American man, woman, and 
child. Emissions of sulfur dioxide, carbon monoxide, and particulates 
are way down, and half as many Americans live in cities with unhealthy 
air as in 1970.
  Our water is cleaner. You can swim without getting sick and eat the 
fish you catch in twice as many rivers and streams. Even the Cuyahoga 
River has revived, to become a center for tourism in downtown 
Cleveland. The bald eagle is back from the brink of extinction.
  Overall, because of the work of Ed Muskie and his colleagues, our 
children are growing up in a more healthy and beautiful America.
  Mr. President, I am reminded of the Latin epitaph on the tomb of Sir 
Christopher Wren, the architect of St. Paul's Cathedral. It's inside 
the cathedral, and it says, ``If you would see his memorial, look 
around.''
  So it is with Ed Muskie. If you wish to see his memorial, look around 
you: at the air in our cities; at the Potomac River, or the Cuyahoga; 
at a cleaner environment from Maine to Montana; at a nation that is 
more healthy and more beautiful because of his work.
  He was a great environmental statesman, and his passing diminishes 
us.

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