[Congressional Record Volume 142, Number 44 (Wednesday, March 27, 1996)]
[House]
[Pages H2890-H2892]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                              {time}  1600
         REPUBLICAN ENVIRONMENTAL SWAT TEAMS OUT IN FULL FORCE

  The SPEAKER pro tempore (Mr. Ewing). Under the Speaker's announced 
policy of May 12, 1995, the gentleman from Michigan [Mr. Bonior] is 
recognized for 15 minutes as the designee of the minority leader.
  Mr. BONIOR. Mr. Speaker, the Republican environmental SWAT teams are 
out in full force today.
  Speaker Gingrich is advising his colleagues to do photo-ops at local 
zoos to counter the image that the Republicans are extremists on the 
environment.
  And over the past few weeks, a number of our Republican colleagues 
have come to this floor to defend their record on the environment.
  Every time I hear one of them, I'm reminded of the story about that 
man who was arrested for eating a California condor.
  He was dragged into court and the judge said, ``before I lock you up, 
what do you have to say for yourself?''
  The man said, ``Judge, you don't understand. I was out hiking when I 
got caught in a terrible avalanche. I was trapped for days without food 
or water. When I was near death, a bird flew over my head, so I shot it 
down. I didn't know it was a California condor. But judge, if it wasn't 
for that bird, I would have starved to death.''
  The judge was so moved that he decided to let the man go free.
  As he was walking out of the court, the man was stopped by reporters 
and they said, ``Before you leave, we have to know one thing. What did 
the bird taste like?''
  The man said, ``Oh * * * it's kind of a cross between a bald eagle 
and a spotted owl.''
  It seems to me that the Republicans have the same problem on the 
environment. They don't have any credibility.
  On one hand they come to this floor to talk about the environment. 
But on the other hand, they're working in the back room with the 
polluters lobby to destroy 25 years worth of progress on the 
environment.
  Don't just take my word for it, Mr. Speaker. Listen to what others 
have said.
  The Sierra Club says that the GOP agenda ``breaks faith with the 
American public.''
  The Natural Resources Defense Fund calls the first session of the 
Republican Congress ``the year of living dangerously.''
  The nonpartisan National Journal says that a conservative Republican 
tide is threatening to wash away 25 years of progress on the 
environment.
  And just today, the lead editorial in the Washington Post reads, and 
I quote, ``Republican leaders began to complain last fall that their 
party has been misunderstood on the environment. They said they 
intended to moderate their position. But the persistence'' of the 
legislative riders that they are continuing to push even this week 
``suggests that there's been no moderation.''
  In other words, they're just as extreme as they were a year ago.
  And most telling of all in a recent poll: 55 percent of Republicans 
say they don't trust their own party on the environment.
  Mr. Speaker, all over America today, people are wondering: how did 
this happen?
  How did things go so wrong so fast?
  For 25 years, Democrats and Republicans have worked together to 
protect the environment.
  And we are rightfully proud of all that we've been able to 
accomplish.
  Working together, we've made tremendous progress. Today, 60 percent 
of our lakes and rivers are clean. Major rivers no longer catch on 
fire. Millions of Americans are breathing cleaner air.

[[Page H2891]]

Hundreds of toxic dump sites have been cleaned up. And tens of millions 
of Americans all over this country are reusing and recycling.
  Together, we've banned DDT. We've protected millions of children from 
lead poisoning. We cut toxic emissions from factories in half. And in 
the process of keeping our environment clean, we've helped create 
millions of jobs.
  This is a proud record of progress shared by both parties. But at the 
same time, we all know: the job is not done.
  Despite all the progress we've made, 40 percent of our lakes and 
rivers are too polluted for swimming or fishing. One in three Americans 
still live in an area where the air is unhealthy. Ten million children 
under the age of 12 live within 4 miles of a toxic waste dump.
  And as recently as 3 years ago, 104 people in Milwaukee died and 
40,000 got sick when a toxin called cryptosperidium got released in 
their drinking water.
  We've got a lot of work left to do. Yet, at the very moment when we 
need national leadership most the Republicans have mounted the most 
aggressive anti-environmental campaign in our history and are busy 
right now taking the environmental cop off the beat.
  To understand how it happened, Mr. Speaker, you don't have to do an 
extensive search.
  All you have to do is understand the environmental journey of one 
man.
  One man who went from the hilltop of environmental protection to the 
sludgepit of environmental waste.
  One man who went from having a 66-percent League of Conservation 
Voters approval rating all the way down to zero today.
  And Mr. Speaker that one man is Newt Gingrich himself.
  Long before House Republicans ever signed the Contract With America, 
Newt Gingrich signed a different contact, a contract with every 
polluter and anti-environment special interest in the land.
  To understand his journey is to understand the extremism of House of 
Republicans.
  You know, there are a lot of people who like to joke that Speaker 
Gingrich is the kind of man who would jump up on a tree stump to give a 
speech on conservation.
  But it wasn't always that way, Mr. Speaker.
  In the early 1970's, before he was ever elected to Congress, Newt 
Gingrich actually taught a course on the environment.
  In 1982, he earned a League of Conservation Voters approval rating of 
66 percent.
  In 1987-88, his approval stood at 50 percent.
  That's not a stellar rating, but it's not bad.
  But in 1989, something happened, Mr. Speaker. Something began to 
change.
  People concerned about the environment began to notice that Newt 
Gingrich would no longer return their phone calls. He no longer spoke 
out on environmental issues.
  And his voting record began to change.
  In the 101st Congress, he sided with the oil industry and voted 
against States' rights to set their own oil spill laws. In 1989, he 
sided with the timber industry and voted to allow unchecked logging in 
the Tongass National Forest in Alaska.
  In the 102d Congress, he sided with the mining and grazing industry 
and voted to sacrifice nearly two-thirds of the California Desert to 
industry. In 1991, he sided with the chemical industry and voted 
against communities' right to know when toxic waste was being dumped in 
their neighborhoods.
  During this time, his voting record did more somersaults than Mary 
Lou Retton.
  He flip-flopped on a bill to allow oil drilling in the Arctic Refuge. 
In the past, he sided with environmental protection. But now, he sides 
with the oil industry.
  He's flip-flopped again and again on a bill that would protect 
endangered species. In the past, he sided with animals and voted yes. 
Today, he sides with industry.
  And through it all, the man whose League of Conservation Voters 
approval rating stood at 50 percent in 1988 began to take a nosedive.
  In 1989, it went down to 10 percent.
  In 1990, it stood at 13 percent.
  In 1991, it dove to 8 percent.
  In 1992, it dropped to 6 percent.
  In 1993, he felt guilty, so it went back up to 30 percent.
  In 1994--zero percent.
  In 1995--zero.
  In 1996--zero.
  The man who once taught a course on the environment was teaching us 
all how to sell out on the environment.
  How did this happen, Mr. Speaker? What happened in 1989 to change 
things?
  Well, its a simple answer. In 1989, Newt Gingrich was elected to his 
party's leadership. He was elected Whip of the Republican Party.
  From the day he was elected whip, Mr. Gingrich's campaign coffers 
began to bulge with contributions from the biggest polluters and 
special interests in America.
  I would submit to you, Mr. Speaker, that this is the same exact 
pattern we see repeating itself in the Republican Party today.
  From the minute the Republicans took over last year, a small army of 
very powerful industry lobbyists descended on Capitol Hill as if they 
owned the place.
  As Newt Gingrich's own newspaper, the Atlanta Journal-Constitution 
wrote last May, these people have been, and I quote, ``flooding the 
campaign coffers of friendly congressmen with hundreds of thousands of 
dollars in contributions.''
  Together with their friends in the Republican leadership the 
polluters lobby has mounted an all out assault on our environmental 
laws and public health protections.
  In one documented case, an industry lobbyist actually sat at the dais 
during a committee hearing and helped rewrite the environmental laws of 
this Nation.
  The polluters lobby is getting special favors, and the American 
people are paying the price.
  Just listen to the parade of horribles that Speaker Gingrich and his 
special interest friends are trying to pass today.
  Just listen to what the Republican environmental agenda does in 1 
year's time:
  It cuts the Environmental Protection Agency by 21 percent.
  It cuts pollution enforcement 25 percent.
  It denies local communities $712 million in funding to protect 
drinking water, which is 29 percent below the President's request.
  It cuts the land and water conservation fund 25 percent.
  It even tried to kill the bipartisan Great Lakes initiative.
  Because of all these budget games, 40 percent of all EPA health and 
safety inspections so far this year have been halted or canceled.
  And that's not all.
  Their budget cuts Superfund cleanup by 25 percent, which has forced 
the EPA to halt cleanup at 68 Superfund sites so far this year, 
including 4 in Michigan.
  It rolls back local communities right-to-know about toxic waste.
  It cuts Superfund research by 75 percent.
  It cuts the Endangered Species Act 38 percent below the President's 
request.
  It bars the listing of any new species as endangered.
  It allows oil drilling in the Arctic Refuge.
  It delays new meat inspection standards.
  It weakens enforcement of the wetlands provisions of the Clean Water 
Act.
  It accelerates--by 40 percent--logging of America's old-growth rain 
forest.
  It eliminates funding for the National Park Service at Mojave Desert.
  It terminates the Columbia Basin Ecosystem Management Project.
  It delays approving pesticides with lower health risks to farmers.
  It even delays new standards for toxic industrial air pollutants.
  Under the present system, polluters pay. Under the Republican system, 
taxpayers would be required to pay the polluters to stop polluting.
  No wonder Speaker Gingrich is advising his colleagues to be seen at 
zoos. If they have their way zoos are the only place we'll be able to 
see animals.
  And just as important as what they're trying to do is how they're 
trying to do it.
  They knew the American people would never put up with the outright

[[Page H2892]]

repeal of these bills so they're trying to sneak through the back door.
  They knew they couldn't pass a bill to allow oil drilling in the 
Alaskan wilderness. So they snuck a provision into the reconciliation 
bill that allows drilling in Alaska.
  They knew they couldn't just repeal the Clean Water Act. So they've 
attached legislative riders to gut environmental laws in 17 different 
ways.
  They knew they couldn't pass a budget that cuts environmental 
protection. So every week, we get another stop-and-go budget that 
quietly keeps the EPA from doing its job.
  I think the Republican Whip, Tom DeLay, said it best. He stood on 
this floor in defiance just a few months ago, and he said: ``We are 
going to fund only those programs we want to fund. We're in charge. We 
don't have to negotiate with the Senate. We don't have to negotiate 
with the Democrats.''
  And apparently, they don't care much what the American people think 
either.
  Thankfully, the American people are seeing right through the 
Republican agenda.
  And thankfully, the veto pen of the President is more powerful than 
the axe of the Gingrich Republicans.
  Time and time again, the President has stood tall against the extreme 
cuts and we will continue to fight them every step of the way. Because 
we are a better nation than this and we are a better people than this.
  We have come too far as a nation and we have sacrificed too much to 
turn the clock back now.
  For 25 years, Democrats and Republicans worked together to protect 
the environment.
  We have done so because we've always realized that despite our 
difference in the end we all drink the same water, we all breathe the 
same air, and we all depend on the same environment for our survival.
  We can never forget. We don't just inherit this land from our 
parents. We borrow it from our children.
  Speaker Gingrich may have made a deal with polluters. But we were 
elected to what's right for the American people.
  And if this Congress isn't going to work to protect the environment 
for our families and our children, if they aren't going to work to keep 
our water clean and our air safe, then come November the American 
people will elect a Congress that will.

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