[Congressional Record Volume 142, Number 48 (Tuesday, April 16, 1996)]
[House]
[Pages H3397-H3398]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                              {time}  1200
                 REPUBLICAN THREATS TO THE ENVIRONMENT

  (Mr. JACKSON of Illinois asked and was given permission to address 
the House for 1 minute and to revise and extend his remarks.)
  Mr. JACKSON of Illinois. Mr. Speaker, the founder of the annual April 
22 Earth Day, former Senator Gaylord Nelson, said the record of the 
104th Congress shows this to be the worst environmental Congress ever. 
The majority leadership in this body has attempted to roll back years 
of environmental progress to provide favors for its special interest 
friends.
  Because of budget cuts by the majority in this Congress, the 
Environmental protection Agency has missed thousands of inspections and 
enforcement actions. This same majority has shifted costs from 
polluters to taxpayers, while cleanups have been slowed at 400 toxic 
waste sites and stopped at 60 Superfund sites. Because funds to 
implement six administrative rules have been cut, hundreds of millions 
of pounds of pollution entered our water supply that could have been 
prevented.
  While never aggressively pursued, adequately funded or fully 
enforced,

[[Page H3398]]

our environmental laws were working. Yet, there is much to be done. It 
is time for the majority in the 104th Congress to clean up its 
environmental act.

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