[Congressional Record Volume 142, Number 48 (Tuesday, April 16, 1996)]
[House]
[Pages H3398-H3399]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                 ENVIRONMENTAL RECORD OF 104TH CONGRESS

  (Mr. DURBIN asked and was given permission to address the House for 1 
minute.)
  Mr. DURBIN. Mr. Speaker, with Earth Day coming up, it is time to 
reflect on the environmental record of the 104th Congress. Do you 
recall, during the heyday of the Gingrich revolution, when in one 
appropriation bill the Gingrich Republicans put in a 28-page amendment 
which eliminated 14 environmental protection laws they considered 
unnecessary?

[[Page H3399]]

  Let me give some examples. The law which says the Federal Government 
will monitor the presence of arsenic in drinking water, the Republicans 
say that is unnecessary.
  Another law which said that one industry, a special interest group, 
the cement kiln industry, would have a waiver of air pollution 
standards, the Republicans said, that is a good idea. Well, that 
amendment passed with the Gingrich Republicans' support, and after 3 
separate efforts, 35 moderate Republicans finally took all the heat 
they could at home and decided to join the Democrats and repeal it.
  Since then, the gentleman from Georgia [Mr. Gingrich] has tried to 
get an awful lot greener. Every time he has come to the floor, he has 
talked about saving the environment, but the American people know 
better. You have to put money in the Environmental Protection Agency to 
protect the purity of the water we drink and the safety of the air that 
we breathe.

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