[Congressional Record Volume 142, Number 49 (Wednesday, April 17, 1996)]
[House]
[Page H3495]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




  104TH CONGRESS HAS SHIFTED FOCUS ON ENVIRONMENT TO ENFORCEMENT, NOT 
                   WEAKENING, OF EXISTING REGULATIONS

  (Mr. HOKE asked and was given permission to address the House for 1 
minute and to revise and extend his remarks.)
  Mr. HOKE. Mr. Speaker, let us think about and talk about, just for a 
moment, exactly what the 104th Congress has done with respect to the 
environment, because there is so much deception that is being 
propagated about it, it is difficult to separate the truth from the 
reality or from the fiction.
  The reality is that for the first time ever this Congress actually 
passed a Clean Water Act that provides for relief from and accounting 
for nonpoint source pollution. We had never done that before.
  This Congress increased the funding for the Clean Water Act from $1.2 
to $2.4 billion, a tremendous increase.
  This Congress did not weaken one single regulation with respect to 
the standards themselves, but what this Congress did do is, it shifted 
where the focus of enforcement will be. It shifted it away from 
Washington, Washington bureaucrats with a one-size-fits-all attitude 
and approach, and to the States.
  There is, in fact, notwithstanding the fact that many would like us 
to believe otherwise, there is no difference with respect to the goal, 
but there is a tremendous difference with respect to the way we get 
there, the process.

                          ____________________