[Congressional Record Volume 142, Number 53 (Tuesday, April 23, 1996)]
[House]
[Page H3671]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




            BATTERY RECYCLING AND OTHER ENVIRONMENTAL ISSUES

  Mr. RICHARDSON. Mr. Speaker, I ask unanimous consent to address the 
House for 1 minute.
  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Without objection, the gentleman from New 
Mexico is recognized for 1 minute.
  There was no objection.
  Mr. RICHARDSON. Mr. Speaker, on the issue of the environment and 
Earth Day, we have to be very careful not to politicize these issues. 
We are about to take up a battery recycling bill, which is a good bill. 
By the way, it used to be my bill and Frank Pallone' bill, now is a 
Republican bill. We accept that. Things change.
  But we should not, by passing this bill, say that we have ended our 
tasks in protecting the environment. Battery recycling is important, 
but it does not correct the environmental rollbacks that many in this 
Republican majority have pursued this year: Weakening the Clean Water 
Act, slashing funding for the EPA, weakening the Endangered Species 
Act, attempting to close down some of our national parks.
  We want to take some positive steps on the environment. We also 
should pass a bipartisan Superfund bill that does not pass the cost of 
cleanups on to the taxpayer, a safe drinking water bill that keeps 
public health as a top priority, a park concessions bill that allows 
fair competition to concessionaires and keeps the cost of visiting our 
parks down to all Americans.
  I do want to commend, I will be commending Chairman Bliley, Chairman 
Oxley, Chairman Dingell, and ranking member Pallone for their efforts 
to bring this battery recycling bill to the floor. Hopefully this will 
be a good precedent for the Republican majority to celebrate our 
environment, not just on Earth Day by going to a zoo and exhibiting 
concern for animals, but by passing concrete legislation.
  Mr. Speaker, I think that this is starting to happen with our 
majority here that realizes that taking on the environment has not been 
a good issue, that going out and weakening our environmental laws has 
rebounded negatively with voters. This is a good bill, and our 
colleague, the gentleman from Wisconsin [Mr. Klug], should be commended 
for it.
  I especially want to commend the work of the gentleman from New 
Jersey [Mr. Pallone], who has been a leader in the fight on mercury 
poisoning; that is, reducing it. He has been a leader in many issues 
relating to recycling.
  Mr. Speaker, I yield to the gentleman from New Jersey [Mr. Pallone].
  Mr. PALLONE. Mr. Speaker, I want to thank the gentleman from New 
Mexico for those very kind remarks and, of course, say the same thing 
about him. I know this battery bill has been very important to him and 
the whole issue of battery recycling and concern for mercury in the 
atmosphere.
  I agree with him completely when he says that as much as we believe 
that this bill is important today and we certainly do want it to pass, 
that that should not take away from what the Republican majority and 
the Republican leadership are doing about the environment in general, 
and how they are continuing to try to move legislation on the floor of 
this House that would tear down the environmental protections we have 
had in place for a number of years.
  Particularly, today I found out in the Committee on Appropriations, 
although they are very close to agreement on a spending bill that would 
take us through the remainder of this year, that the disagreement once 
again is over environmental issues and over the fact that the 
Republican leadership insists on these environmental riders or 
antienvironmental riders that are placed in the appropriations bill 
that would, among other things, prohibit new Superfund sites from being 
designated, prohibit the EPA from designating standards for radon in 
drinking water, prohibit the EPA from being involved in wetlands 
protection, and the list goes on and on.

                              {time}  1445

  So they are continuing their assault on the environment; that is, the 
Republican majority, at the same time they are making an effort today, 
or at least to seem to try to show today, that they do bring some 
environmental legislation to the floor. We cannot mask the fact that 
some of these measures like the battery recycling bill, even though 
they are very important, are small measures compared to the damage the 
Republican majority is doing to the environment.
  If I could just for a minute quote what I thought was a great 
editorial in yesterday's New York Times, just some of it, that is 
called ``Defunding Mother Earth.'' It says:

       There are many destructive proposals on the Congressional 
     agenda, including several bills that would transfer millions 
     of acres of public land to state and commercial jurisdiction. 
     But the most urgent example of bad legislation is an omnibus 
     appropriations bill now under consideration in a House Senate 
     conference. The bill sharply reduces appropriations for the 
     Environmental Protection Agency and the Interior Department 
     and contains a dozen or so crippling anti-environmental 
     riders.
       Today marks the 26th anniversary of Earth Day. In full 
     knowledge of that, House Speaker Newt Gingrich recently 
     formed a 77-member Republican environmental task force. 
     Although 36 members of this task force earned ``zero'' 
     ratings from the League of Conservation Voters for their 
     routine support of anti-environmental legislation, many of 
     them are likely to spend the week planting trees, visiting 
     zoos and striking friendly poses next to recycling bins. But 
     the best thing Mr. Gingrich could do for his country and his 
     party would be to recognize that what counts here is content, 
     not imagery--and remove those riders from the appropriations 
     bill.

  Once again, we need to keep pressing the point that you cannot talk 
about the environment in a favorable way, and move some bills, and at 
the same time continue the assault on the environment to tear down the 
last 25 years of environmental protection since Earth Day.
  Mr. RICHARDSON. Mr. Speaker, reclaiming my time, I thank the 
gentleman from New Jersey. I hope our friends from the majority are on 
their way. Here is their opportunity to do a real environmental bill. I 
hope they are not hesitating. I am sure they are on their way. I thank 
the Chair for allowing this dialog.
  This does not diminish the fact this is a good bill, this battery 
recycling bill. It is something I will say industry, some industry, has 
taken a very positive role in changing this, in being constructive 
about change. Hopefully, it will lead to other issues that involve 
protecting the environment. I think it is very important that we have a 
bipartisan bill on Superfund, a meaningful bipartisan bill, that does 
not pass the cost of cleanups on to the taxpayer.
  Next, this is the very glorious Committee on Commerce, a safe 
drinking water bill that keeps public health as a top priority.

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