[Congressional Record Volume 143, Number 89 (Monday, June 23, 1997)]
[House]
[Pages H4213-H4214]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                SUPPORT H.R. 1984 TO LIMIT POWER OF EPA

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under a previous order of the House, the 
gentleman from Pennsylvania [Mr. Klink] is recognized for 5 minutes.
  Mr. KLINK. Mr. Speaker, I rise tonight to beg of my colleagues on 
both sides of the aisle to join me in an effort, and I have spoken on 
this during the last several weeks. We have a bill called H.R. 1984. 
That is the number. I thought it was very unusual that we end up with 
the No. 1984, because there are those of my colleagues who remember the 
George Orwell novel about Big Brother peering into our lives. This 
really is to deal with Big Brother peering into our lives in the form 
of the Environmental Protection Agency.
  All of us agree with the goals, I believe, of the EPA and, that is, 
that we should have clean water to drink and to use and we should have 
clean air to breathe, and we have all been working to that end. 
However, many of us are concerned that at a time when States across 
this Nation are working to clean the air, when the Clean Air Amendments 
of 1990 and the Clean Air Act itself are showing themselves to be 
working, than here comes the EPA, about to change the finish line in 
the middle of this race. We fear that they are about to propose a 
tightening of the standards for something called particulate matter. 
Particulate matter is a fancy word for the soot that comes out of the 
smokestacks of this Nation or for the dust that blows off of fields in 
agricultural areas. And also for changing the standards for something 
called ozone which is nothing more than smog.

                              {time}  2330

  Now you see the problem is that industries in this Nation, that 
locales and States are implementing plans aiming at hitting the targets 
that have been set since 1987 in some instances, and now at a time when 
we are about to come into compliance, when many counties across this 
great Nation are beginning to come into compliance, the EPA is about to 
take a action we feel that will throw 400 counties out of compliance.
  Now what happens if your county, Mr. and Mrs. Congressman, is one of 
those counties or the counties in your region are those counties well, 
what happens is first of all that your State that is about to implement 
a plan to clean up the air says wait a minute, we are going to stop, we 
are not going to take the action to clean up the air, and as a result 
we will have dirtier air for a longer period of time. The other result 
is if you are out of compliance the day these new regulations will take 
effect it will be harder for the local governing body, whether it is 
the county commissioners, whether it is a city, a township, a bureau, 
would not be able to issue building permits to industries that want to 
expand or new industries that want to locate in your region, and so the 
dramatic impact, even if they said let U.S. Put these new regulations 
on the book but we are not going to enforce them today, does not matter 
because the day those regulations are put on the books industries and 
local government leaders are going to have to begin to react to them in 
ways that will cost jobs across this Nation, in ways that will cause 
local governing bodies to spend more money, industry to spend more 
money.
  And so this bill that I am talking about that I would like to 
encourage my colleagues to join me on is a bipartisan bill. The 
gentleman from Michigan [Mr. Upton] on the Republican side, myself on 
the Democratic side, along with the gentleman from Virginia [Mr. 
Boucher] have introduced H.R. 1984 that says simply this: Rather than 
spending billions of dollars and really ending up having dirtier air 
for a longer period of time and costing a million jobs or more, let 
U.S. Authorize the expenditure of $75 million a year over the next 5 
years, and during

[[Page H4214]]

that period of time we will ask that we build the new PM monitors that 
will measure the air across this Nation.
  Right now for this particulate matter there are only 50 monitors that 
exist across the whole country. Let U.S. Build enough monitors that we 
can get the scientific data and that we can then analyze it.
  The reason the EPA is moving in this direction is that they were sued 
by the American Lung Association that said every 5 years under the act 
you are supposed to go back and take a look at this. Does not mean you 
have to change the standards, does not mean you have to tighten the 
standards, but every 5 years you have to go back and review the 
standards, and they said, EPA, you have not done this since 1987, and 
now we are in 1997, so it has been 10 years. And what we are saying is 
that until you build those new monitors, until you deploy those 
monitors across this Nation, gather the data, another 5 years will 
pass.
  Why do we want to spend billions of dollars changing the target of 
clean air in the middle of this race to achieve it? It makes no sense 
at all.
  And so, Mr. Speaker, I would request that our colleagues join me and 
say for 5 years let U.S. Not implement the new regulations, let U.S. 
Get good science, let U.S. Study the issue, let U.S. Deploy these 
monitors, and then after 5 years we will take a look at this issue 
again and the health and the air of this Nation will be much better for 
it.

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