[Congressional Record Volume 145, Number 55 (Wednesday, April 21, 1999)]
[Senate]
[Pages S3977-S3978]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                      UNANIMOUS CONSENT AGREEMENT

  Mr. REID. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the Senator 
from Colorado, Senator Campbell, be recognized on his own time, and 
that his speech not appear as part of the 30 minutes dedicated to 
Senators Boxer and Reid, and that his speech appear separate in the 
Record. After that, I tell the Chair that the final approximately 10 
minutes that is left for Senators Boxer and Reid would be given to the 
Senator from New Jersey, Mr. Lautenberg.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. Without objection, it is so ordered.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from New Jersey is recognized for 
10 minutes.
  Mr. LAUTENBERG. Thank you, Mr. President.
  Mr. President, our mission this morning is to discuss the 
environment, and to celebrate the birth of Earth Day, which takes place 
tomorrow. I will use my time for that purpose.
  But I want to take just a minute, because I, like everyone else in 
this country, am heartbroken by what we saw take place yesterday. In my 
conversation with the Senator from Colorado, I expressed my sympathies. 
But I want to point out something. Those children were killed by 
deranged young people of their own class. But they used guns, and they 
used weapons that are, frankly, I think out of control in our society. 
This isn't just happening in Colorado. It is a terrible happening in 
Colorado. But look at the other days. It happened in Utah. It has 
happened in Arkansas, Mississippi, Kentucky, Oregon, and Illinois. Just 
search your mind and you can find almost every State having had a 
problem. It is a plague in our society. It is a blight across our 
country.
  There is a bit of a paradox as we talk about Earth Day and the 
positive aspects of what Earth Day can mean so that children can bathe 
in the waters, fish in the streams, play on the Earth, and breathe the 
air--all positive things looking toward an improvement in their 
health--just under the shadow of the murderous rampage that took place 
yesterday.


                         Privilege Of The Floor

  Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that Lisa Haage, a detailee in 
my office, be granted the privilege of the floor for the duration of 
the 106th Congress.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. Without objection, it is so ordered.
  Mr. LAUTENBERG. Mr. President, I rise to join my colleagues to 
discuss the Democratic environmental agenda on the eve of Earth Day.
  We have an ambitious agenda to protect open spaces, reduce sprawl and 
relieve congestion.
  While Congressional Democrats have an excellent agenda for the 
future, we also have a proud history of accomplishment since the first 
Earth Day in 1970. Our nation's major environmental laws were written 
and passed under Democratic leadership.
  Democrats passed the first Clean Water Act. Democrats wrote the first 
Superfund law. Democrats authored the Clean Air Act.
  And the Clinton Administration has an impressive record of enforcing 
these laws. The EPA has an outstanding record of cleaning up toxic 
waste sites under the Superfund program.
  For example, by the end of this Fiscal Year, September 30, 95 percent 
of all Superfund sites will have remedies selected and cleanups 
beginning or underway.
  Overall, the Clinton Administration has cleaned up more Superfund 
sites in the past two years than in the first 12 years of program.
  Administrator Browner has also had success protecting our nation's 
drinking water, reducing smog so that children breathe healthier air, 
and cleaning up our lakes and rivers for swimming and fishing.
  Mr. President, today, I would specifically like to talk about my 
brownfields bill and its promise to reduce sprawl and protect our 
environment.
  My common sense brownfields bill, S. 20, will help accomplish all of 
these goals.
  My bill will help turn a contaminated, abandoned parcel of land into 
a new school, an new business or a new playing field. And the benefits 
will multiply from there. Cleaning up brownfields protects open spaces 
by keeping commercial development inside our cities, where it creates 
jobs and can lower property taxes.
  With more reuse and redevelopment in our cities, there will be less 
pressure to develop farmland and parkland outside our cities.
  How do we make this happen? By making grant money available for 
States and cities to start the redevelopment of brownfields, and using 
their own zoning codes and no Federal regulations with that so that 
they can make sure people who are interested in buying and developing 
these sites aren't sued for the contamination that was never their 
fault.
  Brownfields need not be a blight on our communities but an 
opportunity for smart growth.
  Mr. President, fortunately, brown- 
fields is not a partisan issue. In fact, many Republican Senators have 
supported the thrust of my legislation. This means, on this Earth Day, 
we have a chance to do something that will protect our environment and 
open spaces, and leave a better world for our children and 
grandchildren.
  We should not miss the opportunity to do so.
  Mr. President, we have pending before us the reauthorization of 
Superfund. It is now 2 years since the Superfund bill expired, and we 
still continue to operate. But we don't derive any of the revenues that 
were supposed to be part of the bill. We can't get a Superfund bill 
that is decent that doesn't protect the polluters, which is what 
Superfund was all about. It says, let the responsible parties pay for 
their damage. It has worked pretty well.
  I was at a site in New Jersey that was the No. 1 Superfund site in 
the country. A company there agreed, finally, to pay $100 million 
toward the restoration of this site. I was there on Saturday to 
commemorate this new development. It was a spectacular day. I was there 
with the Little League. They even let me throw out the first pitch. 
That is the only first pitch I have thrown out. I haven't been invited 
by the Yankees, or otherwise. But to be able to throw out a pitch to 
the Little League, to see a softball field next to that, a hardball, a 
regular baseball field next to that, a soccer field next to that, all 
developed out of what was a horrible toxic waste site. The lake is 
clean. Before, there were signs for the children to avoid getting too 
near the lake because there was poisonous material in there. No fish 
could live--nothing.
  When he celebrated the cleanup of that lake 2 years ago, the mayor of 
Pitman, NJ, a fellow named Bruce Ware, stood next to me, and, he said, 
``I am going to fulfill a promise that I made years ago that if this 
lake ever got

[[Page S3978]]

cleaned up I am going in it.'' With that, he turned, fully dressed, 
with his tie and his jacket and his suit, and he jumped in the lake. He 
was so ecstatic about the fact that this community was going to be rid 
of this blighted parcel of land--about 100 acres, a big piece of land.
  It is fantastic. I believe it will result in not only more revenues 
for the community but also a lifting of the spirit in that community.
  That is what we ought to be doing. We ought not tinker with 
Superfund, to reduce it, to emasculate it such that it has no power and 
no strength.
  I hope we are going to be able to do that in the next few days. I 
hope the American people will insist that as we attempt to clean up our 
land and avoid the sprawl that we are living with that we will pay 
attention to what we have as a society in terms of an obligation to 
future generations.
  Mr. President, I thank the Chair for the opportunity to have the 
floor.
  I yield the floor.

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