[Congressional Record Volume 145, Number 56 (Thursday, April 22, 1999)]
[Senate]
[Pages S4143-S4144]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                               EARTH DAY

  Mr. GRAMS. Mr. President, today across our country, Americans are 
commemorating Earth Day, a day vitally important to all who serve in 
this Chamber as well.
  As my colleagues know, Earth Day was first observed on April 22, 
1970. Its purpose was, and it remains, to make people across the 
country and around the world reflect on the splendor of our planet, an 
opportunity to get the people to think about the Earth's many gifts we 
often take for granted.
  Earth Day is a day for us to renew our commitment to protect our 
environment and recognize the respect we must give our natural 
resources, recycling and replenishing whenever possible.
  The New York Times, on the original Earth Day, ran a story which in 
part read:

       Conservatives were for it. Liberals were for it. Democrats, 
     Republicans and Independents were for it. So were the ins, 
     the outs, the executive and the legislative branches of 
     Government.

  Mr. President, the goals of Earth Day 1970 were goals upon which all 
of us agree. They are goals still shared across the country, regardless 
of age, gender, race, economic status, or religious background, and 
they are shared by this Senator as well.
  I consider myself a conservationist and an environmentalist, and I 
think everyone who serves in the Senate also does. No one among us is 
willing to accept the proposition that our children or grandchildren 
will ever have to endure dirty water or filthy skies. Our children 
deserve to live in a world that affords them the same environmental 
opportunities that their parents enjoy today.
  When speaking about the Earth and our environment, however, it is 
becoming increasingly difficult to highlight the consensus that exists 
in Congress on protecting the environment, because the environmental 
debate is now so focused on the margins.
  The proliferation of special interest groups has forced our debate 
away from our common concerns and left the American people with the 
idea that an individual is either for the environment or against it, 
and that determination is made not by the voters or by one's record, 
but by the scorecard or the rhetoric of a particular organization.
  I would like to take a moment this Earth Day to remind my 
constituents and the American people of the tremendous progress we have 
made on a bipartisan basis towards protecting the Earth and its 
inhabitants and, at the same time, improving and conserving our 
precious natural resources.
  In the 104th Congress, we passed several major pieces of legislation 
to improve the environment. They include the Safe Drinking Water Act, 
the conservation title to the farm bill, the Coastal Zone Management 
Act, the Invasive Species Act, the Everglades Protection Amendments, 
the Food Quality Protection Act, the Water Resources Development Act, 
the Battery Recycling Act, and the Parks and Public Lands Management 
Act, just to name a few.
  Those public laws are now at work helping Americans protect the 
environment by including billions of dollars to improve the safety of 
our Nation's drinking water and billions more on conservation efforts 
on more than 37 million acres of sensitive land.

  Those programs will help improve our cities' waterfronts, control 
invasive species in our lakes, and increase visitor enjoyment and 
natural resource protection in our Nation's parks and in our visitors' 
enjoyment.
  Unfortunately, if a Member's constituents did not take the time to 
review the complete record of their Member of Congress, they would not 
know the truth.
  While the accomplishments of the 104th Congress are impressive, the 
105th Congress did not rest on its laurels over the past 2 years. The 
environmental accomplishments of the 105th Congress include the 
National Wildlife Refuge System Improvement Act, the North American 
Wetlands Conservation Act, the Dolphin Conservation Act, the Great 
Lakes Fish and Wildlife Restoration Act, the National Park System 
Restoration Act, the National Wildlife Refuge System Volunteers and 
Community Partnership Act, the Tropical Forest Conservation Act, the 
African and Asian Elephant Conservation

[[Page S4144]]

Acts, and a host of programs contained within the provisions of the 
appropriations legislation.
  Again, these programs will provide even more money, billions of 
dollars across the spectrum of environmental protection. These programs 
were passed only through bipartisan cooperation and were largely 
supported by most Members of Congress.
  In the 106th Congress, we are off to another good start. I have 
focused my efforts on looking at legislation which improves our 
Nation's energy efficiency and security and promotes the use of 
alternative renewable sources of energy.
  I am a cosponsor of legislation to extend the wind energy tax credit 
and to provide a tax credit for the production of energy from poultry 
litter.
  I have also cosponsored legislation with Senators Coverdell, Breaux, 
and DeWine which would force Federal facilities to comply with the 
provisions of the Clean Water Act, something they are currently able to 
avoid by claiming sovereign immunity.
  I will soon be joining Senators Murkowski and Hagel as an original 
cosponsor of the Energy and Climate Policy Act which, through tax 
credits and public-private partnerships, will promote research and 
development of technologies which reduce or sequester greenhouse gas 
emissions.
  We have had tremendous accomplishments in Congress over the past 4 
years, and I make this point not to illustrate a difference between 
Republican and Democratic Congresses, but to highlight our shared 
commitments to protecting the environment, improving our wildlife 
habitats, making our water supply safer, increasing visitor enjoyment 
in our Nation's parks, and also strengthening our dedication to leaving 
a proud legacy of natural resource protection for our children and 
grandchildren to enjoy.
  Mr. President, I make these points because they are often not 
properly presented to the American public, because many 
proenvironmental initiatives are passed by unanimous consent or by 
voice vote. They often do not appear on our voting records. Instead, 
Americans are left with the five or six votes over an entire year that 
a special interest group portrays as the complete environmental record 
of Members of Congress.
  Anyone who closely monitors Congress knows that these issues are not 
as simple as some make them out to be, and a Member's record is not 
accurately reflected by five or six selective votes, votes which are 
many times procedural votes and not votes on final passage. That is why 
I have long believed we can do a better job of promoting our shared 
commitment to both environmental protection and economic growth by 
highlighting our many common beliefs, rather than taking a microscope 
to those beliefs upon which differences arise.

  Clearly, partisanship will always be present in congressional 
debates, but no American is well served when issues as important as 
environmental protection are dominated by the flagrant distortion of 
the truth.
  Mr. President, I suggest that on this Earth Day, we pledge to come 
together to improve our environment and strengthen our natural 
resources. I suggest that we recognize both our failures and also our 
successes of the past. We must recognize that today compliance with 
regulations is the rule and that blatant attempts to pollute and 
circumvent regulations are the exception. With this in mind, I believe 
we must renew our Nation's commitment to pragmatism.
  Government on all levels must do its part as watchdog while 
empowering those being regulated to develop unique and innovative means 
of compliance. At the same time, we must promote ideas that create 
public-private partnerships and encourage companies and individuals to 
take voluntary steps to protect our natural resources. Through 
education and awareness, we will be able to approach environmental 
issues in a way that fosters compromise and in a way that ensures 
public policy is pursued in the best interest of all.
  It is time we commit ourselves to achieving real results through 
environmental initiatives. We must make sure that Superfund dollars go 
to clean up the Superfund sites, not go into the pockets of lawyers. We 
must base our decisions on clear science with stated goals and flexible 
solutions. We must give our job creators more flexibility in meeting 
national standards as a means of eliminating the pervasive ``command 
and control'' approach that has infected so many of our Federal 
programs.
  And finally, the Federal Government needs to promote a better 
partnership between all levels of Government, with job providers, 
environmental interest groups, and with the taxpayers. Moving forward 
together in eliminating the inflammatory rhetoric which sometimes 
consumes the entire environmental debate will not be easy, but if we 
are going to work together to ensure the splendor of our natural 
resources far into the future, I believe it is a step that we are going 
to have to take.
  Thank you very much, Mr. President.

                          ____________________