[Congressional Record Volume 147, Number 102 (Friday, July 20, 2001)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Page E1387]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                 ENVIRONMENTAL TERRORISM REDUCTION ACT

                                 ______
                                 

                          HON. DARLENE HOOLEY

                               of oregon

                    in the house of representatives

                         Friday, July 20, 2001

  Ms. HOOLEY of Oregon. Mr. Speaker, America has a long tradition of 
civic activism. From the anti-slavery movement to women's suffrage to 
the civil rights era, citizen activists have accomplished many 
important social reforms by working together through peaceful means to 
influence their friends and neighbors and building support for change.
  We Americans fight for change at the ballot box and in the halls of 
legislatures--not with incendiary devices and pipe bombs.
  Mr. Speaker, unfortunately violent acts in the name of protecting the 
environment are growing in alarming numbers throughout the western 
United States. Earlier this month I visited a timber company facility 
in Monmouth, Oregon that had been burned down in an arson perpetrated 
by the Earth Liberation Front.
  In the Monmouth attack, which roused firefighters out of bed on 
Christmas morning, the arson caused the roof to collapse only minutes 
after those who were fighting the fire pulled out. Paul Evans, the 
mayor of Monmouth and a volunteer firefighter who fought the blaze that 
Christmas day, told me he narrowly escaped injury or death in the fire. 
Ironically, Paul, who is now serving a military tour of duty in the 
Persian Gulf, was probably in more danger in his own town than he now 
is in Kuwait.
  Mr. Speaker, these are not victimless crimes, and they must be 
halted. That is why I'm introducing the Environmental Terrorism 
Reduction Act.
  The most challenging aspect of these crimes is that the perpetrators 
have been difficult to apprehend, leaving most of these crimes unsolved 
because with limited resources and manpower, local law enforcement 
officials have little success closing these cases.
  The Environmental Terrorism Reduction Act closes this gap by 
requiring the Attorney General to establish a national clearinghouse 
for information on incidents of eco-terrorism to help investigators 
stay ahead of the curve in preventing additional acts of terror.
  In addition, this bill establishes the Environmental Terrorism 
Reduction Program in the Department of Justice. This program would 
authorize the Attorney General, upon consultation with the heads of 
Federal, State, and local law enforcement agencies and the Governor of 
each applicable State, to designate any area as a high intensity 
environmental terrorism area. After making such a designation local law 
enforcement agencies could access funding to assist them in solving and 
preventing these types of crimes in the future.
  Mr. Speaker, I believe the provisions in the Environmental Terrorism 
Reduction Act will greatly aid our communities and industries that are 
vulnerable to eco-terrorism. It is high time the federal government 
addressed this situation, and I urge my colleagues to join me in 
sponsoring this measure and enacting it into law.

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