[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 146 (2000), Part 7]
[Senate]
[Page 10168]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]



           GORTON TO GORE: ``WELCOME TO EASTERN WASHINGTON!''

  Mr. GORTON. Mr. President, the citizens of eastern Washington will 
experience a rare occurrence this week: Al Gore will visit there for 
the first time since he was re-elected Vice President almost 4 years 
ago. I welcome him to that beautiful part of Washington, and hope that 
he takes the opportunity to listen to the concerns of as many people as 
he can.
  If he had come a week earlier, he could have joined me at any or all 
of the seven stops I made in eastern Washington, so that he could hear 
about the primary concern of citizens--the proposed removal of dams by 
the Clinton/Gore administration. On the other hand, knowing how eastern 
Washington citizens feel about hydroelectric dams, it is not a surprise 
that he would choose to stay away.
  But let me urge the citizens of eastern Washington to take a good 
look around this week, because they will be getting a preview of what 
life would be like under a Gore administration. Just as in the Clinton/
Gore administration, they would have a President and an administration 
who believe that the Federal Government knows better than local 
citizens do how to manage their eastern Washington way of life.
  They would have an administration and a President who appears more 
interested in politics and his own election than what is necessary to 
save salmon or which energy source is the cleanest and most efficient 
for Washington citizens.
  Consider the following dubious challenge that eastern Washington 
citizens face in this administration:
  Next week, the Clinton/Gore administration will enact its 4(d) rules 
under the Endangered Species Act. Under the rules, the National Marine 
Fisheries Service will have the right to regulate the ``daily 
behavior'' of Washington citizens, including how much energy they 
consume, how far they travel, and how they maintain their gardens. 
Earlier this year, the administration ignored eastern Washington's 
request for more public hearings on the subject and more time to gain a 
better understanding of the vast impact the rules will have on their 
lives.
  Later this summer, the administration will seek to implement the 
Interior Columbia Basin Ecosystem Management Project over the strong 
opposition of many citizens of eastern Washington.
  Tomorrow, Al Gore will announce that 200,000 acres on the Hanford 
site will be set aside as a national monument by Presidential fiat. No 
one disagrees that the Hanford Reach must be protected. It is a 
magnificent part of the state that deserves preservation for 
generations to come. Of course, it is not now under threat and no 
emergency requires presidential action without consulting those who 
live around the reach. So, as decisions are made on how to protect the 
Hanford Reach, local consensus should be a vital component in reaching 
those decisions.
  I have always advocated collaboration with and listening to all of 
the stakeholders to achieve a just solution. The Clinton/Gore approach 
is but one more example of Washington, D.C. deciding for Washington 
communities something I believe that they are fully capable of deciding 
for themselves.
  The fact that Gore will tell local people what the Federal Government 
intends to do on the Hanford site rather than listen is a preview of 
how a Gore administration will deal with local citizens on a whole host 
of issues in the future.
  The issue of the Snake River dams, however, is another matter. I 
expect that while Al Gore is in eastern Washington, much as with his 
previous visits to Seattle and Portland, he will refuse honestly to 
reveal his position about whether he believes tearing down the Snake 
River dams is necessary to save salmon.
  Equivocating on an issue that will affect the lives of hundreds of 
thousands of people, cost billions of dollars, and have minimal if any 
impact on salmon is flat out wrong. Last month, the only thing new that 
Gore told reporters in Portland about his position on dams is that the 
issue requires more study and that ``he refuses to prejudge or play 
politics'' with the issue. Well, if he's not playing politics with the 
issue, then I'm the inventor of the Internet.
  After all, last fall the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, using science 
from the National Marine Fisheries Service, released a report stating 
that more than 90 percent of adult salmon survive through all four of 
the Snake River dams--the very dams that the administration has 
proposed to take out.
  The Corps of Engineers was prepared to recommend, rightfully, that 
the costs are too high, that the benefits are too few, and that the 
dams should be left in place. But high-ranking officials within the 
Clinton-Gore administration directed the Corps' recommendation be 
suppressed.
  Al Gore owes the people of the Northwest an explanation. We deserve 
to know why the Clinton/Gore administration hid this important 
recommendation from thousands of Northwest citizens who spent the 
better part of four out of the last five months writing comments, 
attending public meetings, and speaking out on the dams.
  Al Gore apparently agrees with the National Marine Fisheries Service 
that, despite the expenditure of $20 million and five years of study so 
far by the Corps, any decision on the dams should be postponed for five 
years, and that a ``trigger'' should be set, based upon the arbitrary 
performance standards set by unelected bureaucrats, that will require 
that the dams be breached if the standards are not met to their 
satisfaction.
  The fisheries service hasn't even published its biological opinion, 
which was due two months ago. How can we trust that delaying a decision 
five years or the imposition of arbitrary performance standards won't 
also be moved to meet the Gore agenda to take out the dams? We can't.
  Another subject I'll bet the Vice President will ignore is the 
amazing return of salmon to the Columbia and Snake river system last 
fall and this spring. It was reported last week that 189,000--a record 
number--of spring chinook salmon have passed through the Bonneville Dam 
already. Will he be willing to declare victory and move on? Of course 
not.
  So, I hope that the Vice President enjoys his most recent trip to 
Washington. I ask him to listen to local people in eastern Washington 
about the Hanford Reach with or more open mind than Bruce Babbitt did 
three weeks ago.
  And I ask him to take a firm position on the dams now--to practice 
what he preaches and not to play politics with the lives of eastern 
Washington citizens.

                          ____________________