[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 147 (2001), Part 5]
[Senate]
[Pages 6013-6014]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]



                            THE ENVIRONMENT

  Mr. CORZINE. Mr. President, I rise today to speak about our 
environment, and the right of all American families to clean air, clean 
water, and a clean future for generations to come.
  Maintaining a clean and safe environment should not be a partisan 
issue. All of us live on the same planet. We all breathe the same air. 
We all drink the same water. When it comes to our global environment, 
we are one community.
  In fact, when Americans voted last November, they voted for two 
Presidential candidates who both professed a strong commitment to our 
global environment. Former Vice President Gore obviously made 
environmental protection a top priority. But President Bush also made 
several promises to improve environmental conditions.
  Unfortunately, as we celebrate Earth Day, Americans around the 
country are growing increasingly concerned that these environmental 
promises have not been kept. Instead, we have seen a series of actions 
that threaten to have significant and adverse effects on the quality of 
our air and water, and on the natural resources that our children and 
grandchildren will inherit.
  First, President Bush reneged on a campaign promise to regulate 
carbon dioxide emissions. Then he caused an embarrassment abroad by 
announcing the United States' withdrawal from an international 
initiative to address global warming. He went on to block new 
protections against arsenic in our drinking water, even though 
scientists have clearly found that Americans face unacceptably high 
cancer risks from arsenic in drinking water under existing standards.
  These actions are out of step, in my belief, with the American 
people. Certainly they are out of step with the people of New Jersey. 
Americans understand and reject the outdated notion that we need to 
sacrifice the environment in the name of the economy.
  Unfortunately, the attack on our environment continued in the 
President's budget, which would slash funding for EPA and natural 
resource programs by 15 percent over 10 years. This would significantly 
weaken our commitment to environmental protection in many ways.
  Consider, for example, the President's request for funding for water 
infrastructure funding. The President is reducing the funding for the 
Clean Water State Revolving Fund and wastewater loan program by $450 
million in this budget year. Yet more than 40 percent of our Nation's 
waters are not safe for fishing and swimming. In my own State of New 
Jersey, 85 percent of the water does not meet the quality standards of 
the Clean Water Act. I cannot and will not support a budget that will 
take us to even lower standards of protection.
  I also am concerned about the administration's proposal to cut 
funding for clean air programs at the EPA. More than 100 million 
Americans today breathe air that does not meet the standards of the 
Clean Air Act. Yet President Bush's budget cuts EPA's clean air 
programs by 6 percent next year, from $590 to $564 million. This could 
have a serious impact, especially for those more vulnerable to dirty 
air: the young, the old, and the infirm. Just this week we saw new 
scientific evidence of the carcinogenic impact of breathing soot in our 
air. I know it will have an impact in my State where the air quality in 
9 of our cities and countries is among the worst in the Nation. We need 
to move against this.
  While the cuts to programs like clean air and clean water may tend to 
get the most attention--and maybe they should--I am especially 
concerned about the cuts in the President's budget for EPA's 
enforcement operations--the so-called compassionate compliance. We can 
have lots of strong laws on the books to protect our environment, but 
if they're not enforced, they're worth little more than the paper 
they're written on. We in New Jersey have seen the consequences of 
underfunding enforcement. For example, our State reduced funding for 
our water pollution control enforcement program by 26 percent. I 
repeat, 85 percent of our waterways do not meet the clean water 
standards. That is a major reason why we continue to have such 
significant water quality problems in our State. We are not enforcing 
the rules that we have on the books. I hope we will not repeat this 
kind of mistake at the national level.
  The President's budget also underfunds initiatives to conserve energy 
and to develop clean energy technologies. Overall, the budget cuts for 
the Department of Energy are $700 million next year. This includes a 
$103 million cut in renewable energy research and development, and a 
$20 million cut in energy conservation programs. These cuts come at a 
time when our Nation is once again confronted with

[[Page 6014]]

the need to reduce our dependence on foreign oil and to develop a 
comprehensive energy policy. An energy policy that addresses this 
challenge should have renewables and energy conservation as 
centerpieces. Instead, this budget puts them on the chopping block.
  The President's budget also threatens our Nation's land and wildlife 
resources. It would weaken the protections of the Endangered Species 
Act, underfund land conservation initiatives, and generally weaken the 
Department of Interior's efforts to protect and preserve our Nation's 
great natural heritage, including our national parks. This will 
undermine numerous efforts by our States to fight the effects of sprawl 
and over-development, including the one spearheaded in my own State of 
New Jersey by our then-Governor, Christie Todd Whitman. She implemented 
a 100,000-acre open space initiative as Governor. I am concerned 
because in New Jersey the Sierra Club estimates that we are losing 
10,000 acres of our dwindling open space a year. In New Jersey, these 
are real issues for us. We are the most densely populated State in the 
Nation.
  The budget goes beyond cuts in some cases; for example, it eliminates 
the popular Wetlands Reserve Program. This is a voluntary program that 
creates incentives for farmers to manage their lands as wetlands. 
Finally, the budget proposes to drill the pristine Arctic Refuge in 
Alaska at the expense of rare species and fragile ecosystems.
  Let me say that I would always prefer to give the President the 
benefit of the doubt. His actions, and the things he has to do, are 
difficult for everyone. But it is simply wrong to give big corporate 
interests such overwhelming influence in the development of 
environmental policies. The mining industry may do a lot of good, but 
it should not control policies over public lands. The oil and gas 
industries play important roles, but their short-term interests should 
not undermine the broader public interest in protecting our precious 
natural resources. We need a more balanced approach then we have been 
getting thus far in our discussion of the environment.
  It is a great disappointment to me and many of my constituents given 
how important the environment is to each of them and their families. I 
have certainly heard that as I have traveled across New Jersey in the 
weeks leading up to Earth Day.
  I hope we in the Congress will do what we can to help restore a 
balance to our Nation's environmental policy. I assure the people of 
New Jersey that I will continue to do all I can to resist efforts that 
would lead to dirtier water and dirtier air and erode our national 
heritage. The stakes are vital to our country and to my State. The 
American people deserve better.
  I suggest the absence of a quorum.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The clerk will call the roll.
  The legislative clerk proceeded to call the roll.
  Mr. GREGG. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the order for 
the quorum call be rescinded.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. Without objection, it is so ordered.

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