[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 150 (2004), Part 6]
[Senate]
[Pages 7279-7280]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                     PRO-ENVIRONMENT ADMINISTRATION

  Mr. HATCH. Mr. President, I do not know how anybody can walk on the 
Senate floor and say Republicans--any Republicans or Democrats--are not 
for the environment.
  Now, I have to say we from the West understand the importance of 
balancing the environment with jobs and families and opportunities. I 
think we

[[Page 7280]]

do a pretty good job. We have to continue to be vigilant about the 
environment. But I think to try to make the case that this 
administration is anti-environment is not only a stretch, it is false.
  This administration is pro-environment, but it is also pro-jobs, pro-
family, pro-geographical areas, pro-West, and pro-proper utilization of 
Federal lands--almost all of which the environmental extremists decry.
  To accuse the administration of putting arsenic in the water or being 
part of something that puts arsenic in the water is, I think, beyond 
the pale. The fact is, in many municipalities and towns the small bits 
of arsenic in the water are not dangerous, according to the EPA and 
others, but the costs of trying to change their water systems are so 
exorbitant they could not exist as towns.
  Nobody wants any dilatory substance in our water. In fact, for years 
this town has been run by people from both parties, and, of course, we 
know the water in this town has all kinds of problems. Yet this is the 
greatest city in the world. So I think it is basically a stretch and an 
exaggeration and, of course, a seizure of political opportunity to 
criticize this administration environmentally in the way some of my 
colleagues have chosen to do.

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