Political Quotes

“this Member comes to the floor to speak about the urgent need to make the Safe Drinking Water Act's regulations more flexible and less costly. Madam Speaker, there is general agreement that the current Federal safe drinking water law is badly broken and needs to be fixed. While the distinguished gentleman from Kansas [Mr. Slattery] and the distinguished gentleman from Virginia [Mr. Bliley] have correctly diagnosed the current law's shortcomings and proposed a workable solution, H.R. 3392, there are others who have ignored the current law's detrimental effects on small cities and rural communities, and, in fact, they are attempting to make it even more unnecessarily stringent and costly. Why is this legislation not moving in committee? It is troubling to hear people argue against the Slattery-Bliley bill by claiming it will weaken the current safety levels for drinking water. That is simply not true. This Member certainly would not support legislation which would place his constituents at risk. Neither would the other 140-plus cosponsors of H.R. 3392; nor would the National Governor's Association or the U.S. Conference of Mayors which both support H.R. 3392. In fact, numerous responsible groups and associations have endorsed the Slattery-Bliley bill because they understand that it would allow water systems to provide safe drinking water at a reasonable cost.”