Political Quotes

“for too many years comprehensive Superfund reform has been blocked by partisan rhetoric and fear-mongering. Even though the general public, government agencies, and federal bureaucrats know that the Superfund program is broken, proposed changes were called stealth attacks, roll-backs, and letting polluters off the hook. Those characterizations were not accurate, but they were effective in protecting one of the most troubled and inefficient programs in the Federal Government from meaningful reform. For more than 7 years we have been unable to reach agreement on Superfund reauthorization so the Environment and Public Works Committee decided to take a smaller, targeted approach. So today we are here considering S. 350, the Brownfield Revitalization and Environmental Restoration Act. There is general agreement that we need to address the issue of Brownfields. Across the country, brownfields are blights on the landscape, but because of liability concerns, too often clean-up and redevelopment opportunities are lost. The loss of clean-up and redevelopment opportunities means the loss of jobs and tax revenues for communities and means these sites are not cleaned up. However, even though I will support this bill today, more needs to be done.”