Political Quotes

“I rise to raise some significant concerns about S. 1389, the Homestake Mine Conveyance Act of 2001, which has been attached to the Department of Defense-Supplemental conference report. This legislation will have serious adverse implications for the Federal Government most notably, the National Science Foundation (NSF) and the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA)--due to its unprecedented legal protections provided to the State and the Homestake Mining Company and its potentially significant budgetary costs. While some modifications to the original have been made to the bill to address many of the problematic legal and programmatic issues, these changes were modest at best and the bill as a whole still has significant legal, budgetary, and policy implications that could negatively impact NSF and EPA. This bill is an improvement over the original legislation introduced by the senators from South Dakota, but it is still problematic and troubling. As the ranking member of the VA-HUD Appropriations Subcommittee, I believe in deferring to the scientific expertise and judgment of the NSF and its Science Board in determining which projects had scientific merit and deserved funding. The Congress should not be in the business of legislating what is scientifically meritorious. The Homestake legislation totally circumvents the merit review process long-established and followed by the agency.”