Political Quotes

“let me conclude by summarizing in this fashion. What we are dealing with here is municipalities coming to Congress and asking for relief from a Supreme Court decision which said that what certain States had done in the past, limiting the free flow of interstate commerce, in this case in treating garbage, solid waste, was an unconstitutional infringement on the commerce clause, and so unless the Congress acts, these arrangements that have been entered into by the States will not be able to proceed in a monopoly fashion. They will have to compete with the private market. As the EPA report notes, the private market is quite capable of working in this area. And so some municipalities have said, well, since we made our decision on good faith, based upon the law as we knew it, we should at least be protected to the extent that it takes us to pay off the investment, to pay off the bonds, and my amendment would grant that grandfathering authority. We would say to these municipalities, whatever the length of your bond period is to pay off those bonds, we will grant you the authority to create a monopoly so you have no competition, if that is what you want, and you can pay off those bonds. But you should not be entitled to have a monopoly beyond that point. What this amendment boils down to, Mr. President, is which side you are on.…”