Barbara Boxer: “I have an amendment now pending before the Senate. I am very proud of this amendment. I have offered it on behalf of…”

“I have an amendment now pending before the Senate. I am very proud of this amendment. I have offered it on behalf of myself and Senator Nelson of Florida, and Senator Biden, and many other Senators who are very supportive of this amendment. The reason I had the clerk read the amendment in its entirety is because it is written in plain English and is very straightforward. Essentially it says that the Administrator for the Environmental Protection Agency shall immediately put into effect a new standard, a new primary drinking water regulation for arsenic that will, in essence, protect our people from arsenic in their drinking water. The second part says that we will lift the suspension on the effective date for the community right-to-know mailers that were supposed to go out, letting people know how much arsenic is in their water. I hope all of us will agree, people have a right to know that. I want to talk a little bit about how this amendment came to be today, how we got on this road. Frankly, we should not be here. In the last administration, they set a new level for arsenic in water at 10 parts per billion. It was going to go into effect, and then this administration suspended it. What we are doing in our amendment today is not even saying go back to 10. I certainly hope they go to 5. But notwithstanding that, we just say: Put a new standard in place because the standard that is in place, as I talk to you tonight, is 50 parts per billion.”