Barbara Boxer: “Yes, despite all of our other pressures, we have to become tougher, stronger. We have to do everything we can. I try to…”

“Yes, despite all of our other pressures, we have to become tougher, stronger. We have to do everything we can. I try to give out the Toxic Trophy Awards every time one of these things happens to try to draw attention to what is going on. I return to my Earth Day comments and the Superfund Program. One in every four Americans, 70 million people, including 10 million children, lives within 4 miles of a Superfund site as we sit here today. During its tenure in office, this administration has cut cleanups of those sites from 87 per year to 40 per year while refusing to fully fund the program. Superfund is experiencing a funding shortfall of up to $800 million. This President Bush is the first President in history to oppose the 'polluter pays' fee. His dad supported it, Ronald Reagan supported it, and Bill Clinton supported it. This was a consensus until now. What does it mean when you do not have the polluter fee? It means the taxpayers, not the polluters, pay for the cleanup. I will show how many Superfund sites we have in the United States: 1,239. As this chart shows, the sites are in almost every single State. Maybe a State or two escapes, but not many. In 1995, polluters contributed 82 percent to the Superfund trust fund. As of October 1, 2003, the trust fund had no money collected from polluters. This means we will never be able to clean up the most hazardous wastesites.”