On the recordMarch 22, 2013
Madam President, the Coats amendment allows open-ended exemptions to the mercury air toxic rule. This is not a 1-year extension, it is a permanent extension if any President, now or in the future, simply decides it. It doesn't even require any finding. Let me tell my colleagues a little bit about mercury. It is dangerous. It is poison. It harms the brain, the nervous system, and childhood development. It is especially damaging to infants and pregnant women. Mercury harms a child's ability to speak, to hear, to walk, to see, and to think. Can't we protect our children? I want to give my colleagues 11,000 reasons to oppose the Coats amendment. That is how many premature deaths will be avoided with the rule he wants to eviscerate. Just last June we held on this rule. Let's vote no on the Coats amendment. Thank you very much.
Source
govinfo.gov
