Henry Waxman: “the Knollenberg provisions are not affected in any way by this amendment. The riders my amendment addresses are…”

“the Knollenberg provisions are not affected in any way by this amendment. The riders my amendment addresses are contained in the report on this bill. Technically because these directives are report language, they are not binding on the agencies, but that is only technical. It is, however, important to realize that they are a message to the agencies to not go forward with enforcing existing laws. That is why it is important to eliminate them in order to clarify that they should not affect the agencies in any way. Mr. Chairman, Congress should be working to solve our environmental problems, not working so secretly to include antienvironmental provisions in appropriations bills at the request of many big polluters. Let us not roll back our environmental laws with these antienvironmental riders. I urge all Members to support this amendment and give us a clean VA- HUD appropriations bill.”