Joe Lieberman: “I offer my full support of the resolution and wish to thank Senator Leahy, Senator Collins and the other cosponsors of…”

“I offer my full support of the resolution and wish to thank Senator Leahy, Senator Collins and the other cosponsors of this resolution who joined Senator Leahy, Senator Collins and me in bringing it forward. One in 12 American women of childbearing age have mercury blood levels that put their fetuses at risk for developmental delays. Developmental delays are a human tragedy, often denying children their full intellectual and psychological potential. This human tragedy means that our schools and educational system face costs and burdens borne in meeting the special needs of these children, burdens that make it that much harder for our schools to achieve their overall mission of delivering the highest quality education to all Americans. At a time of increasing global economic competition in which human capital may be our most precious resource, we simply cannot afford to squander our people or divert the resources of our schools when we can prevent the problem in the first place. That is why in 1990, Congress passed and President George H.W. Bush signed, comprehensive clean air legislation that, among other things, put in place a mechanism for dealing with power plant mercury emissions aggressively.…”