Political Quotes

“I am. I say to the Senator from California, we have three Superfund sites in the State of Illinois, another 18 that must go on the list, and 6 others we think could be eligible. Frankly, if the Bush administration's proposal goes through, it means no Superfund, no money, no cleanup. That means the public health hazard will remain. Today the President will go to New York to talk about corporate responsibility. He wants to throw the bad actors in jail. That makes sense. The simple fact is, an actress accused of shoplifting in California is facing potentially more prison time than any officer of Enron is facing today. I might say, if the President's premise, his principle is sound, why do we stop and say it is just when it comes to accounting? If a corporation walks away from its responsibility in terms of cleaning up the environmental mess they have left behind, why aren't we talking about that as being the kind of misconduct that should not only be condemned but punished? Instead, the administration has said: We don't even want to hold them liable for paying for it. No penalty, no crime, they are not even going to be liable for paying for the cleanup. The Senator from California has made the point so well today: Corporate responsibility goes way beyond accounting. It goes into the handling of pensions. It goes into the environmental responsibility that corporations have.”