Political Quotes

“I rise in opposition to any amendment that would exempt the Clean Air Act and other environmental laws from the unfunded mandates. Mr. Chairman, I represent the 16th District of Illinois. One of our counties is McHenry County, part of the Chicago metropolitan statistical area. That area has been denominated as a severe ozone nonattainment area, which means that any company which has in excess of 100 employees is forced to carpool. It is called employee commute option. This is a mandate from the U.S. Congress through the amendments in 1990 to the Clean Air Act. The CRS has put out a report showing a cost-benefit analysis. The EPA administrator herself, Carol Browner, stated in a meeting this past week here on Capitol Hill that as far as she is concerned and as far as Mary Nichols is concerned, and Mary Nichols is the assistant EPA Administrator, that car pooling simply does not work under any circumstances. It is not proved to be cost efficient. But we are stuck with it. It is in the law. To exempt the Clean Air Act from the unfunded mandates bill simply is saying we are going to take a bill, a provision of a law, that does not work, but because it relates to environmental quality, therefore, it should not be looked at with the scrutiny of an unfunded mandate. The Chicago Tribune this past Saturday headlined, 'U.S. Car Pool? Never Mind.' This is the EPA administrator urging Members of Congress to ignore an existing statute.”