John Kerry: “I would like to reflect on the provisions of this bill that fund the Environmental Protection Agency [EPA] and the…”

“I would like to reflect on the provisions of this bill that fund the Environmental Protection Agency [EPA] and the Council on Environmental Quality [CEQ] for fiscal year 1997. With regard to the EPA, this bill is a vast improvement over the 1996 bill reported by the Appropriations Committee last year. It is welcome, indeed, that this bill reached the Senate floor without the antienvironmental legislative riders which plagued the 1996 Senate bill. These riders--which the Washington Post dubbed the ``riders from hell'' included legislative provisions which would have prohibited the EPA from implementing provisions in key environmental statutes such as the Safe Drinking Water Act and the Clean Water Act and would have eliminated EPA's role in issuing permits to fill wetlands. In addition, compared to the severe budget cuts made to the EPA's budget request for fiscal year 1996, this appropriations bill certainly is preferable; it is just 6 percent below the President's requested level. Nonetheless, 6 percent of the EPA budget is over $425 million-- with a disproportionate percentage coming from the EPA operating budget which includes management and oversight for standards-setting and enforcement. We must realize that such a reduction does not come without a significant loss of capability for the environmental protection efforts of this vital agency.”