Chellie Pingree: “My colleague on the other side of the aisle said no one ever calls his office and talks about environmental justice. I…”

“My colleague on the other side of the aisle said no one ever calls his office and talks about environmental justice. I understand. There are all kinds of words we use in Congress that people rarely talk to us about. They don't talk to us about many of the procedures that we have on the floor, all kinds of things that we do. However, you do have people who call your office to say: Do you know what? I don't want that chemical manufacturer sited next to my house. I am worried about that hog farm that is coming down the road from me. I am worried about the garbage dump. I am worried about the health impacts that my family is experiencing because of where we live. Maybe that didn't happen in your district. I will admit that everything doesn't happen in all of our districts, but there are certainly districts across the country where people are experiencing adverse health impacts. They are experiencing loss of property values because things have been sited in their neighborhood. Maybe my colleague, like so many times here in Congress, just doesn't like the words. I understand. I have heard the term ``environmental justice'' so many times over the last couple of days, as if it is some kind of a discriminatory term, or as if it is some kind of term that they just can't get out of their mouth without feeling angry. We can call it anything we want. We can call it poor siting of messy places. We can call it anything my colleagues want.…”