Bart Stupak: “I thank the gentleman. And whether we are a Democrat or Republican, again it is the basic principles and beliefs that…”

“I thank the gentleman. And whether we are a Democrat or Republican, again it is the basic principles and beliefs that all Americans hold near and dear to them. And if we are going to do an investigation, let us do it based upon the law of this land and not upon the position we may hold in the government or elsewhere, and respect those laws. I thank the gentleman and thank him for coming down. He probably did not realize that I was going to do this today, and neither did I until I woke up this morning and read the paper. It got me going. Mr. Speaker, I did say I was going to spend a few minutes on leaking underground storage tanks and if there is time, I would still like to do that. Being Earth Day, one of the bills that I have worked on in the 104th and 105th Congresses is the leaking underground storage tanks. Today being Earth Day, it is a bill that both myself and the gentleman from Colorado (Mr. Dan Schaefer), a Republican and member of the Subcommittee on Health and Environment with me on the Committee on Commerce, we have been pushing this bill for the last two years. The last Congress, the 104th Congress, it passed this House by near unanimous agreement and went to the other body, and unfortunately it died over there. In the 105th Congress, I believe it was July of last year we once again passed the bill. The bill is supported by the administration and supported by the Environmental Protection Agency.”