Frank Lautenberg: “Mr. President, when the EPA budget first passed the Senate, EPA's funding level was 17 percent below the fiscal year…”

“Mr. President, when the EPA budget first passed the Senate, EPA's funding level was 17 percent below the fiscal year 1995 level. The House was 33 percent below the previous year level. Those figures were unacceptable to me, to the President and the American people. The people of America have made clear that they want us do all we can to protect their drinking water from contaminates, their air from harmful smog and their land from the improper disposal of toxic wastes. Since the President vetoed that funding bill for EPA, there has been significant progress. When this pending continuing resolution was considered in the Senate, I offered an amendment that would have raised EPA funding $726 million. That would have raised EPA to the full 1995 level by adding money for state assistance for drinking water and sewage treatment, for global climate change research, for environmental enforcement and for Boston Harbor clean up.”