Frank Lautenberg: “today, along with Senators Daschle, Baucus, Reid, Boxer, Wyden, Breaux, Bryan, Levin, Murray, Schumer, Torricelli…”

“today, along with Senators Daschle, Baucus, Reid, Boxer, Wyden, Breaux, Bryan, Levin, Murray, Schumer, Torricelli, Mikulski, Durbin, Leahy, Rockefeller, Sarbanes, Kennedy, and Lieberman, I am introducing the Brownfields and Environmental Cleanup Act of 1999. This legislation is designed to foster the cleanup of potentially thousands of toxic waste sites across the country. Just as importantly, this bill is about jobs, revenue and economic opportunity, because it will help turn abandoned industrial sites into engines of economic development. Mr. President, I have been interested for a long time now in the issue of these abandoned, underutilized and contaminated industrial sites, commonly known as brownfields. Our Nation's great industrial tradition was the lifeblood of our Nation's economy. But this industrial tradition also entailed tremendous environmental costs. Sites were contaminated, and then when the manufacturers, the companies left, the legacy remained behind. Today, decaying industrial plants define the skyline and contaminate the land in many of our urban areas.”