Frank Lautenberg: “This is a compromise piece of legislation. If you see lots of people concerned about what it is that we have in front of…”

“This is a compromise piece of legislation. If you see lots of people concerned about what it is that we have in front of us, these are legitimate concerns for both those who support and those who object to this compromise. The amendment that is being offered... includes $487 million for environmental programs instead of the roughly $900 million that was proposed in the original amendment. Unlike the earlier amendment, this amendment does not include a provision designating the proposed funding as emergency spending. Mr. President, clearly this amendment does not increase the budget for environmental programs as much as I believe is needed. However, under the circumstances, with earnest exchanges of view, we arrived at what was a middle ground. While having been so active on matters of environmental cleanup including Superfund and clean air and others, clean water, it distresses me that we could not get more to do the environmental job that many of us here would like to see done. I am pleased to see that there is $50 million more for Superfund cleanup.”