Frank Pallone: “Again, as I said before, if the money is really in this bill, then why should it be subject to a point of order. All we…”

“Again, as I said before, if the money is really in this bill, then why should it be subject to a point of order. All we are saying is that if it is really there, if the money is really there, it should be used now for cleanups and not later for some polluter slush fund which basically gives money back in rebates to polluters. As I said on page 60 of the committee report, it says that the committee is appropriating $2.2 billion for Superfund in fiscal year 1997. In addition, it claims that they are appropriating almost 861 million more than the President included in his budget. Our amendment simply strikes that contingency and would truly fund the Superfund Program at the 2.2 billion and have the money spent this year. If the amendment is subject to a point of order, then the money really is not there after all and the Republicans are appropriating about 55 million less than the President requested. So I just wanted to make it clear that by bringing this point of order and having it sustained, they are admitting that the $2.2 billion figure is basically a sham.”