Frank Pallone: “I think she is making the point that money is the key. The gentlewoman is on the Committee on Appropriations. She…”

“I think she is making the point that money is the key. The gentlewoman is on the Committee on Appropriations. She pointed out that in many cases the whole emphasis in this 104th Congress was on cutting money for environmental programs, for example, for education programs. Again we started out this evening by saying that, if you do not have the money to hire the investigators to do the enforcement, to upgrade the sewage treatment plants, for example, then what is the use of having the environmental laws on the books? That is what we saw. We saw, I think, initially an effort to try to cut back on some of the substantive environmental programs. And then when the Republicans could not accomplish that, they went to the Committee on Appropriations, and they tried to cut back on the money for enforcement, the money for investigation and then also put those legislative riders. Remember that we had, I think there were 17 legislative riders that were put into the appropriations bill that my colleague and other Democrats on the Committee on Appropriations fought so hard to try to get eliminated, and eventually all the riders were eliminated. But it was a hard-fought battle. The public has to remember what this battle was all about. It continues. The budget that is out there now would again cut back significantly on all these environmental programs.”