Frank Pallone: “I just wanted to follow up also with what the gentlewoman was saying about this whole idea of empowering the local…”

“I just wanted to follow up also with what the gentlewoman was saying about this whole idea of empowering the local people or citizen groups to get involved. One of the things that the President mentioned also as an environmental initiative for the next 4 years was expanding right to know. When you talk to your local citizen groups that had been involved in Superfund or clean water, whatever it happens to be, they all say the same thing: We are playing a major role in finding out what the pollution problems are, in investigating, going to outfall pipes or looking at the Superfund sites. A lot of the remedy selection, if you will, for the Superfund sites in my districts were actually put together by local citizen groups that got a grant from the Federal Government or from the State, and actually had input to put together what the remedy should be to clean up the Superfund site. So when you talk about citizen rights, expanding citizens' ability to sue, right to know, the kinds of things the President was talking about, these are the kinds of tools to empower them that people want to use.”