Jeff Bingaman: “I wish to speak briefly to support the statements the Senator from Alaska has made and the position the Appropriations…”

“I wish to speak briefly to support the statements the Senator from Alaska has made and the position the Appropriations Committee has come to the floor with in this area. As I think the Senator from Arizona pointed out, his amendment would do two things, two very different things. It would, first of all, cut and eliminate the technology reinvestment project by rescinding all of the funds in that program, which I think would be a very misguided action by this Congress. Second, it would restore some of those funds to the environmental cleanup activity. The Senator from Arizona pointed out that he himself has not been known as a wild-eyed environmentalist. I think that was the phrase he used. I certainly think there is some truth to that. Earlier, after this last election, on December 5, 1994, he and Senator Warner sent a letter to President Clinton urging that much of the funding be dropped in the defense budget and specific programs be eliminated, and in that list of programs he sent to the President he himself proposed that DOD and DOE defense environmental programs be reduced by $930 million in fiscal year 1995. The proposal of the subcommittee is to reduce them by $400 million total, and I think that is a much more reasonable level of funding in those areas. Let me also talk a moment about the TRP. I think the Senator from Alaska did a good job of pointing out that there are many useful defense-related programs going forward with TRP funding.”