William R. Richardson: “on the issue of the environment and Earth Day, we have to be very careful not to politicize these issues. We are about…”

“on the issue of the environment and Earth Day, we have to be very careful not to politicize these issues. We are about to take up a battery recycling bill, which is a good bill. By the way, it used to be my bill and Frank Pallone' bill, now is a Republican bill. We accept that. Things change. But we should not, by passing this bill, say that we have ended our tasks in protecting the environment. Battery recycling is important, but it does not correct the environmental rollbacks that many in this Republican majority have pursued this year: Weakening the Clean Water Act, slashing funding for the EPA, weakening the Endangered Species Act, attempting to close down some of our national parks. We want to take some positive steps on the environment. We also should pass a bipartisan Superfund bill that does not pass the cost of cleanups on to the taxpayer, a safe drinking water bill that keeps public health as a top priority, a park concessions bill that allows fair competition to concessionaires and keeps the cost of visiting our parks down to all Americans.”