Maurice Hinchey: “Last year when the appropriation bills were folded into an omnibus bill, the majority here added a long list of…”

“Last year when the appropriation bills were folded into an omnibus bill, the majority here added a long list of anti-environmental riders. They could not get those proposals through on their own merits, but they tried to hold funding for all Federal programs and services hostage to those riders. They figured that their opponents in Congress would be forced to swallow them, and that the President would agree to accept them to keep other programs operating. But the President did not accept them. He insisted that they be taken out of the appropriations bill before he would sign it. That surprised the people who wrote the riders. The factor they did not count on in their strategy was the Vice President of the United States, Al Gore. The President relies on Al Gore for advice on environmental matters, and it was Al Gore who said no, we cannot allow these things to happen. We have to take a stand. We have to take a stand, so that the riders faded away. Let me give some examples of what Al Gore would not allow.”