George Voinovich: “I came today because of the fact that our colleagues and the citizens of this country need to know there are many…”

“I came today because of the fact that our colleagues and the citizens of this country need to know there are many instances where both Republicans and Democrats can come together and get something done. The fact is, we came together a couple of years ago and realized that one of the most significant sources of pollution, in terms of particulate matter, were emissions from diesel engines. As Senator Carper pointed out, we now have new vehicles on the road that are much cleaner than anything we have seen before. We also knew there were some 11 million on- and off-road vehicles that would be around a long time and that if we were going to make significant improvement in reducing emissions from diesel engines, we needed a new program. We got together and supported the Diesel Emissions Reduction Act, a bipartisan bill. We must have had 25 or 30 sponsors, over 150 groups supported it. That was the fastest bill I have ever seen passed around here. I think we had it done in 45 days.”