Don Nickles: “in a classic case of big brother gone wild, the Environmental Protection Agency on March 9, 1994, promulgated a rule to…”

“in a classic case of big brother gone wild, the Environmental Protection Agency on March 9, 1994, promulgated a rule to ban the manufacture and sale of lead, zinc, and brass fishing sinkers and jigs, which are weighted hooks. This EPA action typifies the increasingly intrusive nature of the Federal Government. Everyone knows lead is toxic, and everyone can agree that a bird will probably die if it ingests a lead sinker. But in this case, EPA cannot offer any proof that waterfowl are eating lead sinkers and dying. To provide a little history, this proposed ban was developed by EPA in response to a Toxic Substances Control Act petition by the Environmental Defense Fund [EDF] based on their belief that waterfowl are threatened by lead poisoning caused by swallowing fishing sinkers. However, it is interesting to note, Mr. President, that in their petition the EDF requested that EPA label, not ban, lead fishing sinkers. To justify this request, the EDF cited numerous studies completed over the last 20 years documenting approximately 60 waterfowl deaths from the ingestion of lead fishing sinkers. That is 60 deaths from a population in the hundreds of millions.”