Political Quotes

“I had been working on areas of military toxins and unexploded ordnance, and have been frankly amazed at the breadth of the problem, in every State in the Union, coast to coast, areas right here in the District of Columbia. Eighty-five years after the conclusion of World War I, there are still cleanup operations taking place on the American University campus, which was the site of American chemical weapons production and testing during World War I. We have yet to clean that up, not because the men and women in the military do not know how to do it, but it has been a failure of commitment on behalf of several administrations, including this one. Congress has been missing in action. At the rate we are going right now, it is going to take potentially 500 to 1,000 years or more to clean up from the problems of the past. We have some signature areas. The Massachusetts Military Reservation, there is water pollution that threatens all of the water for the Martha's Vineyard area, but it is almost every district, every single State. Right now, we do not even know how many million acres are polluted, for instance, with unexploded ordnance. I think the gentleman's point is well taken. I am hopeful that we do not suspend these five critical environmental laws. Not only will it put the health of the American public at risk, but it also threatens the men and women in the military who are around these areas.”