Political Quotes

“this amendment would take $950,000 from the Treasury Inspector General's account for tax administration and would move that sum over to the Customs Service to provide the Customs Service with funding to monitor the radioactivity in scrap metal that is being imported into the United States. This is a problem that has just recently come to our attention during field hearings with the steel industry in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, and we would like to take some action on that. Currently, the United States has no standard to control the free release of radioactive contaminated scrap metal. Those metals are being recycled into consumer and industrial products and then are being sold on open commerce. Nor is there an international standard that tells us if there is a safe level of radioactivity in these metals that are recycled. There is tremendous public opposition to any radioactive metal being included in consumer products like the silverware that we eat with or the pots and pans that we cook with or the cans that our food may come in or baby carriage handles or braces on one's teeth, or belt buckles. The steel industry does not want any radioactive scrap metal in its blast furnaces because it could contaminate the entire steel mill and the cleanup could cost $15 million to $20 million if that occurs. We are asking for a relatively modest sum to be able to monitor this amount of money.”