John Chafee

In a couple of months, thankfully, Americans will go to the polls to elect a new President and new Members of Congress.

It is a sad state of affairs when it seems that, sometimes, the only health care votes we are allowed to make are the ones which repeal the Affordable Health Care Act completely, leaving nothing in its place and leaving Americans with…

It seems that the problems man creates for our planet are never-ending. But we have found solutions for prior difficulties, and we will for these as well.

I think we are embarking on an unusual path for the Federal Government to require compliance: When it is granting a substantial sum of money but not 100 percent that it cannot make any requirement. Maybe the thing should be reversed. Maybe…

In other words, if the fines cannot be levied, there is really no real requirement that the community obey? I think that follows; otherwise, what is the incentive for them to obey? If they do not obey there is no penalty?

OK. Can the administration lift the embargo without any resolution of Congress anytime it wants?

One final question on cost considerations. In considering the cost savings that may be realized from selecting less stringent standards, what size systems is the Administrator to consider?

Would there be an increased risk to public health, if the Administrator uses this authority to select a less stringent maximum contaminant level?

I think we have a lot of requirements in the United States Government. We are spending more than we take in; that when we have a chance to hold the line, we ought to hold the line. And people can label lovely things with terms like…

That appears to me to be the case here, and I would echo that sentiment because when all is said and done--if you have your way, we are going to spend a lot more money on this program. Next year you are going to spend more money and the…

I appreciate that. Perhaps while the Senator is up he can give me the truth in where I erred in the figures I have here. Am I in error in saying that the total appropriation for these activities were $526 million in the current fiscal…

Computer Applications, zero in the current year, zero requested by the President, $209 million in the next year and $150 million. Is this evidence of that courage that we were urged to take by those sterling declarations in connection with…

I know that there is a difference between authorization and appropriation. But clearly, the committee has not authorized this without hoping that it will be appropriated, that can be only my conclusion. My second question is: is there a…

Now, what this bill does, it authorizes not what the President requested--by the way, the last I heard it was a Democratic President--but it is not $964 million that is requested, but under this bill the authorization is $1.370 billion; am…

And the request in the President's budget was $964 million, nearly doubling, a little short of doubling, say some 70 percent increase, perhaps?

So, in other words, in 1994, for this series of programs, as I look at the summary sheet, $526 million was appropriated.

As I understand the bill--and I am open to correction on this--what it does is it provides that over the course of 2 years, that is fiscal year 1995, which starts on October 1, and fiscal year 1996, that the bill authorizes some $2.8…

By not making policy choices today, by sticking to a wait and see approach, by allowing these gases to continue to build in the atmosphere, this generation may be committing all of us to severe economic and environmental disruption.

This is not a matter of Chicken Little telling us the sky is falling. The scientific evidence is telling us we have a problem, a serious problem.