Political Quotes

“I am proud to join Senator Boxer today in cosponsoring her amendment to the Safe Drinking Water Act, which would ensure that safe drinking water standards provide protection for even sensitive populations. Too often in passing legislation to protect public health, we overlook the needs of our most sensitive populations. When children drink from the school water foundation, when the elderly or people with immune system deficiencies turn on their own tap, they expect the water they are drinking to be safe. Unfortunately, our public health protection standards do not always account for these, more sensitive members of society. On June 29, 1993, I held a hearing of the Senate Committee on Agriculture, Nutrition, and Forestry to review the results of a National Academy of Sciences report on pesticides in the diets of infants and children. I requested this study in 1987 out of concern that our pesticide and food safety laws were not adequately protecting sensitive populations. The report concluded that current policies do not adequately protect America's children from exposure to pesticides in food and in drinking water. I am working with the Administration and Senator Kennedy to pass legislation in the Senate that will correct this focus in our laws regulating food safety and pesticide use. Senator Boxer's amendment extends this public health protection to the Safe Drinking Water Act.”