Maria Cantwell: “I just want to take a moment this afternoon to applaud the manager of this legislation for his leadership. Mr. Gejdenson…”

“I just want to take a moment this afternoon to applaud the manager of this legislation for his leadership. Mr. Gejdenson has provided us with what I think will be one of the most important economic bills impacting my State's environmental industries in this session of Congress. There is no one in this body who better understands the need to marry international environmental protection with the promotion of our own environmental technology industries than Mr. Gejdenson. I am pleased to be a cosponsor of this effort. With the leadership of President Clinton, Vice President Gore, and congressional leaders like Mr. Gejdenson and Mr. Roth and Mr. Gilman, the ranking member of subcommittee and committee, I believe we have finally reached an understanding that environmental protection and economic growth are not mutually exclusive. Increasingly, foreign nations and companies are relying on U.S. environmental technology, products, and services to help them solve environmental problems. By supporting environmental protection internationally, we can create the very world markets that our environmental technology firms need to grow and expand. This is particularly true in my home State of Washington.”