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Breaking News from America's Progressive Community... Latest Releases
Making news? The press releases posted here have been provided to NewsCenter by the one of the many progressive organizations we have selected to participate . If you would like more information about this press release, you should contact the organization directly.
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| OCTOBER 14, 1998
10:30AM FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE CONTACT: League of Conservation Voters 1-888-744-VOTE |
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| Environmental Ratings for Congress Released: Congress Scores Below Average On The Environment, Conservationists Urge House and Senate To Make The Environment A Priority In 1999 | ||||
| WASHINGTON -
October 14 - The nonprofit League of Conservation Voters today released the 1998 National
Environmental Scorecard which rates each Member of Congress on the most important
environmental votes cast during the 105th Congress. On average, U.S. Representatives and
Senators voted more often against environmental and public health protections than for
them. The votes included in the 1998 LCV National Environmental Scorecard represent the concurrence of experts from 27 nonpartisan environmental, conservation and sportsmen's groups. The votes include key Congressional action on issues such as public lands and natural resource protection, efforts to rollback environmental protections and funding of conservation programs. Based on the tallies, the LCV Scorecard assigns a percentage score to every Representative and Senator. A 100 percent score indicates the strongest environmental commitment, while a zero percent shows consistent votes against conservation and public health protections. "Concerns for environmental and public health protections are universal-they cross party, gender and geographic lines," said Mike Hayden, LCV board chair and former Republican Governor of Kansas. "Americans expect and deserve air that's safe to breathe, water that's safe to drink and strong protections for our natural resources. This Scorecard helps the public know who is working for their interests in Congress and who is not." The average environmental score for the 105th Congress is 47 percent in the House, 45 percent in the Senate. While 141 Members scored 80 percent or over, 188 Members scored 20 percent or less. Over one-quarter of all Senators scored a zero percent for their environmental votes in 1997-98. "This Scorecard depicts a Congress that, on balance, was more interested in undercutting, rather than underscoring, popular environment and public health protections," said LCV President Deb Callahan. "Rather than advancing proactive policies that benefit the health and well-being of our families, our communities, and our natural resources, Congressional leaders attempted to benefit a narrow set of special interests who believe that concerns for ever-larger profits outweigh public health and conservation interests. The American people deserve a Congress that puts the public's interest first, not the polluters." For the second year in a row, the top members of the Senate majority leadership team failed to vote a single time in favor of conservation, each compiling a "zero" score. The Senate minority leadership averaged 78 percent. LCV's 1998 National Environmental Scorecard is available to the public over the Internet at http://www.lcv.org or by calling 1-888-744-VOTE. The nonprofit League of Conservation Voters is the bipartisan political voice for the environment. Representing the more than nine million members of national environmental and conservation groups, LCV is the only organization working full-time to inform citizens about the environmental records of Members of Congress. LCV has published a Scorecard for each Congress since 1970. ### For audio actualities, contact January Communications at (703)418-2060. |
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