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Breaking News from America's Progressive Community... 1999
Releases
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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| FEBRUARY
10, 1999 2:13 PM FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE CONTACT: Sierra Club Kathryn Hohmann, 202-675-7916 |
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| Congress Votes to Weaken Environmental Protections; Vote Against Amendment Threatens Our Clean Air and Water | ||||
| WASHINGTON
- February 10 - In one of the first critical votes of the 106th Congress,
Congress voted today against amendments designed to protect America's major
environmental laws. Congressmen Waxman (D-CA) and Boehlert (R-NY) both introduced amendments to H.R. 350 to stop this anti-environmental bill from
strangling environmental agencies in red tape and letting anti-environmental
votes be hidden behind procedural shenanigans. H.R. 350 eventually passed by a
vote of 274-149. The Waxman and Boehlert amendments failed by votes of 216-210
and 216-203, respectively.
"Congress is leaving the backdoor open to stealth attacks on the environmental protections that all Americans hold dear," said Carl Pope, Executive Director of the Sierra Club. "Today's votes tell us that this Congress is against open debate and afraid of being held accountable for voting against the environment." Waxman's amendment, known as the "Defense of the Environment Act" would demand full and open debate and an accountable vote on any legislation that would undercut environmental safeguards and public health protections. The amendment would also prevent the use of backdoor legislative gimmicks that hide anti-environmental votes from the public. The Defense of the Environment Act was introduced as a response to waves of anti-environmental riders that were attached to last year's appropriations bills, including riders that would increase logging on national forests, cripple endangered species protections, and block regulation of radioactive pollution in drinking water. "Rather than hiding their environmental votes behind legislative gimmicks, our elected officials should heed Americans' call for stronger environmental protections," added Pope. "Stealth attacks on our environment undermine our democracy and are an affront to the public's desire for clean air, clean water, and healthy forests. Our advice to Congress is simple: stop trying to hide your votes, and stop voting against the environment." ### |
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