White House Fact Sheet on Republican Legislative Riders
>U.S. Newswire
>9 Jun 13:25
>White House Fact Sheet on Republican Legislative Riders
>To: National Desk
>Contact: White House Press Office, 202-456-2580
>
>WASHINGTON, June 9 /U.S. Newswire/ -- The following was released
>today by the White House:
>
>--
>DEFENDING THE ENVIRONMENT AND PUBLIC HEALTH AGAINST
>THE LATEST WAVE OF REPUBLICAN RIDERS
>June 9, 2000
>--
>In what has become an annual ritual, Republicans are again loading
>up budget bills with legislative 'riders' that would surrender our
>environment to special interests. These riders not only threaten
>important environmental and public health protections -- they also
>subvert the democratic process by trying to force through legislative
>changes without the benefit of hearings or public scrutiny. Time and
>again, President Clinton has stood firm and forced Congress to
>withdraw dozens of the worst stealth riders. The President is calling
>on Congress to drop this latest wave of anti-environmental riders,
>including these:
>
>Undermining New National Monuments. A rider on the House Interior
>Appropriations bill would prohibit any spending to develop management
>plans, improve visitor services, enhance protections, or undertake
>other activities at the new Grand Canyon-Parashant, Giant Sequoia,
>Agua Fria and California Coastal National Monuments. The monuments
>were created by the President earlier this year to strengthen
>protection of these unique federal lands.
>
>Blocking Action on Global Warming. Riders attached to several
>appropriations bills could seriously undermine U.S. efforts to combat
>global warming. The riders seek to prohibit the executive branch,
>including the State Department, from even trying to reach agreement
>with other countries on actions to reduce greenhouse gas emissions.
>Specifically, they seek to bar efforts to reach further agreement on
>emissions trading and the Clean Development Mechanism -- two key
>provisions of the Kyoto Protocol aimed at ensuring that emissions
>reductions are achieved at the lowest possible cost.
>
>Refusing to Consider Increases in Auto Fuel Economy. A rider on
>the House Transportation Appropriations bill would once again bar the
>Department of Transportation from even considering an increase in
>corporate average fuel economy (CAFE) standards. In the past, these
>standards have resulted in a doubling of the fuel economy of the car
>fleet, reducing our dependence on foreign oil, saving billions of
>gallons of oil, and saving consumers billions of dollars. Continuing
>the ban would contribute to rising energy consumption, increasing
>both environmental and energy security risks.
>
>Crippling Water Quality Protections. A rider on the House VA/HUD
>Appropriations bill would block the Environmental Protection Agency
>from implementing a major rule aimed at strengthening clean water
>protections nationwide. The proposed rule, set to go final later
>this year, would update EPA's Total Maximum Daily Load requirements,
>setting a new strategy for cleaning up nearly 20,000 water bodies
>nationwide still too polluted for fishing and swimming.
>
>Blocking Drinking Water Standards. A second rider would block EPA
>from adopting a new rule to protect the public from radon in drinking
>water, as required by the Safe Drinking Water Act Amendments of 1996.
>
>Stalling Sensible Reform at the Army Corps. A rider on the FY 2000
>Emergency Supplemental Appropriations bill in the Senate would
>reverse important advances being made by the Army to ensure effective
>civilian oversight and accountability of the Corps of Engineers.
>This accountability is essential to ensure that Corps projects
>affecting the nation's rivers, wetlands, coastlines and other water
>resources are economically justified and environmentally acceptable.
>
>Endangering the North Carolina Coast. A second rider would
>summarily transfer land on North Carolina's Oregon Inlet from the
>Cape Hatteras National Seashore and the Pea Island National Wildlife
>Refuge to the Army Corps. This transfer would short-circuit
>environmental reviews in order to pave the way for a controversial
>jetty project that could result in serious long-term environmental
>harm.
>
>Reneging on Mining Reform. Another rider on the Senate
>Agriculture/Emergency Supplemental Appropriations bill would severely
>weaken proposed Interior Department regulations aimed at reducing the
>environmental impact of hardrock mining on public lands, including
>large-scale cyanide leaching for gold. The rider would renege on an
>agreement last year between Congress and the Administration to allow
>the long overdue mining reforms to go forward provided they were
>consistent with the findings of a recent National Research Council
>report.
>
>Encouraging Overgrazing of Public Lands. Another rider on the
>House Interior bill would automatically extend for up to 10 years any
>grazing permit on Bureau of Land Management lands that expires in
>fiscal year 2001 if the agency has not completed necessary
>environmental reviews. BLM is on track to complete processing of all
>permits up for renewal in 2001. But the rider would create an
>incentive for permit holders to delay processing in hopes of winning
>an automatic renewal.
>
>Undermining Pesticide Safety Standards. Another rider on the House
>VA/HUD bill would cripple efforts to protect the public from
>dangerous pesticides by barring the Environmental Protection Agency
>from collecting fees from pesticide makers to support mandatory
>safety reviews. The proposed EPA rule to assess the fees is required
>under the Food Quality Protection Act, passed overwhelmingly by
>Congress, which calls for systematic reviews of the potential health
>risks posed by thousands of commonly used pesticides.
>
>Thwarting Cleanup of Hudson River PCBs. Another rider on the House
>VA/HUD bill seeks to prevent EPA from adopting a long-awaited plan to
>clean up PCBs discharged from General Electric manufacturing
>facilities that have seriously contaminated New York's Hudson River.
>Despite years of scientific study by EPA and independent scientists,
>the rider would bar EPA from ordering the dredging of contaminated
>sediments in the river pending completion of yet another study by the
>National Academy of Sciences.
>
>Denying Communities Help on River Restoration. Riders on the House
>Agriculture and Interior bills would restrict spending on voluntary
>programs that assist communities in protecting and restoring their
>rivers and in building sustainable riverfront economies. The riders
>specifically target communities along the 14 rivers designated by the
>President under the American Heritage Rivers initiative, which
>provides assistance in identifying federal tools and resources that
>communities can use to help implement their local restoration and
>development plans.
>
>Blocking New Protections for Wildlife. Two riders in the House
>Interior bill would bar establishment of new National Wildlife
>Refuges on the Kankakee River in Illinois and Indiana, and in the
>Yolo Bypass of the San Francisco Bay in California. These riders
>would infringe on the Interior Department's ability under current law
>to protect and preserve migratory birds and endangered species. The
>Fish and Wildlife Service is coordinating on both of these proposals
>with the Army Corps of Engineers and many state and local groups.
>
>-0-
>/U.S. Newswire 202-347-2770/
>06/09 13:25
>
>Copyright 2000, U.S. Newswire
>http://www.usnewswire.com/topnews/Current_Releases/0609-124.html

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