wOULD SOMEONE FROM cONGRESSMAN lEACH'S DISTRICT BE
WILLING TO CONTACT HIM ON THIS?

 Activists Urge GOP Moderates To Thwart House Vote On
> Pops Bill 
> Inside EPA 
> Sept. 14, 2006 
> 
> Environmentalists are calling on Republican
> moderates to prevent a House
> floor vote on a controversial bill intended to
> implement the international
> treaty restricting use of persistent organic
> pollutants (POPs) in an effort
> to prevent the legislation from gaining traction
> before Congress recesses
> before the November election. 
> 
> Activists are concerned that if the bill passes the
> House, it will set a
> benchmark for future negotiations since it is
> unlikely to pass the Senate
> this year. 
> 
> However, a source with one GOP moderate says, "It
> looks like [the bill] is
> coming to the floor before we're done." 
> 
> Environmentalists were pressing their message with
> GOP moderates ahead of a
> meeting between lawmakers and EPA Administrator
> Stephen Johnson Sept. 13.
> The GOP source says that while some members of the
> group "wanted to talk
> with" Johnson about the POPs bill, opposition to the
> bill appears to be
> "rather technical and not philosophical in any real
> way." 
> 
> Republicans are considering a vote on a legislative
> package that amends both
> federal pesticide and toxics laws in order to
> implement the POPs treaty. One
> source says Republicans are considering
> consolidating H.R. 4591, a bill
> authored by Rep. Paul Gillmor (R-OH) to amend the
> Toxics Substances Control
> Act (TSCA), with H.R. 3849, which amends federal
> pesticide law. 
> 
> The POPs treaty bans 12 chemicals, including
> pesticides such as DDT,
> dieldrin and aldrin. It also aims to restrict the
> use of other chemicals and
> includes provisions to add new chemicals to the
> treaty. Most of the
> chemicals are banned or restricted in the United
> States, but industry has
> been increasing pressure on the Bush administration
> to ratify the treaty in
> order to participate in future international
> negotiations to ban any new
> chemicals. 
> 
> Currently, countries are considering additional bans
> for pesticides,
> including chlordecone and lindane, as well as
> industrial chemicals including
> two flame-retardants and the water repellent
> perfluorooctane sulfonate, or
> PFOS. 
> 
> House Democrats and environmentalists oppose
> Gillmor's bill, arguing it
> would stall EPA efforts to regulate chemicals added
> to the POPs treaty, in
> part because it calls for the agency to perform a
> cost-benefit analysis to
> determine whether to regulate the chemicals. They
> also say the effort would
> preempt states' abilities to set stricter standards
> than those issued by
> EPA. 
> 
> Environmentalists say GOP moderates - some of whom
> are facing tough
> reelection campaigns in November - cannot afford
> criticism from Democratic
> challengers over the bill. They say they are calling
> on moderates to avoid a
> potentially politically embarrassing vote, while
> working long-term to gain
> support for alternative language that can reach the
> president's desk. 
> 
> But Republicans charge that the environmentalists'
> concerns are unfounded,
> and that Gillmor's language is intended to preserve
> EPA's ability to decide
> which new chemicals added to the treaty should be
> restricted. Also, they say
> the preemption concerns are speculative.
> Historically, only one state has
> attempted to set a stricter regulation than EPA for
> a POP chemical - and EPA
> eventually adopted the regulation nationally, one
> industry attorney notes. 
> 
> GOP supporters say passing the bill this year is
> important in order to
> signal support for a future bill with similar
> language, according to a
> spokesman in Gillmor's office. 
> 
>  
> 
>   _____  
> 
> 
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