Democrats Target EPA Budget and Direction
House Democrats set the stage this morning for what promises to be a bruising battle over the EPA budget and the direction of the agency itself in a House environmental subcommittee hearing.
Chairman Albert Wynn opened the hearing by noting that Democrats share "growing concern about the ability of the EPA to fulfill its duties"–particularly in the areas of Superfund site cleanups, brownfields, and leaking underground storage tanks. Wynn, along with several Democratic colleagues, faulted committee Republicans for failing to conduct proper oversight, noting that the hearing was the first held by the subcommittee on the EPA budget in six years. In contrast, he warned, "this Congress will enthusiastically pursue these responsibilities."
Republican ranking member John Shimkus encouraged bipartisanship but cautioned that environmental oversight should not come at too great a cost to the economy. Many committee Democrats took the opportunity to chastise the Bush administration's environmental policies while promising oversight and new legislation.
Rep. Tammy Baldwin called the EPA "lax and perhaps even negligent," while several representatives vowed to fight for more funding to assist local and state environmental clean-ups and regulatory efforts. Of the many complaints raised, the Superfund tax dominated the Democratic agenda. Democratic Rep. Frank Pallone, who assailed Bush's EPA budget request as "shameful," promised to reintroduce a Superfund tax bill that would "put the burden on polluters, not on taxpayers."
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