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Time to End the Republican Wasteland
of Environmental Policy
House of Representatives - US Capitol Building
December 8, 2005

McDermott joined Represenatives Maurice Hinchey and Lowey at a news conference in the US Capitol Building annoucing the intrduction of Hinchey's "Superfund for Hurricane Accountability and Recovery Act" (SHARA). McDermott spoke from the following prepared remarks.

Republicans are letting polluters freeload off the American people. It's time to end the Republican wasteland of environmental policy in this country.

Under Republican rule, the Superfund program has been starved into the Second-rate fund, where polluters pollute and Americans pay. Our bill - the Superfund for Hurricane Accountability and Recovery Act-restores something Republicans took away- accountability. We will reinstate a bedrock principle of environmental responsibility- it's called polluters pay.

This bill would generate $1.6 billion a year to clean up America's most toxic sites and to expedite cleanup in the wake of Hurricane Katrina.

It is time to reawaken the environmental ethic that Americans value. It is time to respect the land, not the polluters.