Paperwork and Regulatory Improvements Act of 2004

PAPERWORK AND REGULATORY IMPROVEMENTS ACT OF 2004 -- (House of Representatives - May 18, 2004)

The SPEAKER pro tempore. Pursuant to House Resolution 645 and rule XVIII, the Chair declares the House in the Committee of the Whole House on the State of the Union for the consideration of the bill, H.R. 2432.

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Mr. MARKEY. Mr. Chairman, I rise in support of the gentlemen's amendment.

Knowledge is power, or as Francis Bacon used to say "Nam et ipsa scientia potestas est." Bacon inspired both this observation and what we have come to know as the scientific method, the underpinning of modern science. Whatever the inspiration for his famous quote, it appears that from the very beginning, science and politics mixed.

Here in Congress we rely on scientists to inform policy, since the term congressional "expert" is really an oxymoron-like "Jumbo Shrimp" or "Jobless Recovery." Scientists tell us whether Yucca Mountain can be used to safely store nuclear waste for a hundred thousand years, how fast global warming is occurring, and whether therapeutic cloning is possible.

Unfortunately, the Bush administration has taken its relentless drive to weaken the environmental regulations of this country to a whole new level, and it has politicized the scientific process in a way we haven't seen since Galileo was tried and jailed by the Inquisition.

Lead is one of the most dangerous and potent toxins to the brains of young children. A year and a half ago, I learned that the Bush administration had rejected the CDC staff nominations of three renowned scientists to its Advisory Panel on Preventing Childhood Lead Poisoning. In their place, individuals with clear ties to the lead industry were nominated-including one who had actually been nominated by the lead industry, and another who was an expert witness for the lead industry, testifying that lead posed very little health risk in lawsuits brought against it. Clearly, the lead industry was unhappy with the CDC panel, which was considering revising the safe blood lead levels downward. So it decided to perform a little policy alchemy by compromising the advisory committee process. I tried to head it off by issuing a report entitled "Turning Lead into Gold: How the Bush Administration is Poisoning the Lead Advisory Committee at the CDC." While one of the nominees admitted her conflict of interest and bowed out, the other industry nominees serve on that panel today.

The lead industry seems to have gotten its way for now. This same committee just recently decided not to lower the lead level of concern, despite a clear finding by a CDC working group that there are adverse health effects at the lower level.

To add insult to injury, the President is proposing a $35 million cut in funds for lead abatement in low-income homes. In the face of significant national drinking water needs-illustrated by the shocking revelations of extremely high lead levels in the Washington, DC, water-the President's budget also proposes to cut water quality funding by $822 million. This all adds up to a policy that counts politics more than all of the science on the adverse effects of lead on young children.

Vote "yes" on the Waxman-Tierney amendment to restore integrity to the government's scientific process.

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