Presidential Leadership

Floor Speech

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Mr. MERKLEY. Madam President, it is a pleasure to join my colleague from New Mexico to discuss both the general environment, the environment in which we no longer have strong bipartisan support for clean air and clean water that we once had, and some of the specifics of the House Republican budget and the damage that would do to American citizens.

Just to give a small sense of this, in 2010 the Clean Air Act prevented 1.7 million asthma attacks, 130,000 heart attacks, and 86,000 emergency room visits. That is why leading public health experts oppose these cuts, groups such as the American Lung Association, which said: ``H.R. 1 is toxic to public health.''

Why is that the case? I will give a couple examples and then turn back to my colleague. One example is that it would prohibit standards for toxic air pollution, including mercury, lead, arsenic, dioxin, and acid gases coming from coal-burning powerplants. A second is that it would prohibit standards for toxic air pollution coming from industries burning coal and oil. A third is that it would prohibit guidance on how to protect clean drinking water from mountain top mining. A fourth is it would prohibit standards for handling hazardous waste from burning coal just 2 years after a disaster in Tennessee caused 1 billion gallons of coal waste to spill into people's neighborhoods and homes.

I have a longer list, but I will stop there and note that these impacts on water and air occur to citizens in every State under H.R. 1, the Republican budget.

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Mr. MERKLEY. Madam President, I will say that one key aspect is that the House Republican budget would cut $2 billion from EPA's clean water and safe drinking water infrastructure loan programs. As I am going around my State, holding a townhall in every single county, I hold a meeting with the city and county leaders in advance of the public meeting. At virtually every one of these gatherings, I hear stories from mayors and chairs of county councils who talk about the challenge they have with their aging infrastructure, both on their water supply and on their wastewater disposal; and that aging infrastructure needs to be upgraded as plants wear out and as we discover more challenges we need to address. So cutting the loan program that supports our communities--our rural communities, our suburban communities, our urban communities, all of our communities--in providing clean water to the residents and of helping dispose of and treat wastewater would be an enormous mistake. That partnership is absolutely crucial to communities that cannot otherwise afford this infrastructure. That would mean more sewage and other pollution going into our water ways and less treatment of water we take out to drink.

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