WASHINGTON - Senator Joe Lieberman, D-Conn.,
announced Thursday he was launching an investigation into the Bush
Administration’s accelerated campaign to try to rescind or
eliminate a range of public health and safety, and environmental
protections.
"This misguided campaign by the new administration defies
common sense and threatens to befoul the air we breathe, the water
we drink and the lands we cherish," Lieberman said. "The
peace of mind of our citizens and the exquisite natural beauty of
our land deserve better."
These regulations were not formulated overnight or by
irresponsible parties, Lieberman said. Months, sometimes years, of
labor went into designing them. Public hearings were held around
the nation. Extensive comment was solicited. And now, Lieberman
added, "seemingly in the blink of an eye, one protection
after another is being dismantled."
Many of these threatened rules have received widespread public
attention. The administration has targeted scores of others,
including rules that support the public’s right to know about
toxic lead contamination in their communities, that protect mine
workers against toxic underground air pollution, that make our
highways and roads safer, and that protect wilderness and wildlife
areas from degradation.
Lieberman said he was launching an investigation "into the
method behind this madness, that is, the decision-making process
leading to these damaging actions. Who have they solicited comment
from? Why aren’t they conducting public hearings? What’s the
evidence they’ve amassed against the regulations?"
The Senator released three letters he has written to the
Environmental Protection Agency, the Interior Department and the
Agriculture Department, asking for a full accounting of their
decisions on the arsenic, mining, and roadless rules.
"The arduous work that went into these rules in the first
place - and the innocent people they are designed to protect -
should not be disregarded so carelessly," Lieberman said.
"President Bush promised during the campaign to set high
environmental standards and build conservation partnerships
between federal, state and local governments. Instead, his
administration is razing high standards that have already been set
and partnering with no one but those who would degrade the
environment. ‘If you own the land,’ Bush said in one of his
debates with Vice President Gore last year, ‘every day is Earth
Day.’ Was that just another hollow campaign slogan?"
Letter to EPA
Administrator Whitman
Letter to Interior
Secretary Norton
Letter to Agriculture
Secretary Veneman