WASHINGTON – With environmental issues growing in
importance and prominence in the United States, Senate
Governmental Affairs Committee Chairman Joe Lieberman (D-CT)
today expressed strong support for enhancing the status of the
Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) by elevating it to a
cabinet-level department.
"Conferring cabinet status on the EPA is consistent with
the values of the American people," Lieberman said.
"Appreciation for preserving the environment cuts across
demographic and political lines. The time is ripe for our nation
to accord as much priority to the health of our environment as
we do to the state of the our armed forces and the quality of
our educational system."
Lieberman’s remarks were made during a Governmental Affairs
Committee hearing on S. 159, a bill to establish a
"Department of Environmental Protection Affairs"
sponsored by Senators Barbara Boxer (D-CA) and Susan Collins
(R-ME).
Lieberman pointed out that by conferring increased stature on
the EPA, the Boxer-Collins bill would put the agency on more
equal footing with other agencies in its efforts to protect the
environment, such as in dealing with the Energy Department in
responding to energy issues or negotiating with the Defense
Department over toxic waste sites on military bases.
"Cabinet status can help level the playing fields between
EPA and these powerful agencies," he said.
Lieberman also indicated that the legislation could
potentially improve the nation’s ability to work with the
international community on global climate change and other
transnational environmental issues.
"Of 198 nations, only ten, including the United States,
do not maintain a cabinet department or ministry devoted to the
environment – that puts us into the company of states like
Libya and Myanmar and diminishes our ability to exercise
international environmental leadership." Former
Administrator Carol Browner supported this observation in the
hearing, noting that "status does matter" in dealing
with foreign countries.
Lieberman indicated that the challenge to achieve EPA cabinet
status in this Congress was to "stay between the
legislative lines" and keep the Boxer-Collins bill as
"clean" as possible from extraneous provisions in
order to avoid the kind of pitfalls that doomed previous
attempts to make EPA a department.
Witnesses appearing before the committee included Senator
Boxer; Representative Sherwood Boehlert (R-NY), the author of a
similar House measure; EPA Administrator Christine Todd Whitman;
former Administrators Carole Browner and William Reilly; and
former EPA General Counsel Donald Elliot.
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