From the Office of Senator Kerry

Wednesday, October 31, 2001

Washington, DC - Senator John F. Kerry (D-MA) today joined labor leaders from the Service Employee International Union, United Steelworkers of America, Brotherhood of Railroad Signalmen, Brotherhood of Maintenance of Way Employees, Transportation and Communications Union in a press conference to call for the protection of the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge. At the press conference Senator Kerry said, "We are here today to call for the truth -- to say, this is a time when our nation's security needs - homeland security, economic security, our security around the world -- are too pressing, too important, to be undermined by politics, or by anyone's partisan agenda.

"Before September 11th, we believed in protecting the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge. We still believe it - and we say that knowing that drilling there will do nothing to make us any safer, will do nothing to make our economy stronger for the working men and women hurting today. As you all know, some are trying to pass their decade old partisan agenda -- opening the refuge to oil drilling - by telling Americans it will make us safer and make our economy stronger.

"They threaten to attach it to every piece of legislation before Congress. They say it's security; it's not. They say it's stimulus; it's not. We say it's time they joined us to do the things which will make us safer and which will bring economic relief -- making our airports safe, getting money into the pockets of unemployed workers and putting health insurance and unemployment benefits ahead of tax giveaways for corporations. We're asking them to stop dividing America for a partisan cause, and to start doing what is in the national security and economic security interests of our nation."