Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: TUESDAY, October 11, 1994 TAG: 9410110135
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: C-3 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: BRIAN KELLEY STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
The bill was among a string of legislation that went down to defeat as congressional Republicans blocked anything that could help Democrats on the campaign trail this fall. Congress adjourned Saturday.
Boucher, an Abingdon Democrat, worked for three years on the interstate waste bill, which would have given local governments the final say on whether private landfills could accept out-of-state garbage. The debacle at the now-closed Kim-Stan dump in Alleghany County inspired the effort.
"There were people in the Senate who simply did not want to see any more White House signing ceremonies," Boucher said Monday. "It's highly unfortunate that for nothing but partisan reasons, Republicans in the Senate brought to defeat the major bills that Congress had spent most of its time constructing this year."
He said voters will hold Republican legislators accountable for their actions.
Boucher is running for a seventh term against Republican Steve Fast of Tazewell, who is on leave from a mathematics professorship at Bluefield College.
The House passed the garbage bill Sept. 28 by a 386-55 vote, meaning it had significant Republican support. Last-minute negotiations brought about a new House version of the bill Friday that major trash-exporting states, such as New York and New Jersey, and major importers, represented by the National Association of Counties, accepted. But Sen. John Chafee, R-R.I., put a hold on the bill in the Senate on Saturday, meaning it could not come up for a vote of unanimous consent.
It will have to be reintroduced in the next session. Boucher predicted it will pass the House again by the end of February, giving the Senate "the better part of two years to consider the measure."
Other bills that died at the last minute included campaign-finance reform, lobbying reform, clean water legislation and mining law reform. The interstate waste bill was the second high-profile bill that Boucher backed that died in the waning days of the 103rd Congress.
On Sept. 23, the first major rewrite of the nation's telecommunication laws in 60 years also died in the Senate. "It would have modernized our laws, created competition and given broad stimulus to the advancement of the information highway," Boucher said. He plans to reintroduce that bill, too, in the next session.
In other campaign news, Boucher said he and Fast will have some "joint appearances" in the last month of the campaign, but nothing is set yet.
Fast last week challenged Boucher to three debates across the 9th District, which stretches from western Roanoke County to the western tip of Virginia. Fast said Monday his staff still hadn't heard back from the Boucher campaign.
"My schedule is already virtually entirely booked between now and the election," Boucher said. But he said his staff would be talking to Fast's to negotiate dates, locations and formats of one or more "joint appearances."
"You can call it what you will. We'll talk with them about the format," Boucher said.
by CNB