Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SATURDAY, July 29, 1995 TAG: 9507310057
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL PAGE: A5 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: ASSOCIATED PRESS
DATELINE: WASHINGTON LENGTH: Medium
A sharply divided House rejected a Republican effort Friday to blunt federal enforcement of anti-pollution laws, dealing a blow to the GOP campaign to unshackle business from regulations.
By 212-206, the House voted to remove 17 provisions from a spending bill that for the next year would have inhibited the Environmental Protection Agency's ability to keep the air, water and food free of pollutants.
President Clinton hailed lawmakers for rebuffing a GOP ``stealth attack on public health and environmental protections in the guise of a budget bill.'' But in the latest flareup in his yearlong battle with Republicans about how to balance the budget, he reiterated his vow to veto the underlying legislation, which still would slash EPA coffers by one-third.
``We need to finish the job of bringing our fiscal house in order. But I will not jeopardize the health of American families in the process,'' he said in a written statement.
The laws and regulations that would have been reined in control emissions by factories, refineries, kilns and automobiles; limit industrial runoff into lakes and streams; stem sewage overflows; keep arsenic and other chemicals out of drinking water; and check for pesticides in food.
Reps. Bob Goodlatte, R-Roanoke, and L.F. Payne, D-Nelson County, voted in favor of less enforcement, while Rep. Rick Boucher, D-Abingdon, voted to preserve enforcement.
Supporters of the effort to bridle the EPA said they might force another vote next week, when the House resumes debate of the measure from which the language was removed.
But for now, a coalition of Democrats and moderate Republicans who said special interests should not prevail over public safety bested GOP leaders, who have spent much of the year trying to peel away government regulations they say hinder business.
``The American people might have been voting to get the government off their backs'' when Republicans captured Congress last November, said Rep. Charles Wilson, D-Texas, ``but they weren't voting to put arsenic in their drinking water or benzene in the air that they breathe.''
``We've definitely handed a victory to those who want to regulate more and put more government into people's lives,'' said Rep. Joe Barton, R-Texas, who supported braking environmental enforcement.
Fifty-one Republicans joined 160 Democrats and one independent in voting to kill the provisions impeding the EPA; 175 Republicans and 31 Democrats voted to keep them alive. The amendment erasing the EPA restrictions was sponsored by Reps. Louis Stokes, D-Ohio, and Sherwood Boehlert, R-N.Y.
by CNB