|
Louise believes that protecting our environment is crucial. The League of Conservation Voters (LCV) gave Louise 100 percent on their 2009 scorecard and Environment America listed Louise as one of its “Congressional Environmental Champions” in 2009 for voting with the environment on every key vote that year.
Louise believes that the U.S. cannot wait any longer to address global warming. That is why she was proud to vote for H.R. 2454, the American Clean Energy and Security Act of 2009 (ACES). By investing $190 billion in clean, renewable energy and energy efficiency, ACES would boost our economic security and national security while protecting our environment and saving Americans money.
Louise is proud to co-chair the bipartisan Great Lakes Task Force. The Task Force advocates for policies and programs that restore and clean up the Great Lakes. Louise has been a tireless advocate for the Great Lakes, fighting for investment not only in restoration and cleanup but also in combating invasive species – most recently Asian carp. She is an original co-sponsor of H.R. 4755, the Great Lakes Ecosystem Protection Act (S. 3073). This bill authorizes the Great Lakes Restoration Initiative (GLRI), a comprehensive multi-billion dollar, multi-year plan for the Great Lakes begun during the Obama Administration. The bill would also reauthorize the Great Lakes Legacy program, increasing its authorized funding to $150 million/year, and reauthorize the Great Lakes National Program Office.
Louise has also been outspoken in trying to prevent the next big oil spill. In the wake of the disaster with the BP Deepwater Horizon drilling platform, Louise led her colleagues in demanding that the Department of Interior and Bureau of Ocean Energy Management, Regulation and Enforcement take immediate action to address serious allegations raised by a BP consultant-turned-whistleblower concerning the safety of the BP Atlantis platform. In light of the whistleblower’s allegations, the BP Atlantis has been widely warned of as the next possible Deepwater Horizon. On July 21, 2010, Louise led a letter with 17 of her colleagues to Secretary Ken Salazar and Bureau of Ocean Energy Management Director Michael Bromwich expressing concern about the pace at which the Department of the Interior has acted on tips provided by the whistleblower, Ken Abbott. The letter further urged the Department to immediately order a halt to operations at the Atlantis platform pending an investigation, to immediately interview Mr. Abbott (a step the Department had not yet taken, amazingly), and to conduct a check of the specific deficiencies alleged by the whistleblower (which the Department had also not yet appeared to have done).
As Chair of the House Rules Committee, Louise has ushered through the House a number of important bills relating to energy and the environment. Along with H.R. 2454, the American Clean Energy and Security Act, a comprehensive climate change and energy bill, Louise has helped push through bills dealing with oil drilling and public lands.
On July 30, 2010, Louise ushered through the Rules Committee H.R. 3534, the Consolidated Land, Energy, and Aquatic Resources (CLEAR) Act. The bill passed the House by a vote of 209 to 193. The CLEAR Act provides new safety standards for offshore drilling, abolishes the Minerals Management Service and establishing in its place an agency structured to avoid the conflict of interest that helped keep MMS from doing its job, and closes royalty loopholes, including those that allow companies to pay zero royalties during times of high oil prices.
Along with the CLEAR Act, the Rules Committee advanced H.R. 5851, the Offshore Oil and Gas Worker Whistleblower Protection Act. The bill passed the House by a vote of 315 to 93. The legislation prohibits an employer from discharging or otherwise discriminating against employees who report violations of the Outer Continental Shelf Lands Act (OCSLA) and provides whistleblowers and workers who refuse to engage in unsafe activities a number of other protections.
The Rules Committee also ensured that the House reached an agreement with the Senate on H.R. 146, the Omnibus Public Land Management Act, perhaps the most significant conservation measure to be enacted by Congress in the last 15 years. This package of more than 160 individual public lands bills permanently codified the National Landscape Conservation System; created two million new acres of wilderness across nine states; established three new national park units; designated 1,000 miles of wild and scenic rivers; designated a National Monument and three National Conservation Areas; protected world-class hunting land in the Wyoming Range; and recognized new Historic Sites and Heritage Areas. The final version of the bill passed the House 285 to 140 on March 25, 2009 and President Obama signed it into law on March 30, 2009.
Louise is a cosponsor of H.R. 2766, the Fracturing Responsibility and Awareness of Chemicals (FRAC) Act of 2009. The FRAC Act would repeal the Bush-era exemptions from restrictions on underground injection of fluids near drinking water sources granted to hydraulic fracturing operations and require oil and gas companies to disclose the chemicals used in hydraulic fracturing operations. Louise feels that hydraulic fracturing – such as the drilling in our region over the Marcellus Shale – needs to be put on hold until there is further study of the health and environmental effects of the chemicals it puts into the ground and into our drinking water.
|
|
Beginning in the early 1940s, the Department of Energy and its predecessors, the Atomic Energy Commission and the Manhattan Engineering District, relied upon hundreds of private-sector factories and laboratories to develop, test, and produce atomic weapons for use by the military. During the atomic weapons production process, these facilities became contaminated with radioactive materials. Recognizing that workers at these facilities may be suffering from illness caused by their work, Congress passed the Energy Employees Occupational Illness Compensation Program Act (EEOICPA).
Part B of the EEIOCP was enacted to provide compensation to workers with beryllium disease, silicosis, or radiation induced cancer. Employees or their survivors, whose claims are approved, may receive a lump-sum payment of $150,000 and medical benefits for the covered illness. In October 2004, Congress amended the EEOICP with Part E, which provides compensation and medical benefits for DOE contractor and subcontractor employees whose illness were caused by exposure to any toxic substance while working at a DOE facility. Eligible survivors may receive federal compensation, if the employee's death was caused or contributed to by the covered occupational illness.
There are 10 sites in and around the 28th Congressional District of Western New York that qualify under the EEOICP:
- Ashland Oil, Tonawanda
- Bethlehem Steel, Lackawanna
- Bliss & Laughlin Steel, Buffalo
- Carborundum Company, Niagara Falls
- Hooker Electrochemical, Niagara Falls
- Lake Ontario Ordnance Work, Niagara Falls
- Linde Air Products, Buffalo
- Linde Ceramics Plant, Tonawanda
- Titanium Alloys Manufacturing, Niagara Falls
- University of Rochester Atomic Energy Project, Rochester
Rep. Slaughter has been working to address this issue for many years and continues to fight hard for her constituents who were employed under the atomic workers program. Rep. Slaughter introduced an amendment to H.R. 4200, the National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2005. This amendment allowed individuals to apply for benefits under the Energy Employees Occupational Illness Compensation Act if they developed covered illnesses and worked at facilities that the National Institute of Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH) has found the potential for significant residual contamination. Additionally, this amendment required NIOSH to update the residual contamination report in 2005, 2006, and 2007 for sites where NIOSH has indicated it lacked sufficient information to reach conclusions. Rep. Slaughter was very pleased when this amendment was incorporated into the bill and became law on October 28, 2004.
Rep. Slaughter also supported the Energy Employees Occupational Illness Compensation Program Act which was passed in October 2000, as part of H.R. 4205, the Defense Authorization bill. It included a Subtitle D which authorized the Department of Energy (DOE) to provide assistance to DOE contractor employees filing state worker compensation claims for illnesses arising out of exposure to toxic substances and other hazardous materials at a covered DOE facility. With passage of this bill, constituents in New York’s 28th district who were not directly hired by DOE but instead contractors were able to apply for compensation.
In 2005, Rep. Slaughter called on NIOSH to release the site profile for the Linde Ceramics Plant and meet with workers from the Plant. NIOSH had said that the Linde Ceramics site profile would be completed by November 30, 2004. Four months later, these constituents were still waiting. After pressuring NIOSH, we finally saw the first draft site profile in the spring of 2005.
Rep. Slaughter also pressed the Administration numerous times to grant Linde special exposure cohort (SEC) status, and at the end of 2005, and she is pleased to report that they did designate SEC status for workers at Linde between October 1942 and October 1947. This designation is expected to affect about 80 former employees.
Early in 2007, the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) failed to provide enough funding for NIOSH to revise and implement an up-to-date site profile for the former Linde Ceramics Plant. An independent audit during the summer of 2006 concluded that NIOSH's initial site profile of Linde Ceramics was severely flawed and needed to be altered. Former Linde Workers will continue to be incorrectly denied compensation for the carcinogens they were exposed to until NIOSH develops an adequate site profile which would allow for an accurate assessment of exposure through dose reconstruction. After meeting with the auditors, Rep. Slaughter called on the Director of CDC to sufficiently fund NIOSH’s efforts to revise and update the site profile. In November of 2007, CDC responded that the Advisory Board on Radiation and Worker Health has created a working group to review the Linde Ceramics site profile and make any changes necessary to eliminate its flaws. Rep. Slaughter will continue to put pressure on NIOSH to prepare a fair and accurate site profile that allows former workers to receive the compensation they deserve.
Rep. Slaughter joined with her colleagues from Western NY to ask NIOSH to address many concerns that have been raised by those seeking compensation. In December of 2007, she joined Senators Schumer and Clinton, along with Reps. Higgins and Reynolds, in a letter Larry Elliot, Director of NIOSH. This letter asked him to thoroughly address evidence that raised questions about the time period during which uranium was rolled at Bethlehem Steel, as well as the type of material that was rolled at the plant.
Additionally, on January 29, 2008, Rep. Slaughter joined Senators Clinton and Schumer in a letter to Secretary of Labor Elaine Chao, in response to the Department of Labor’s decision to re-designate four buildings at Linde Ceramics. This re-designation from an Atomic Weapons Employer facility to a Department of Energy facility would prevent many of Linde’s former workers from even applying for compensation. This was an unprecedented action by the Department of Labor and threatens to set a dangerous precedent of preventing former atomic workers from even applying for compensation. In our letter, the delegation demanded that NIOSH explain why they decided to consider this re-designation, the justification for re-designating these buildings and not other similar buildings, and finally we asked for information on how this decision could be appealed. Due to these efforts, in April of 2008 the Department of Labor decided to rescind the re-designation decision and allow all residual radiation workers coverage under Part B.
Rep. Slaughter asked for the help of the House Committee on Education and Labor in investigating the problems with the application of EEOICP, and the failure to adequately compensate those as guaranteed under law. On December 20, 2007 Rep. Slaughter joined Reps. Higgins and Reynolds in a letter to Education and Labor Chairman George Miller, asking him to hold a hearing to investigate the claims of nuclear workers in Western NY. Specifically, they asked that the Committee investigate the difficulties being faced by workers from Bethlehem Steel and their families in applying for and receiving compensations. They also asked that the Committee look into the Department of Labor’s decision to re-designate the four buildings at Linde Ceramics.
In 2009, Rep. Slaughter, in partnership with Lewiston Town Supervisor Fred Newlin, secured $1340,000 for the Town of Lewiston to remove public safety hazards from the former Lake Ontario Ordnance Works Waste Water Treatment Plant. This funding will go towards the removal of asbestos containing materials, demolition of unsafe structures, and installation of protective grates, barriers, and signs, disposing of debris, and collecting. It will also fund the analysis of environmental samples to determine the presence of chemical and radiological contaminants in the water and sludge within open pits and vaults.
In addition to these actions, Rep. Slaughter and her staff are in constant contact with constituents and NIOSH following up on claims. |
|
As a Co-Chair of the Congressional Great Lakes Task Force, Congresswoman Slaughter is a strong advocate for the restoration and protection of the Great Lakes.
Lakes Erie, Huron, Michigan, Ontario and Superior contain more than 18 percent of the world’s, and more than 90 percent of North America’s, fresh surface water. Combined, they supply drinking water to more than 35 million people. What’s more, millions of people benefit from the commerce and business that depend on the waters of the Great Lakes. The Lakes are not only a prized natural resource, but also a significant economic engine for our country.
Louise has been a tireless advocate for the Great Lakes over the years. In the past several years, the Great Lakes finally began to receive the sort of investment and attention for which Louise has long advocated, with the implementation of the Great Lakes Restoration Initiative (GLRI). GLRI is an interagency effort to target the most significant problems in the region, including invasive aquatic species, non-point source pollution, and contaminated sediment. GLRI is using outcome-oriented performance goals and measures to target the most significant problems and track progress in addressing them. Through GLRI, EPA and other Federal agencies will coordinate State, tribal, local, and industry to protect, maintain, and restore the chemical, biological, and physical integrity of the Great Lakes. Louise has spoken out in favor of fully funding GLRI at $475 million in fiscal year 2010, and similar levels in future years, adding up to billions of dollars of investment in the Great Lakes over the life of the program.
Louise is an original co-sponsor of H.R. 4755, the Great Lakes Ecosystem Protection Act (S. 3073). This bill formally authorizes GLRI, would reauthorize the Great Lakes Legacy program, increasing its authorized funding to $150 million/year, and would reauthorize the Great Lakes National Program Office.
Louise and the Great Lakes Task Force have also paid close attention to the threat presented by Asian carp, an invasive species that has spread throughout rivers connected to the Great Lakes, which can grow to four feet in length, and can weigh up to 100 pounds each. If the Asian carp reach Lake Michigan, they will almost certainly spread to the rest of the Great Lakes and cause severe damage to the regional economy and ecosystem, wiping out other species by consuming their food supply, even jumping out of the water and hitting boaters and fisherman when scared by boat motors. Estimates of the economic costs of invasion run into the billions.
The Congresswoman has been actively and personally engaged in this issue, speaking to EPA, the Army Corps, New York State, and other officials numerous times, and helping to coordinate the government’s efforts on this issue. In addition, she has recruited her colleagues to apply pressure to the relevant agencies to move past “studies” and actually start to put solutions in place.
As a co-chair of the Congressional Great Lakes Task Force, she has helped make sure money was available for the anti-carp efforts and helped convince the Army Corps of Engineers to cooperate with EPA when the two agencies were at an impasse over how and when to use funds made available.
In addition, she helped secure authorizing language in Water Resources Development Act (WRDA) 2007 to give the Army Corps authority to deal with the carp situation, and that authorization has now paid off.
Louise has spoken to and written to the relevant Federal agencies on numerous occasions, urging them to act more aggressively to keep Asian carp out of the Great Lakes. On September 30, 2009, the House and Senate Great Lakes Task Force led a letter with 24 of their colleagues to U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service Director Sam Hamilton urging him to administratively list Bighead carp as injurious under the Lacey Act. Such a listing would prevent the importation and interstate commerce of live Bighead carp.
On December 17, 2009, the House and Senate Great Lakes Task Force led a letter with 50 of their colleagues to the Army Corps of Engineers, the EPA, the Coast Guard, and the Fish and Wildlife Service, all of which have a role in the Asian carp/dispersal barrier issue, to urge them to take more aggressive action to prevent the movement of the carp into the Great Lakes. These actions included closing the Chicago locks, using piscicides, increasing the voltage and conducting additional monitoring.
On January 21, 2010, the House & Senate Great Lakes Task Force led a letter with six of their colleagues to Director of the Office of Management and Budget Peter Orszag and Jo-Ellen Darcy, with the Army Corps of Engineers, to urge them to identify funds in Fiscal Year 2010 to purchase pesticides to treat any waters North of the electric dispersal barrier in the Chicago Sanitary and Ship Canal that are contain Asian carp.
|
|
Congresswoman Louise Slaughter submitted the following documents to the Transportation and Infrastructure Committee:
|
|
|
Contact Louise
Louise Line
