OPENING STATEMENT OF SEN. HILLARY RODHAM CLINTON
ENVIRONMENT AND PUBLIC WORKS COMMITTEE HEARING
JANUARY 17, 2001

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I am very pleased to be joining my colleagues as a new member of this committee. It has a strong tradition of a New York presence and leadership because of Senator Moynihan and his work on behalf of the environment as he served as a chairman of this committee. I am looking forward to working on behalf of the issues that this committee is concerned with -- protecting and preserving our environment, protecting and furthering public health, and providing communities with much needed infrastructure. I am delighted to be here with Governor Whitman and her husband with whom I have shared many spousal events. So it is a particular pleasure to be here with you.

The points that have already been raised by previous opening statements are all important that are concerned to the state that Senator Torricelli described as "being east of Jersey City and Newark." New York has a number of environmental challenges partly because of our long tradition of industrialization, which we share with New Jersey, Delaware and Connecticut and other states in the Northeast, and partly because of transported pollution. We have particular issues that will need the concern and attention of the Administrator of the EPA. That is why this hearing is important to me because as I've traveled around New York from the Adirondacks to Onondaga Lake, to the Hudson River to the Long Island Sound and New York's shoreline. I have certainly seen the extraordinary environmental treasures but also the problems that have come over the decade that have not been addressed.

I do believe that a clean and healthy environment go along with a growing and expanding economy. Today, we enjoy the cleanest air, the clearest water, and the strongest economy in a generation. It is my hope, that through new tax credits and other incentives, we can further reduce pollution and improve the environment while continuing to grow the economy -- particularly in areas like Upstate New York and other urban areas in New York and elsewhere that have not yet realized the full benefits of economic growth.

I know that we can continue to improve the environment and provide new opportunities for job creation and economic development through an increase in brownfields cleanup and redevelopment. EPA's brownfields initiative has already proven successful across the country and in many areas in New York State, including Buffalo, Rochester, and Niagara Falls.

I believe that effective, voluntary and incentive-based programs need to be backed by strong environmental and public health standards, and by rigorous enforcement where compliance with such standards is lacking. These efforts need to be supported by adequate resources in the Agency's budget. I look forward to learning more about Governor Whitman's ideas of how best to enforce environmental standards.

Perhaps even more important than the link between the environment and the economy, is the link between the environment and public health. In the work that I have done on behalf of children's health, and as many of you as sitting members of the committee have done, we know and we are becoming increasingly aware of the links between environmental degradation and harmful pollutants and diseases that children and adults suffer. I would particularly point to the extraordinary increase in asthma and other examples like that. In children particularly environmental damage can lead to long-term learning disabilities and other health problems.

The link between the health of our citizens and the health of our environment makes it all the more important to continue expediting the cleanup of toxic waste sites under the Superfund program, establishing the strongest standards for the quality of our air, and ensuring that communities, particularly communities of color, have the resources they need to adequately treat their water and clean up the toxic wastes of their environment. Equally important are efforts to provide the public with information about the food that we eat, the water we drink, and the air we breath, so that we can make our own decisions about how best to protect ourselves and our families from potential environmental health risks. We must also continue to work to make certain that the same protections are afforded to all communities, regardless of who lives in a community, their race or ethnicity, or income level of those citizens.

In New York, as in New Jersey, the environment has been an area in which Republicans and Democrats have worked together. It is my great hope that we will make similar progress at the national level with the new Administration by working in a bi-partisan or even non-partisan way.

I think we can all recognize that significant progress has been made in improving and protecting public health and the environment but there is much more to be done. In addition to the issues that I have mentioned, I certainly join my colleagues' comments about everything from the energy crisis to global warming and know that these are the challenges that will have to be tackled with Governor Whitman's leadership in this Administration. I look forward to discussing these issues and challenges with you this morning and in the days and months ahead.