Mr. Chairman, I am pleased to be here to discuss EPA's Fiscal Year 2000 priorities with Administrator Browner.
Administrator Browner has served longer at the helm of the Environmental Protection Agency than any of her predecessors. She has brought tremendous leadership and vision to that task.
It is hard to name an area of EPA's work that has not been improved dramatically under the Clinton Administration. More Superfund sites have been cleaned up during this Administration's six years than in the twelve prior years of the Superfund program.
Many of the necessary reforms of the remediation waste cleanup program we discussed last Congress have been implemented by EPA, with the issuance of the regulation the Agency finalized in late 1998.
The agency has expanded the Right-to-Know program designed to further reduce harmful emissions. And citizens now have greater access to all environmental information. EPA, under Administrator Browner's leadership, has also been a leader in addressing the pollutants that threaten visitors to our beaches and recreational waters.
I look forward to her discussion of these matters and the President's priorities for Fiscal Year 2000 for EPA.
The EPA budget will have enormous implications in my State of New Jersey, where the prosperity of a booming economy through the industrial development of the last century, unfortunately, has produced its share of environmental concerns.
In particular, I would like to hear about the President's Better America Bonds initiative, an initiative which will address an issue of great importance to my state -- sprawl, open space preservation, the recycling of our vital urban centers.
Thank you, Mr. Chairman.