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The EPA's Fiscal Year 2010 Budget

 

On Tuesday, May 12, 2009, Senator Lautenberg issued the following statement at a morning hearing on the Environmental Protection Agency's Fiscal Year 2010 Budget:

"Madam Chairman,

In a little more than 100 days with Lisa Jackson at the helm, the EPA has made some monumental decisions: It formally declared that carbon dioxide is a pollutant and a threat to the public’s health and welfare.

It is considering granting the California waiver, to allow states like New Jersey and California to regulate greenhouse gas emissions from vehicles.

And just last week, the EPA announced that it would revisit two rules from the Bush Administration that deregulated more than a million tons of hazardous waste.

We are seeing a new era of leadership at the EPA and a new commitment to the Agency’s mission.

This budget request shows that commitment by funding the EPA at the highest level in its 39 year history.

It gives the Agency the resources it needs to clean up our communities and keep our children healthy.

It funds programs that will create jobs in a clean energy economy.

And it helps erase the neglect we saw under the previous Administration.

First, the budget adds to the funding provided in the Economic Recovery Act for the nation’s Superfund program.

That program is important to me—both because it falls under the Subcommittee I chair and, more importantly, because it has such an impact on New Jersey.

New Jersey has more Superfund sites than any state in the country—and those sites are decaying, allowing toxins to seep into the neighborhoods where our children live, learn and play.

By funding the Superfund program and cleaning up these sites, we will create jobs and revitalize local communities that have been crippled by the toxic legacy of irresponsible companies.

The budget also proposes we restore the Superfund 'polluter pays' principle to make sure polluters—not taxpayers—are footing the bill for these clean-ups.

Later this year, I will introduce legislation to accomplish this goal and I look forward to working with the Administration to make that bill become law.

According to the EPA, doing so will raise one billion dollars each year starting in 2011 and as much as two billion annually by 2019.

The EPA’s budget request also makes a crucial and necessary investment in our water infrastructure.

This budget proposes 3.9 dollars to provide loans to states to build and repair our crumbling water systems.

This will create thousands of technical and construction jobs, making our economy and our communities healthier.

Madam Chairman, this budget provides the resources to protect our environment, and grow our economy at the same time.

I applaud the Administration and Administrator Jackson, and I look forward to hearing more about the EPA’s progress."

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