THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Monday, August 14, 1995 TAG: 9508130030
SECTION: FRONT PAGE: A6 EDITION: FINAL
TYPE: Letter
LENGTH: Short : 34 lines
Wake up, America! The 104th Congress, lead by Newt Gingrich and Bob Dole, is prepared to weaken or eliminate many of the laws that protect our health, safety and environment.
Among the proposals: forcing EPA to protect the public while at the same time reducing its budget by 33 percent; forcing taxpayers to pay people not to pollute under the guise of ``protecting property rights''; eliminating funding for the lead-poisoning-prevention program; scaling back funding for the Safe Drinking Water Act and rolling back wetlands protection by 75 percent or more; prohibiting most enforcement of the Clean Water Act; outright repeal of the Clean Air Act; allowing destruction of endangered-species habitat; allowing logging in National Forests without abiding by any environmental laws; cutting back the already-struggling Park Service and turning over federal lands to states and private investors to use however they please.
In short, they're talking about rolling back 25 years of environmental protection. Owen Pickett, Norman Sisisky, Herbert Bateman and John Warner have so far voted for every anti-environmental provision presented to them. Those who don't want these bills to pass should let their senators and representatives know.
ELAINE SPENCER
Virginia Beach, Aug. 1, 1995 by CNB