Epa Getting Dumped On, Browner Says

The Republican-controlled Congress is trying to keep the Environmental Protection Agency from doing its job, the agency’s chief said Tuesday.

EPA Administrator Carol Browner said that proposed congressional cuts to the besieged agency’s budget were unacceptable and warned that such measures could be vetoed by the president.

“There is a deliberate attempt to dismantle environmental and health protections in this country,” Browner said in response to the one-third cut in EPA funding passed by the House Appropriations Committee on Tuesday.

Rep. George Nethercutt, R-Wash., a member of the House Appropriations Committee, voted for the cuts because he is dedicated to balancing the budget, said his press secretary, Ken Lisaius.

Nethercutt wasn’t available for comment.

The House committee would spend $4.9 billion on the EPA in 1996. That’s a 33 percent cut off the 1995 EPA budget of $7.2 billion and 34 percent off of the President’s budget request of $7.3 billion.

The cuts would eliminate $725 million sent to the states to test and clean drinking water. Hazardous waste site cleanup money would be cut $560 million, a 33 percent drop from this year’s spending.

Another $245 million would be cut from environmental law enforcement and $127 million from programs that encourage businesses to produce cleaner technology.

The spending bill also contains limits on the agency’s ability to enforce existing environmental standards or keep it from adopting new standards.

, DataTimes