Extensions of Remarks

3222 EXTENSIONS OF REMARKS February 27, 1986 EXTENSIONS OF REMARKS LITHUANIAN INDEPENDENCE however, that he is preparing to terminate Su could take two years longer to clean up each DAY perfund contracts and furlough employees. site under the House provisions. The net This action will disrupt not only the Superfund result of its simultaneous speedup and slow Program but all EPA programs as Superfund down stipulations is likely to be nil. HON. MARTIN FROST The House and Senate conferees can employees with seniority "bump" other EPA OF TEXAS break the impasse by agreeing at least on a employees. IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES simple one-year extension of the Superfund, While it is important that we be deliberate in with feedstock taxes continued at the Wednesday, February 26, 1986 our efforts to refund and revamp the Super present rate. Better still would be a five Mr. FROST. Mr. Speaker, I am pleased to fund Program, we must replenish the Super year authorization on the same basis, with join with my colleagues in commemorating the fund soon. An editorial in the February 11 , provision for extra funds to be borrowed 68th anniversary of Lithuanian Independence 1986, edition of the New York Times entitled from general revenues on evidence that the Day. I am of Lithuanian descent and am justifi "Strangling Superfund With Affection" notes E.P.A. could usefully spend them. the problems with unrealistic goals for this Excessive goals for the Superfund have ably proud of my heritage. Lithuania is a produced a ludicrous impasse that threatens nation that for most of its history has had its program. I commend this editorial to the atten to destroy the program. The obvious way sovereignty violated and its freedom sup tion of my colleagues, and ask that it be in out is to settle on goals that are realistic as pressed by the Soviet Union, and yet the spirit serted in the RECORD at this point. well as virtuous. of its people had never been broken. They [From the New York Times Feb. 11, 19861 have never abandoned their struggle for free STRANGLING SUPERFUND WITH AFFECTION dom, and we must let them know that we Toxic chemicals leak into the water ESTONIA RIGHTS BEING DENIED have not abandoned them. supply from thousands of abandoned dumps BY SOVIETS The brave people of Lithuania have resisted around the country. Five years of the Su repeated attempts to replace their language perfund, the Federal program to clean up HON. BENJAMIN A. GILMAN the dumps, has barely scratched the sur and culture with that of their Russian oppres face. Yet within weeks the Environmental OF NEW YORK sors. They have remained faithful to their reli Protection Agency will have to wind down IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES gions, language, and traditions, forcing the So even this program, for lack of funds. Wednesday, February 26, 1986 viets to abandon the policy of forced russif1ca Congress is perfectly willing to give Lee tion. The two brief decades of independence Thomas, the head of the agency, the money Mr. GILMAN. Mr. Speaker, February 24 that Lithuania enjoyed were marked by a flour needed. Indeed, the House and Senate have marked the 68th anniversary of the Declara ishing of education, literature, and art, as well vied to give him more. The vast round sums tion of Independence of the Republic of Esto they proposed-$7 .5 billion in the Senate, nia. While this anniversary will be recognized as great achievements in opera and music. $10 billion in the House-required new Clearly, this is a nation of great resources that by millions throughout the free world, no ob taxes, and each house repudiated the servance will be allowed in Soviet-occupied has tragically been cut off from the outside other's way of raising them. In the impasse, world. the Superfund's taxing authority has run Estonia. Let us take this opportunity to reaffirm our out and Mr. Thomas is preparing to termi On February 24, 1918, the Republic of Es commitment to the people of Lithuania in their nate contracts and furlough employees. tonia declared its independence and soon struggle for freedom. As Americans, we share Congress shares the blame with environ after became a model of justice and liberty. In mental lobbyists, who pushed for the Super 1925, for example, Estonia became the first with them a common love of democracy and fund to be renewed at twice the $5 billion freedom. It is our responsibility as a free country to recognize the importance of the Mr. Thomas requested but who professed Latvian, German, Russian and Jewish cultures nation to see that these brave people are not indifference about how to raise it. The forgotten. House proposed increasing the present feed through government subsidized ethnic stock tax levied on the oil and chemical in schools, libraries and theaters. This tiny re dustry. But the industry persuaded the public flourished until 1940 when the Soviet STRANGLING SUPERFUND WITH Senate that a value-added tax on all manu armies occupied Estonia and subsequently an AFFECTION facturing industries would distribute the nexed Estonia and the other Baltic States to burden more fairly. There are valid objec the Soviet empire. tions to both taxes. Throughout the past 45 years brave Esto HON. NORMAN F. LENT Mr. Thomas asserts that $5 billion for the OF NEW YORK Superfund, over five years, is all he can effi nians have suffered under repressive Soviet IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES ciently spend. Environmental groups have rule. Later this week Members of Congress will have an opportunity to learn firsthand Wednesday, February 26, 1986 pressed for more, citing the immensity of the task and the need to clean up sites per about life in Estonia when Valdo Randpere Mr. LENT. Mr. Speaker, one of the pressing manently. Everyone agrees that dumps and Leila Miller visit the Capitol. Valdo and issues before the Congress is the reauthoriza should be cleaned up as fast as possible, and Leila are the parents of the world's youngest tion of the funding for Superfund and the the E.P.A. probably could spend more than political prisoner, Kaisa Randpere. Valdo and strengthening of the program. Even though Mr. Thomas· has asked for. Leila were forced to leave the 2-year-old both bodies passed bills funding and revising But the health threat posed by most dumps is not a Bhopal-type poison that kills Kaisa behind when they defected to Sweden the Superfund Program last year, the Super in seconds; it is low-level pollution that acts in 1984. Kaisa is currently living in Tallinn, in fund Program is about to come to a halt be over years. The steady progress of a $5 bil Estonia, where both she and her grandmother, cause of the Congress' inability to reconcile lion cleanup would not necessarily be so Hilga Uuskule, have been the subject of con the differences between the two bills. much worse than a $10 billion program that stant harassment and persecution by the The taxing authority for this important pro might stumble in its haste. A slower pro Soviet authorities. Recent reports indicate that gram expired on September 30, 1985. Lee gram is clearly preferable to legislative pa the Soviet authorities have fired the grand Thomas, Administrator of the Environmental ralysis. mother from her job, threatened to place Moreover, the House Superfund renewal Protection Agency, took action last summer to bill would ask E.P.A. to move twice as fast Kaisa in an orphanage, denied correspond conserve some program funds and has been with mandatory deadlines that it cannot ence privileges, and even threatened the able to provide essential Superfund services meet. The bill would also let citizens sue for grandmother with psychiatric imprisonment. notwithstanding the lack of additional reve not meeting the deadlines, guaranteeing Unfortunately the Randperes are just one of nues. Mr. Thomas has recently announced, still more delay. In Mr. Thomas's view, it countless Estonian families whose basic e This .. bullet" symbol identifies statements or insertions which are not spoken by a Member of the Senate on the floor. Matter set in this typeface indicates words inserted or appended, rather than spoken, by a Member of the House on the floor. February 27, 1986 EXTENSIONS OF REMARKS 3223 human rights are being systematically denied of Russian would be introduced already at FEBRUARY 1986. by their Soviet captors. the level of day care centers. MIKHAIL S. GORBACHEV, I recently received a statement from the Es Today, it is virtually impossible for Esto General Secretary, tonian National Council in New York City on nians in their Soviet occupied homeland to The Kremlin, travel abroad or to emigrate. Contrast this Moscow, U.S.S.R. the current situation in Estonia. It is a clear, with the fact that in 1936 alone, for exam DEAR GENERAL SECRETARY GORBACHEV: We moving example of the repressive lifestyle the ple, 120,889 Estonian citizens were able to are activists and supporters of the U.S. people of Estonia endure under Soviet occu travel abroad, and a few of them chose to peace movement who have condemned our pation. I wish to bring this essay to the atten emigrate. In the grips of the Soviet bear Es government's dangerous insistence on the tion of my colleagues by including it at this tonia today has the sad distinction of Star Wars program, and its failure to re point in the CoNGRESSIONAL RECORD: having the world's youngest political prison spond constructively to recent Soviet arms STATEMENT OF THE ESTONIAN AMERICAN er, two year old Kaisa Randpere, who is for proposals and intitiatives.

Load more