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 hat
is it about poisoning the nation's children that Senate
Minority Leader Tom Daschle enjoys?
Daschle was one of 18 Democratic senators in October 2000 who voted
to give the Environmental Protection Agency more time to implement
a new rule on arsenic in drinking water. Barbara Boxer had offered
an amendment to the VA-HUD appropriations bill that would have forced
the EPA to finalize its new rule by January 1st, 2001, instead of
giving it until June 22, 2001.
If one accepts the terms in which Democrats have attacked Bush on
arsenic recently, the Boxer amendment would have meant six fewer
months for innocent Americans to drink corrupted and dangerous water.
Yet, 18 Democrats — 42 percent of the caucus — voted against
it.
Yes, there were procedural reasons for the Democrats to oppose the
amendment. Any changes might have killed a House-Senate deal, and
according to Daschle's office, perhaps endangered the ability of
the EPA to make a new rule at all. But why settle for playing such
inside baseball games when the nation's health is at risk? And 25
Democrats did vote for Boxer.
Of course, there were substantive reasons as well to oppose the
Boxer amendment, reasons that will sound familiar to defenders of
the original Bush arsenic decision. Cut to an account of the debate
produced at the time by the Republican Policy Committee:
"In 1996, Congress set a schedule under which the EPA was to update
the arsenic standard for drinking water. The EPA is behind schedule
in developing that rule. It is currently required to issue its final
rule by January 1, 2001, but it says it will not be ready until
April or May, 2001. It has not had time to evaluate the concerns
that have been expressed about the proposed rule it issued this
summer (6 months behind schedule). Many small communities are especially
worried about that proposal because, if it were implemented, it
would prove prohibitively expensive for their customers. For instance,
the Utah Department of Environmental Quality found that the cost
of water for residents in the Heartland Mobile Home Park would be
$230 per month per customer under this proposed rule. It is very
likely that in some areas this rule would just end town water service
and people would drill their own wells, and end up drinking water
that was much less safe for them."
Now, if Democrats aren't just being opportunistic and demagogic
in their current attacks on Bush, they would have risen up as one
against these arguments back in October.
Tom Daschle has recently said, "Under FDR all we had to fear was
fear itself. Now, we have to fear arsenic in our drinking water."
And he has condemned the Bush arsenic action as "an outrageous and
indefensible decision."
So, where was Daschle in October? With 18 other Democrats who joined
Republicans to give the EPA more time to implement a rule, suggesting
the new arsenic reg is just what Bush defenders say it is: a minor
adjustment that is not particularly urgent.
Who would have thought delaying the arsenic rule would turn out
to have been one of Bush's bipartisan initiatives?
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