Richard Nixon was at least not a bad President

Environment: In terms of the environment, Nixon did very well in protecting it. Nixon today has a strong eco-legacy. The National Environmental Policy Act of 1969 was passed. This was one of the first laws that established the legislative framework for protecting the environment and accomplished three important goals: 1. It outlined for the first time, a formal declaration of environmental policies and goals. 2. It required government agencies to place environmental impact statements for most federally funded programs so to make sure they did not damage the environment. 3. It created the first Presidential Council on the Environment in the Oval Office. (1,6) In 1970, the EPA was created. The Environmental Protection Agency was the central authority to protecting the environment and before that there was none. The EPA writes and enforces rules governing human health and the environment. (1,3,6) Next up: The Clean Air Act Extension of 1970. Nixon signed this bill into law after it was passed in congress. It was arguably the most significant pollution control bill in American history. (1,3,6) The Marine Mammal Protection Act of 1972. This act was another bill of firsts — it was the first to protect marine mammals such as dolphins, whales, seals, walruses, manatees, sea otters and polar bears. In addition: 1. It granted governmental authority to reduce marine mammal casualties. 2. It created guidelines for the public display of captured marine mammals, specifically protecting dolphins in the eastern tropical Pacific Ocean from injury and death from fisherman. 3. It regulated the import and export of marine mammals. 4. It established a system to allow native subsistence Alaskan hunters to kill whales and other marine mammals. (1,6) Safe Drinking Water Act of 1974. The Safe Drinking Water Act, originally passed by Congress in 1974 and signed by Nixon, was a turning pointing in the effort to protect the nation's lakes, streams, rivers, wetlands and other bodies of water. You should probably thank Richard Nixon for the clean drinking water by the way. This act protected drinking water and its sources from anything harmful. (1,6) Endangered Species Act of 1973. It was created to protect species in danger of extinction as a result of human activity. This way we could strengthen our protection of endangered species. (1,6) So Nixon protected the environment a lot. Economics: Nixon brought in the New Federalism System which cut the red tape by taking money and power away from the federal government and directed it straight to the states, making program funding more efficient. Nixon also increased federal funds for food aid and public assistance programs from 6.6 to 9.1 billion dollars while decreasing the military budget significantly. Richard Nixon also presented the only balanced budget from 1961 to 1998 when guess who came and balanced it? Newt Gingrich! And guess who cut the debt and presided only over a debt of 2.3 trillion dollars? Richard Nixon! (2,3,4,6) Relations with the Soviet Union: Nixon met with the USSR's leader Leonid Brezhnev to discuss increasing trade between the two nations and also reducing he number of nuclear weapons. Nixon succeeded! In 1972 when he and them signed the SALT Treaty (Strategic Arms Limitation Talks), which would limit and eventually reduce the number of nuclear weapons that the U. S. and opponent nations would have. (3,5,6) Civil Rights: A Quaker, Nixon felt racism and segregation in the U. S. was a moral outrage. In 1971, he signed the Equal Rights Amendment desegregating public schools. He asked the Justice Department to bring sex discrimination suits under Title VII of the Civil Rights Act and ordered the Labor Department to add sex discrimination provisions to the guidelines for its Office of Federal Contract Compliance. (3,6) 1. . http://www.mnn.com... 2. . http://en.wikipedia.org... 3. . http://imadork.hubpages.com... 4. . http://www.americaforpurchase.com... 5. . http://www.weegy.com... 6. . http://en.wikipedia.org...