for much of last year as many of us will remember the senate judiciary committee was engaged in a very troubling inquiry we were trying to determine whether the bush administration had fired several united states attorneys for political reasons not because they weren't good u s attorneys but because they weren't loyal bush to use the phrase that a department of justice official used about them that inquiry continues at the department of justice but over its course we already know the incom petence and misjudgments that it uncovered have cost numerous department of justice officials their jobs and properly including former attorney general  clear that he put loyalty to the president before the fateful exercise of that important office unfortunately it also cost that proud department the moral of its officials and t a sad degree the trust of the american people many of whom have been left to wonder whether federal prosecutions in this country arise from the pursuit of justice or whether under the bush administration they arise from the pursuit of political advantage well here we go again perhaps this morning we awoke to the news that the environmental protection agency's regional administrator for the midwest mary gade was forced to resign in the midst of a heated debate over dioxin contamination in waters near michigan the oxen is an extremely dangerous chemical according to a report by the aagot tribune ms gade invoked emergency powers last year to force dow chemical headquartered in michigan to clean up several areas saturated with this toxic chemical a dangerous carcinogen which was a byproduct among other things of agent orange which we're sadly familiar with ms gade later broke off negotiations with dow chemical on a more comprehensive cleanup citing concerns that tao had been reluctant to take steps to protect health and wildlife that put the company in a tough position and at that point the tribune's report says the company asked e p a officials in washington to intervene although dow said yesterday that it had nothing to do with ms gage dismissal the paper wrote said that high ranking e p a officials here's the quote repeatedly questioned her aggressive action against dow it quoted ms gade as saying there is no question that this is about dow we do not yet know all the details of ms gaves firing or everything that may have gone on between her office and dow chemical but from everything that we've heard  far it looks like deja vu all over again from an administration that values compliance with its political agenda more than it values the trust or the best interests of the american people last year we learned that this is an administration that wouldn't hesitate to fire capable federal prosecutors when they wouldn't toe an improper party line today it seems that the bush integration might have once again removed by highly qualified and well regarded official whose only misstep was to disagree with the political  unfortunate mr president the story of merry gade is not only a distressing signal that the bush administration may again be making hiring and firing decisions based on political loyalty it is also a piece of evidence in a growing pile of evidence of a troubling and destructive force at work within our government one with serious consequences for our environment for our natural resources and for the health of americans for us for our families we've always known that the bush administration was no friend to the environment over and over again for seven long years this administration has put forward under false flags policies that would do great harm to the environment remember the clear skies initiative that would increase air pollution remember the national energy policy written with dick cheney by or oil industry lobbyists mr president the bush approach to environmental protection has not only been wrong it has been orwellian that pattern continues even to this day not long ago president bush stood in the white house rose garden and announced what his administration characterized as a new strategy to address climate change now as the distinguished senator from pennsylvania well knows americans all over this country are crying out for a bold and visionary plan to tackle the looming threat of global warming a problem that threaten else this nation and the entire world within generations if nothing is done so we looked to the rose garden for leadership from our president and what did we find we found a proposal that was neither  new nor even a strategy instead the president announced what he called a new national goal voluntary action to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by two thousand and twenty five let me say that again voluntary action to reduce emissions by two thousand and twenty five seventeen years from now seventeen years of increases a president there are a couple of problems with this approach first the obvious problem that if you're allowing greenhouse gas emissions to continue to rise for seventeen years you really aren't doing much effectively about  even though overwhelming scientific evidence indicates that unless we take immediate action to cut global warming pollutants we might be too late to prevent the most serious impacts of global climate change  president you and i are in our fifty's we may be gone by the time it gets really bad but i have met your girls i have a girl and a boy of my own i look at the young pages here who are gathered in the well this will be their world and the responsibility is on us to take action now while we can to protect the world in which they will live well on that score president bush failed again he literally offered zero initiatives none that might reduce emissions now or in the future and he made it clear that on what is left of his watch the united states government will never require a polluter is to make such reductions as every american who is not working in the bush administration understands voluntary action without strength of will or force of law simply isn't enough to tackle a problem of this magnitude and finally even at the president announced this empty so called renewed commitment to fighting global warming is administration indicated that it would oppose a specific detailed plan for addressing the climate change problem that the senate will likely take up after a moral day reassess the one or lieberman plan that senator boxer chairman boxer has worked so hard to get out of our environment and public works committee this trifecta of failure from the white house would really be laughable if it weren't for the fact that the problem itself is so serious and it raises actually the distasteful possibility given this administration's long and destructive history of disregard for environmental concerns that the president's new strategy is not just a complete failure a complete nothing it is actually a stalking horse intended to prevent real progress on climate change a way to leave this problem like so many others for the next president to have to solve regrettably the president's announcement is also a stunning failure of leadership in a world community that is quickly growing unaccustomed to american leadership not a good habit for the world to adopt mr president we've known for a long time that politics of special interests is at the bottom of this and that the bush white house has repeatedly interfered with the decision making process at the environmental protection agency and other agencies in thrall to the checkbooks oil companies the gas companies the chemical companies the timber companies the coal companies the auto companies if you've got a corporate checkbook there for you a couple of weeks ago we saw new evidence of how corrosive political influence has seeped within e p a the primary federal agency charged with protecting our environment and our people's public health a report issued on april twenty third by the union of concern scientists entitled interference at the e p a is a truly scathing indictment of the decision making process at e p a from those who know it best the scientists inside the agency report consisted largely of a survey of e p a scientists and it found that sixty percent of those surveyed sixty percent had personally experience at least one instance of political interference during the past five years sixty percent of the scientists the report documents among many other things that many e p a scientists have been directed to inappropriate glee x clued or alter information from e p a science documents or have had their work edited in a manner that resulted in changes to their scientific findings the survey also revealed that e p a scientists have all and objected to or resigned or removed themselves from  projects because of pressure pressure to change their scientific findings mr president the conclusion could not be much clearer e p a is an agency in crisis once upon a time anyone working at e p a could be proud of their agency's reputation it was the international gold standard in the area of environmental protection indeed for most of its forty year history all americans could place the promote agriculture or commerce only the critical obligation to protect and enhance the environment now administrator eccles house was a republican appointed by president nixon yet both he and the president who appointed him intended e p a to be immune from political pressure to be guided by the twin load stars of law and science in discharging that critical obligation to protect and enhance the environment well in recent years and especially during the tenure of administrator johnson we have seen the e p a s leadership in cahoots with its white house allies death boil these basic principles basic principles of in the pendants and scientific integrity here are only a few examples from the long bill of particulars that indicts the leadership of this once vaunted agency the george bush environmental protection agency falsified data and fabricated results of studies regarding the safety of the air around the site of the collapse of the world trade center on september eleventh the george bush environmental protection agency selectively edited government reports including the e p a s two thousand and three report on the environment to support uncertainty in climate change science placing the imprimatur tour of the government of the united states on fringe of use soundly rejected by the virus the majority essentially the entire world scientific community the george bush environmental protection agency has routinely tampered with regulatory and scientific processes to achieve results sought by industry guess what at the expense of our public health and environment for example in two thousand and four e p a allowed north dakota to alter the way it measured air quality that was the way they brought the theodore roosevelt national park into compliance with air quality standards not by cleaning up the air but by allowing them to change the way they measured air quality the george bush environmental protection agency has hidden suppressed and delayed the release of scientific findings in order to affect the impacts of e p a decisions they have two things going on if you can slow one down get the other out first if it's helpful to industry now there they are as in the case of a two thousand and two report on the effects of mercury on children's health that e p a delayed for nine months and released only after it had been leaked to the media the george bush environmental protection agency has disregarded legally mandated scientific and administrative procedures as in the case of the agency's failure to abide by the supreme court's recent decision on regulating greenhouse gas emissions the george bush environmental protection agency has backed the e p a leadership and its advisory committees with industry allies removing respected scientists who argued for stronger public protections a prime example of this is the removal at the request of the industry lobbying group the american chemistry council of toxicologist deborah rice from an e p a toxic advisory committee dr rice had argued for more stringent e p a standards for regulating certain chemicals used in commercially available plastic products not only was dr rice removed from the panel but her remarks on the panel were retroactively stricken disappeared her it's not the kind of thing that happens in the country that i know the george bush environmental protection agency has ignored the recommendations of career staff and scientists when they collide with white house political imperatives as in the case of the agency's decision on the so called california waiver first time ever not to gra the george bush environmental protection agency has reduced enforcement of environmental regulations by opening fewer criminal investigations and filing fewer lawsuits against corporate polluters the george bush environmental protection agency has not only failed to protect but sought reprisals against agency employees who pointed out problems reported legal violations and attempted to correct factual misrepresentations made by their superiors amazingly a s office of general counsel has invoked the doctrine of sovereign immunity against whistleblowers suing the agency because of actions taken by the agency in reprisal for their whistle blower activity and as a lawyer as somebody who spent a good deal of his life as a government lawyer it pains me to see how the george bush environmental protection agency has had its lawyer ring literally mocked mocked by united states circuit courts of appeal which in one case condemned e p a s defense of its regulations as possible i quote only in a humpty dumpty world and another case accused the agency of deploying the logic of the queen of hearts from alice in wonderland in the agenc interpretation of the law mr president it makes one's skin crawl to see the ways in which e p a s leadership under the bush administration has put the interests of big business and their lobbyists before the health and welfare of our environment and the american people this have dire consequences first in a world presents complex challenges to our public health to our environment and to our national security the elevation of corporate interests over independent science based decision making threatens america's very ability to respond effectively and to provide the kind of leadership on complex problems that the world expect and the americans deserve second the administration's conduct has demoralized e p a zone professional workforce the scientists the lawyers the regulatory experts to whom e p a owes its reputation as a champion of environmental protection and who time and time again during this administration have seen their expert counsel set aside in favor of a partisan political agenda third president bush and his administration have compromise the faith of the american people in the integrity of their government we can disagree and this is the chamber that is built for disagreement we can disagree on policy considerations we can argue about what the right or the wrong decision is to make but it is a tragedy when we doubt the integrity of the process of american agencies of government and the president's eagerness to do the bidding of the special interests and the administrators willingness to kowtow to the white house to the detriment of sound public policy only confirm what too many in this country fear that the united states of america is no longer governed by and for the people when policy is made for special interests and not for public good america is left weaker no matter our part an or ideological standings no one in this great chamber i hope would want to do such a thing to this great country the bush administration has done lasting harm both to our environment and to the confidence of the american people and next wednesday may seventh at nine thirty a m i will join senator barbara boxer chairman of the environment public works committee for an oversight hearing to look into the many actions by this bush administration and its and its e p a administrator which seem to be so badly at odds with the recommendation of the agency's scientists and the best interests of the american people chairman boxer we can be so proud of her she has been dogging it relentless in her pursuit of the truth behind the screen of machinations of e p a s leadership and the bush white house and her leadership will continue to be critical as we try to get to the bottom of this we plan to ask the tough questions and we will expect honest answers because mr president the american people deserve an environmental protection agency that lives up to that name i thank the president i yield the floor mr president would to senator yield and or comment and a couple of questions senator from florida i was the president i want to commend the senator from rhode island for his extraordinary eloquent and very insightful comment into some of the machinations behind closed doors that we have seen going on in this administration just absolutely  the mind that governmental agencies that are set up for the purpose of serving the people and pro tech ting the public and indeed the e p a is supposed to be the environmental protection agency that they go off on these half cocked it illogical ideas and the senator has has said it so eloquently i want to thank him for it i want to thank him for his leadership i want to thank him for calling the attention to the hearing that's going to be held next week and as the senator has been speaking and i've been mesmerized by what he said just completely off the top of my head i remember for example three years ago the e p a decided that it was going to do a study in my state jacksonville florida now get this you won't believe this it was going to expose toddlers to pesticides to see what the effect was and of course where do you think those toddlers were going to be they were going to be in a minority neighborhood it was going to be in a low income neighborhood and the e p a had concocted this scheme that it was sending out these flyers and in order to get the household to participate it said we want you to participate in this study i can't remember the amount of money that they would pay but they were going to give them a t shirt they were going to give them a certificate if they completed the process over several months and they were given a camcorder that then at the end of the study if they successfully completed it they would keep it and the study was they were go put pesticides all over this house and see what the effects were own these toddlers this was the purpose of the study i mean you just couldn't believe it i happened to discover it about the same time that the chairman of the environment committee and she wasn't chair then she was senator boxer was the ranking member and the two of us collaborated we had a press conference we blew this thing sky high as a matter fight now that it's coming back to me senator boxer held up the nomination of the newly appointed e p a administrator on till he would finally relent and say that he was not going to have this study before she would allow the confirmation and yet he b fuddled around and tried to dodge and weave in and not even answer the question and i mean it just defies description that the senator from rhode island has given a number of of examples and that when just left to my mind i want to give the senator from rhode island another example in the little agency that i cherish so much space administration can you believe that one of the most distinguished and noted scientist in that institution of nasa little underlings in the pay are the partment of nasa and i say little underlings i don't i don't remember what their job description was but i think they were in their twenty's they had the audacity to go in and change the wording on dr hansen's conclusions with regard to a climate change study and finally this came out and ultimately his his words were restored another example or if you i gave  another example in that little agency i mean they've got an inspector general in nassau that's just running amok and there was a theft of a two billion dollar rocket design in the nasa computers and he refused to investigate and then when the rest of us went and tried to get him to dismiss the buddy buddy club would not allow him to be fired gave another example this would just blow your mind for years the florida everglades have been on the endangered list in a list that is kept by the united nations a list of the most environmentally endangered sites in the world a third ranking department of state employee took it upon himself in a conference in new zealand to speak and to have the florida everglades stricken from the list of the most  environmental sites something that we work on every day in everglades restoration and combination the federal government with the state of florida in trying to restore the everglades to something what mother nature had intended now these as the senator was eloquently speaking these are things that just have popped it into my mind of what we have seen over and over and over again of the idiot logical rigidity the excessive partisanship which when you combine the two they are lethal to common sense and to protection of the public and yet that's what we've seen and then when some of us in our role of oversight capacity try to start changing it and get accountability and responsibility in the executive branch of government then they won't do anything about the nasa adji is still there that third tier department of state employees was there until he finally retired  his eloquence today and i want to thank him for his service to our country and for his representing his state and i thank my my good friend from florida i would  close with the following point which my friend senator nelson the distinguished senator from florida calls to mind because of his extraordinarily distinguished service to our country he was willing to put himself at great risk in the extraordinarily challenging pursuit of becoming an astronaut for the united states of america i mean talk about the best and the brightest  and as we know from many tragedies it's not only an extraordinary challenging pursuit it's one where you do put your life very much at risk on behalf of the progress of this country and i think he in that very important way me in a much smaller way share an important belief which is that the government of the united states of america our american system of government which has been passed down to us after revolutionary war civil war two great world wars great depressions essentially intact and indeed improving through the decades and generations is one of god's great gifts to humankind and it is now in our hands particularly as we represent our states in this body and it is to be treasured it is to be viewed with respect it is indeed to be viewed with reverence and the thing that to me is worst of all from this politics from this corruption from this debasement of public service is the lack of respect the lack of reverence for what we have been given so hope we hold in trust for ourselves and for future generations i think it's never been as low as it is now and at the light still burns and we will continue to call attention to the that we find and soon in january it will be over i think my friend from florida i thank the president i yield the floor mr president senator from florida mr president  came to the floor to discuss another matter and i want to thank the senator from rhode island and as a matter of fact before the senator from rhode island departs th chamber he might want to hear what i came to talk about it's actually a little success story but it is born on another failure that we have seen and this i'm sad to say is the failure of american women who are contractor personnel serving in iraq and afghanistan when sexually assaulted when rate have not been able to have their assailants prosecuted as contractor personnel and we dramatically brought this to light in a hearing about three weeks ago and two very courageous americans step forward one for the first time publicly  her particular case she had been drugged and then gang raped by not only fellow american contractor personnel k b r a subsidiary of halliburton but in that case also participated and by members of the mill terry and when she tried to seek help it was all swept under the rug and in her particular case did not even get any medical attention until three weeks later well the little success story that we have mr president is that in the passage of the defense authorization act which occurred on wednesday in the senate armed services committee there is inserted into the defense authorization act a new requirement under law and that requirement is that contractors who are contractors to the department of defense and mind you we have tens of thousands of those contractors in iraq and afghanistan that number one they will be required to report the offenses of sexual assault to the appropriate investigative authorities and number two they will be required by having the responsibility of providing victim and witness protection and assistance to contractor employees now if we can maintain that position in the defense authorization bill as it works its way here to the floor the senate and then to work out the  product with the house and i think we will be able to protect this because who's going to vote against this that's one little happy victory that will give some additional protection to american women that are serving in harm's way that are not members of the military but in fact are americans serving overseas as contractors to the military and over and over the testimony was there are salted they cannot find someone that will investigate if they have any evidence in other words that they've been able to get to a doctor and have the evidence from a rape kit indeed that evidence is lost the counseling is not they are and they are left on their own now the united states military actually has done a pretty good job of this for military personnel not so with contractor personnel there are laws all of the books that protect contractor personnel but out of the twenty six known cases that we know of raping american women contractor personnel not one of them has been prosecuted and so the insertion the amending to the defense authorization back act this new requirement that will require i mean you would think that common sense would tell you that the contractors would do this but no in twenty six alleged cases there has not been one prosecution and certainly no conviction and so it's my hope that this will mandate to the contractors they have to report the offenses and they have to provide the victim and witness protection and assistance and this one case that was so dramatic that mrs dawn limon had come forth for the first time when she testified  the intimidation of her not doing anything about this gang rape was so severe that when she finally left the forward operating base to go to another forward operating base where she could first seek assistance she was given a thumb drive of photographs normally these were just the photographs of the fellow contractors and so forth but let me tell you what one of those photographs was and one day i'm going to bring that photograph over here in its blown up form that we showed in the committee so that the senate can see just how dramatic  there are three of her male contractor personnel one of them as they are all three facing the camera one of them is like this the other one is like this and the third one is like this hear no evil see no evil speak no evil a message that there's no sense in her trying to do anything that they don't know anything this is the cause and of lack of protection that is the lad to have been going on that's got to stop and i want to thank senator levin the chairman of the armed services committee and senator warner who is the acting ranking member of the armed services committee for letting this senator bring mr alexander the senate is in session they came in at nine thirty this morning they have been working all week on federal aviation administration programs there's been very little work on that if any at all today so we've been dealing with general speeches as negotiators continue working behind the scenes fettle and differences on f a a programs president bush by the way threatening a veto over a number of tax issues related to the f a a bill so be no votes in the senate today the first vote will happen next week it'll be tuesday a limit debate on the substitute amendment the house is not in session today members return monday may fifth twelve thirty for morning our legislative business begins that two p m eastern roll call vote start after six thirty on the agenda next week in the house a broad housing package including a bill to expand the federal housing administration insurance program to back new loans for borrowers headed toward mortgage foreclosures at the also providing three hundred billion dollars in new authority for the f a to back refinance loans we may also see other housing related bills out of financial services that could be folded into this housing package when it comes to the floor again the house there returning monday may fifth at twelve thirty eastern live coverage of the house is on c span today c span of live coverage of the american jewish committee as one hundred second annual meeting that's going on right now with arab and israeli journalists coming up at one p m eastern louisiana governor bobby jindal will be the  luncheon speaker at the national press club again live coverage on c span and then tonight at eight we'll have live coverage of the jefferson jackson dinner for north carolina senators clinton and obama will make remarks in advance of tuesday's presidential primary in that state again live coverage starts at eight p m eastern here on c span center remains in a quorum call now all week long senators have been working on f a a programs they have had a difficult time reaching agreement and first votes on the f a a programs will come up next tuesday procedural vote set for early next week we have learned more about this measure now from a capitol hill reporter on the phone with us is katherine wolf of congressional quarterly the f a a bill is back on the senate floor next week after stalling this week what slowed it down whether a couple days they had they had some difficult days over the past week and merely the first sticking point was over a piece of the bill that dealt with airline pensions they just couldn't come to an agreement about and both sides saying it was better for workers and one side saying that the language that was in the bill would disadvantage some airlines over some other airlines in the end they ended up taking it out to work on and off floor and maybe we'll see it as an amendment later or possibly in conference you wrote about a tax provision that's always right that was the second the second day of delays they had problems working out basically republicans object to a piece of the tax package in this bill that deals with things that are not related to aviation of course this bill primarily is an aviation policy bill but the financing piece of it also contains some money for the highway trust fund which is scheduled which is projected to run out of money in fiscal two thousand and nine so they had some some provisions in there to shore up the trust fund in the way they paid for it is by a couple things that republicans really don't like one of which is is increasing the amount of money that someone would have to they have an oil spill you pointed out in your article that regarding that tax the you said that it had been bipartisan support in that finance committee with max baucus and the chairman and charles grassley of iowa how much money would this race for the for the trust fund it's a total of about five billion dollars not all of it is going to be used for highways the one this is another sticking point there's about a one point seven billion dollars tax credit for future transportation infrastructure project in new york city that's supposed to be sort of the last piece of fixing what happened and on nine eleven of course there was major problems for the subway system and infrastructure  also contains money for beginning to transition to a new air traffic control system is the bush administration view this bill well i think they i think that they want the bill generally i think everyone's behind the idea of getting the getting a bill passed course where it breaks down or the specifics and in this case mostly about how it's financed looking into next week any idea of a timetable to how they'll move forward with it at this point they have so many problems coming to an agreement on these points where they are where they disagree over the past week that they decided to just take that basically to sort of take a break and they're going to come back on tuesday and they're going have a vote on cloture  really a pretty important test for how the bill's going to go for it or not congressional quarterly talking to us about the senate debate over federal aviation programs thanks for joining us thank you