Republicans Boycott Senate Review of Bush Environmental Record

The Senate Environment and Public Works Committee held a hearing on September 24th to review the Bush administration's record on public health and environmental matters, but it was conducted in the absence of Ranking Member Senator James Inhofe of Oklahoma, a Republican and former chair of the committee.

Senator Inhofe was not ill or out of town, he boycotted the hearing, and he asked the two government witnesses scheduled to honor his objection. Neither one attended the hearing nor did any of the Republican committee members.

Inhofe's spokesman Marc Morano said this is the first time the senator has objected to an Environment and Public Works Committee hearing. "Senator Inhofe's actions were in response to the Majority's refusal to grant a single Minority requested hearing this entire 110th Congress, despite numerous requests," said Morano.

Sierra Club Executive Director Carl Pope told the committee, the administration's attempts to dismantle environmental protections have been thwarted by the checks and balances written into the U.S. Constitution.

"The good news is that little of the Bush administration's affirmative environmental agenda has survived the challenges our system of checks and balances makes possible - Congress, the Courts, the states, and direct intervention by the public has undone most of the legal damage which the Administration sought to do," Pope said.

"The entire edifice of administration policy on clean air lies shattered in judicial smithereens - and in its place a vigorous, state based air quality protection structure is being put in place in much, but sadly not all, of the country," said Pope.

To read the entire news report, go to: Environment News.