Make Polluters Pay

Op-Ed

Make Polluters Pay

Dear Friend,

For 26 years, residents of Marlboro have awaited the clean up of the Imperial Oil Company site. Cleanup of the Superfund site has been stalled in recent years. This week brought good news with the removal of giant oil tanks, clearing the way for decontamination of the site. Yet, like Superfund sites across New Jersey and the country, cleanup efforts are not ready to be completed due to lack of funding.

Congress created the Superfund in 1980 (with then-New Jersey Representative Jim Florio playing a large role) to clean up the nation's worst toxic waste sites. Congress placed the financial onus for cleanups on polluting corporations. As it was created, Superfund would make polluters pay - through an imposed tax - to clean up their own sites.

This system worked as it was intended until 1995 when the 105th Congress let the Superfund revenue authority expire. Superfund still had funding until the Fiscal Year 2003 budget. The Bush Administration has failed to request renewal of the Superfund taxes in any subsequent budget, and despite my efforts and the efforts of likeminded members of Congress, Superfund has run dry.

Without a steady flow of taxes imposed on polluters -- and with a small balance in the trust fund -- Superfund has relied on general revenues to fund cleanup efforts. This has been sorely insufficient. The EPA lists 1,257 National Priority sites, with New Jersey having the most of any state (115). It is time to restore the principle that polluters pay to clean up the messes they have made in communities like Marlboro.

Autism Awareness Month

April is Autism Awareness Month, with events worldwide focusing on a disorder that the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has called a national public health crisis whose cause and cure remain unknown. Autism spectrum disorders are diagnosed in one in 150 children in the U.S., with New Jersey having a higher prevalence rate than the national average (one in 94 in New Jersey). The diagnosis of autism has increased tenfold in the last decade.

Despite the prevalence of autism, the federal government has not done enough to promote research, treatment, or education. I was pleased Congress passed and the President signed the Combating Autism Act of 2006, which authorized a coordinated federal response. As a member of the Congressional Caucus on Autism, I hope we can further our efforts by boosting funding for research at the National Institutes of Health and the Centers for Disease Control. We should also pass the Individuals With Autism Act of 2007, H.R. 1881, which would improve support and services for individuals with autism and their families.

Pope Benedict XVI to Visit U.S. Next Week

Next week, from Tuesday through Sunday, Pope Benedict XVI will make his first apostolic visit to the United States, with events in Washington, D.C. and New York City. Historically, visits to the U.S. by Popes have generated a great deal of interest among Catholics and non-Catholics.

I join Congress in welcoming Pope Benedict XVI to a country with the third largest Catholic population of any country in the world. Since becoming Pope, Benedict XVI has made repeated calls for peaceful resolutions to international conflicts around the globe. He has made reconciliation and peace an important goal of his Papacy, reaching out to both Orthodox and Protestant churches and the Jewish and Islamic faiths. This carries on the promise of Nostra Aetate, a hallmark declaration 40 years ago by the Catholic Church on religious tolerance and interfaith relations.

Sincerely,

RUSH HOLT
Member of Congress

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