Representative
Frelinghuysen spent the last week shuffling a bit between Washington and New
Jersey. On Monday 9/16, he visited five superfund cleanup waste sites in his
district with EPA Regional Administrator Judith A. Enck. He will also be
attending an event sponsored by the Madison, NJ Republican Committee to support
some Republicans running for local office. Additionally, his votes on the house
floor are once again reflective of some partisan tendencies. Of 23 votes cast,
Mr. Frelinghuysen voted with his party line on each bill.
Superfund
is a federal program that was established by Congress in 1980 in effort to
cleanup some of the nation’s more hazardous waste sites (EPA). The program
calls on the producers of hazardous waste to finance cleanup efforts instead of
taxpayers. In an interview at the former site of the Caldwell Trucking Company
in Fairfield Township, NJ, Frelinghuysen made a statement consistent with the
goals of superfund, saying, “the taxpayers are not paying [for] any of this,
the polluter pays” (New Jersey Hills).
This statement in
and of itself is quite intriguing. The average person reading the article where
this was published in the New Jersey Hills local newspaper might be led to
think that Frelinghuysen is a supporter of environmental causes. However, his
voting record on issues concerning the environment indicates that his priorities
are elsewhere. In fact, he has a somewhat murky record in regard to the
superfund issue specifically. In 2000, he was one of a minority group in congress
that voted on a failed bill called the “Small Business Superfund Exemption”
(votesmart.org). This legislation would have exempted small businesses from the
responsibility to fund cleanup projects of sites they contaminated.
In fact, a
non-profit advocacy group called the League of Conservation Voters identifies
Mr. Frelinghuysen as an anti-environment representative. (lcv.org) According to
their calculation, Mr. Frelinghuysen cast an “anti-environment” vote on 28 of
35 environment related votes in 2012. The LCV’s data suggests that this is
consistent with his voting trends throughout his tenure in the house.
This is not meant
to suggest that Frelinghuysen is definitively an anti-environment
representative. His website describes him as a representative that has “made it
a priority to work to preserve open space and protect the environment across
our nation and in New Jersey.” (Frelinghuysen.house.gov) However, it’s
interesting to consider the meaning and motivation behind this tour of
superfund sites and other similar activities. It certainly seems to provide him
with positive press in his district. He can definitely point to an activity
like this when asked about his record on the environment in a public forum.
On
another note, of 23 votes cast in the House this past week, Frelinghuysen voted
with the majority of his party on each one. Apropos to the discussion of his
history on the environmental issues, he did vote to pass the “Restoring Healthy
Forests for Healthy Communities Act”. However, the GOP initially voted against
this legislation by a vote of 0-228. After a revision, it passed the GOP by a
margin of 227-1. (govtrack.us)
Works Consulted:
No comments:
Post a Comment