SOLID WASTE DISPOSAL ACT EXTENSION TUESDAY, FEBRUARY 27, 1973 HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES, SUBCOMMITTEE ON PUBLIC HEALTH AND ENVIRONMENT, COMMITTEE ON INTERSTATE AND FOREIGN COMMERCE, Washington, D.C. The subcommittee met at 10 a.m., pursuant to notice, in room 2322, Rayburn House Office Building, Hon. Paul G. Rogers (chairman) presiding. Mr. ROGERS. The subcommittee will come to order, please. This is the first meeting of the Subcommittee on Public Health and Environment for this Congress and we welcome Dr. Roy and Dr. Carter back and we have two members I presume will be here shortly. The recovery of waste materials supplies only a very small part of the material and energy requirements of this country. Indeed, the use of materials from waste sources is declining relative to overall consumption. This, of course, constitutes a major contribution to the growing solid waste burden in the United States. For this reason, in October 1970 this subcommittee, through amendments to the Solid Waste Disposal Act, developed the Resource Recovery Act which had as its purpose the promotion of demonstration and application of solid waste and resource recovery systems which preserve and enhance the quality of air, water and land resources. The, funding provisions of this act expire on June 30, 1973. Today's hearings are on H.R. 4292, H.R. 4306, H.R. 4674, and S. 498 which would extend the funding provisions of the act. Although the subcommittee will consider in detail later this year legislation which would amend the substantive provisions of the act, because of the extremely heavy workload of the subcommittee with respect to expiring health legislation it is important to extend funding provisions now in order to relieve the pressures of having to act prior to June 30, 1973. This committee also is extremely concerned over the decrease in EPA's budget from $30 million last year to under $6 million this year. Surely this is the most drastic decrease in the history, I guess, of environmental legislation. It appears that the accountants at the Office of Management and Budget have taken their scalpels out on the environmental field, and have determined that it is they, and not the Congress, that will decide whether the Federal Government is to have a solid waste recycling demonstration program. We also are concerned with what appears to be unusually long delays in submission of reports mandated by the 1970 amendments-reports which should constitute the basis for evaluating and upgrading existing law. This evident disregard for the law is difficult to understand, and will be a subject of inquiry today. [The text of H.R. 4306, H.R. 4292, H.R. 4674, and S. 498 and report thereon follow:] (1) 93D CONGRESS 1ST SESSION H. R. 4306 IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES FEBRUARY 8, 1973 Mr. STAGGERS introduced the following bill; which was referred to the Committee on Interstate and Foreign Commerce A BILL To extend the Solid Waste Disposal Act, as amended, and the Clean Air Act, as amended, for one year. 1 Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representa2 tives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, 3 SECTION 1. (a) Paragraph (2) of subsection (a) of 4 section 216 of the Solid Waste Disposal Act, as amended 5 (84 Stat. 1234), is amended to read as follows: 6 "(2) There are authorized to be appropriated to the 7 Administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency to 8 carry out the provisions of this Act, other than section 208, 9 not to exceed $72,000,000 for the fiscal year ending June I 2 1 30, 1972, not to exceed $76,000,000 for the fiscal year end 2 ing June 30, 1973, and not to exceed $76,000,000 for the 3 fiscal year ending June 30, 1974." 4 (b) Paragraph (3) of subsection (a) of section 216 of 5 the Solid Waste Disposal Act, as amended (84 Stat. 1234), 6 is amended to read as follows: 7 "(3) There are authorized to be appropriated to the 8 Administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency to 9 carry out section 208 of this Act not to exceed $80,000,000 10 for the fiscal year ending June 30, 1972, not to exceed 11 $140,000,000 for the fiscal year ending June 30, 1973, and 12 not to exceed $140,000,000 for the fiscal year ending 13 June 30, 1974.". 14 (c) Subsection (b) of section 216 of the Solid Waste 15 Disposal Act, as amended (84 Stat. 1234), is amended by 16 striking "and not to exceed $22,500,000 for the fiscal year 17 ending June 30, 1973." and inserting in lieu thereof ", not 18 to exceed $22,500,000 for the fiscal year ending June 30, 19 1973, and not to exceed $22,500,000 for the fiscal year 20 ending June 30, 1974.”. 21.. SEC. 2. (a) Subsection (c) of section 104 of the Clean 22 Air Act, as amended (84 Stat. 1709), is amended by strik 23 ing "and $150,000,000 for the fiscal year ending June 30, 24 1973." and inserting in lieu thereof ", $150,000,000 for the 25 fiscal year ending June 30, 1973, and $150,000,000 for the 26 fiscal year ending June 30, 1974.". 3 1 (b) Subsection (i) of section 212 of the Clean Air Act, 2 as amended (84 Stat. 1703), is amended by striking "two 3 succeeding fiscal years." and inserting in lieu thereof "three 4 succeeding fiscal years.". 5 (c) Section 316 of the Clean Air Act, as amended (84 6 Stat. 1709), is amended by striking "and $300,000,000 for 7 the fiscal year ending June 30, 1973." and inserting in lieu 8 thereof ", $300,000,000 for the fiscal year ending June 30, 9 1973, and $300,000,000 for the fiscal year ending June 30, 10 1974.". |