BOND TACKLES EPA'S POWER

Missouri's senior U.S. senator, Kit Bond, has taken a lead in the tough but essential work of reining in the Environmental Protection Agency. Bond, who is chairman of the Senate's appropriations subcommittee that writes the EPA budget, has identified an area of needless duplication in the gargantuan federal bureaucracy. The duplication concerns federal wetlands policy, which has long been the business of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers. Under Bond's measure, the EPA would lose its veto over projects that affect wetlands.

"I'm worried about the guy who's got a farming operation out in Missouri and has to go through all the hassle with the Corps of Engineers and also the hassle with the EPA," Bond said. Bond is right. This is a commonsense measure whose enactment will in no way affect the quality or quantity of America's precious wetlands. The Corps can do that important job, and taxpayers can save by the elimination of duplication.

Bond's measure was in the original version of the EPA budget that President Clinton vetoed last month. However, Bond says that any future budgets going back to the White House will contain the same measure.

Sen. Bond has earned a reputation as a public servant who takes on tough jobs, does his homework, rolls up his sleeves and stays with the work until it is finished. Americans should applaud him for his efforts to restore the EPA to its rightful place as an agent of sensible environmental protection -- not our lord and master in all things.