GOP's RECORD ON ENVIRONMENT IS REALISTIC ONE

Traditionally, Earth Day is the day Americans make special note of how precious our environment is and how important it is to protect. That is as true today as it has been since the first Earth Day was observed in 1970. Unfortunately, today some Democrats in Congress are so motivated by the opportunity to manufacture a campaign issue that they are intentionally misleading the public about what we are doing to protect the environment. That is the greatest threat to bipartisan environmentalism we have faced in this decade.

For example, on March 13 and on April 16, the Democrat House minority leader, Dick Gephardt, participated in press conferences and issued press releases which stated that "under the Republicans' new spending bill, clean air standards would be lowered" and that "many toxic waste sites would be virtually ignored." Fortunately, these statements are true. But, unfortunately, they are an excellent illustration of misleading the public for partisan political gain.

As we all know, to change clean air standards, one would have to amend the Clean Air Act. Under the Republican spending bill being considered, there are no riders, no new amendments, no changes whatsoever which amend the Clean Air Act. So, why does the leader of the House Democrats make the false charge? I do not know, but I have asked him to retract it.

Let me be clear. The original Senate-passed bill did contain two legislative provisions related to the Clean Air Act, but these were included with broad bipartisan support. The first provision related to centralized inspection and maintenance programs, and the second provision pertained to car pooling. These provisions were dropped from the spending bill and placed in other bills which ironically have been signed into law by the president. I have read, and re-read the bill, and I just can't figure out what it is that Gephardt is talking about.

Gephardt claims our spending bill means that "many toxic waste sites would be virtually ignored." This deliberate misstatement is even more difficult to understand. Our spending bill includes the precise amount for Superfund -- the toxic waste cleanup program -- that the president's chief of staff told me they needed. In addition, according to the president's fiscal year 1997 budget documents, the amount we have in our bill is what they need to meet their fiscal year 1996 clean-up target as well as allow the Environmental Protection Agency to remain on course to achieve its target of 650 construction completions by the year 2000.

So, what are we to make of this, other than the Democratic leadership is willing to say anything if they think it will bring them political gain?

While Republicans have maintained a strong commitment to the environment, we have also said that it is time to target our resources where the threats are the greatest and demand results for the taxpayer dollars we spend. Democrats seem not to care about results, only about how much money is thrown at something.

The greatest environmental progress made in this country has been made with bipartisan support and when honest concern for the environment has outweighed political opportunism. Today that bipartisan coalition, and subsequently our national commitment to protecting the environment, is threatened by this kind of intentionally misleading propaganda which is designed to create a political straw man for Democrats to bash. Maybe they should return instead to bipartisanship and honesty.

Christopher S. "Kit" Bond is Missouri's senior U.S. senator.