CIEL and partners convince leaders of House Energy and Commerce Committee
to delay consideration of POPs implementation bill

July 16, 2004. According to Inside EPA, Rep. Paul Gillmor (R-OH), chairman of the House energy committee's Environment and Hazardous Materials Subcommittee, said it would be "pretty hard" and not "feasible" for the subcommittee to vote at this time on his bill to implement the Persistent Organic Pollutants [POPs] treaty. Rep. Gillmor made his comments after a July 13 hearing on his draft bill, at which CIEL, joined by former Clinton Administration officials and environmental law specialists, roundly condemned the draft's approach. In his oral testimony, CIEL Senior Attorney Glenn Wiser told the Chairman, "U.S. environmental and health organizations believe the approach in the Discussion Draft is fundamentally flawed, and we will work very hard to ensure that the approach is never enacted into law."

House Energy and Commerce Committee Chair Joe Barton (R-TX), joining Rep. Gillmor in a July 14 press release, said, "we cannot move forward if the administration will not forcefully and effectively communicate the need for this bill and our participation [in the treaty.]"

CIEL and others in the environmental and health community strongly support the Stockholm POPs Convention, and believe U.S. participation and leadership in the treaty will be crucial for its long term success. Yet the Bush Administration, while professing support, has insisted on using the legislation needed to implement the treaty as a platform for establishing burdensome, anti-regulatory precedents that could put at risk the integrity of U.S. environmental and health law. The result has been legislative gridlock on the bill.