05/17/2001
Group Announces Plans to "Key Vote" Upcoming Floor Action on Bill
WASHINGTON, May 17, 2001 -- The small-business group NFIB today announced that next week's expected vote in the U.S. House of Representatives on historic legislation that would protect small firms from unfair Superfund liability will be scored as an official NFIB "Key Vote for Small Business."
NFIB's announcement comes on the heels of swift bipartisan approval of the legislation by two key House committees -- the Energy and Commerce Committee and the Transportation and Infrastructure Committee. The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) also announced its strong support of the bill, the Small Business Liability Protection Act (HR 1831), after it was introduced on Tuesday.
"This measure will promote cleanup and reduce needless lawsuits by drawing a bright line between large contributors of toxic waste and small businesses that disposed of small amounts of waste or ordinary trash," EPA Administrator Christie Whitman said in a news release on Wednesday. "This legislation will reduce the time spent in court and increase the time spent cleaning the environment."
The bipartisan bill is sponsored by U.S. Reps. Paul Gillmor (5th Dist. - Ohio -- R), Frank Pallone (6th Dist. - N.J. - D), John J. Duncan, Jr. (2nd Dist. - Tenn. - R), Peter DeFazio (4th Dist. - Ore. - D), John Shimkus (20th Dist. - Ill. - R), Don Young (At-large - Alaska - R), James Oberstar (8th Dist. - Minn. - D) Billy Tauzin (3rd Dist. - La.) and other members from both sides of the aisle. The legislation would help prevent a recurrence of the nightmares that have haunted small-business owners across America.
Superfund is the common term for a 1980 law designed to clean up the nation's toxic-waste sites, but has instead entrapped innocent small businesses in its litigation web. Thousands of small-business owners, many of whom legally disposed of ordinary household garbage like potato scraps and light bulbs as long as 20 years ago, have been unfairly dragged into court by EPA and big polluters for the cost of clean ups. This nightmare can haunt any community in America that has a local trash dump unless Congress passes legislation such as the Small Business Liability Protection Act.
"The sponsors of this legislation, especially the chairmen and ranking members on both committees, deserve a great deal of credit for moving swiftly on the bill," said NFIB Senior Vice President Dan Danner. "We look forward to working with them to ensure similarly swift action and bipartisan cooperation on the House floor next week."
CONTACT: Michelle Dimarob, (202) 554-9000
