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From: xcruz@webtv.net (Robert Chavez)
Date: Wed, 29 Jul 1998 17:09:11 -0600 (MDT)
To: Labor-Rap@csf.colorado.edu
Subject: Radioactive Dump Compact (fwd)
 
Sender: owner-frontera-l@nmsu.edu From: rjs3@cornell.edu
(Richard J Simpson)                             Date: Wed, Jul 29,
1998, 2:02pm (MDT+2)                                                 To:
bordenvnet-l@nmsu.edu, frontera-l@nmsu.edu
Subject: TX/ME/VT Compact 
                                                                                                                                 Today
the US House of Representatives aproved the TX/ME/VT Radioactive Waste
Compact by a vote of 305-117. The Compact approved has been stripped of
the ammendments that would have limited the importation of nuclear waste
to Texas and would have provided a means for people near the chosen site
(Sierra Blanca) to oppose the dump on grounds of environmental justice.
The Compact containing the waste import limitation (the Doggett
ammendment) was approved in the House last fall by a vote of 309-107. 
Representatives speaking in favor of the Compact today included
Vermont's alleged "progressive" Bernie Sanders, both Representatives
from Maine (Allen & Baldacci), and Rep. Eddie Bernice Johnson from
Dallas, an African-American who has ignored environmental justice
violations implicit in the Compact so that she may represent the
interest of the nuclear power industry located near her district. 
Crucial to today's vote was the intervention of Texas' Gov. George Bush,
who (along with the governors of ME & VT) persuaded the House that
today's version of the Compact represents the interest of the state he
governs. Bush has claimed that he will seek legislation in the next
Session to insure that only waste from Maine & Vermont will be imported
(a promise he is unlikely to keep) but has said nothing about
environmental justice. 
The Compact will go before the Senate next, where Sen. Paul Wellstone
has vowed to use whatever means are at his disposal to defeat the bill.