House OKs Stopgap Measure for Superfund
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WASHINGTON — The House, amid warnings that the nation’s toxic waste cleanup effort was beyond the crisis stage, passed stopgap legislation Thursday night to pump money into the stalled Superfund program.
The measure, approved on a voice vote only minutes before many members started leaving town for an early start on the Easter recess, was sent to the Senate, where leaders promised action sometime today.
The legislation would provide $150 million to Superfund to keep the program operating through May 31 while House and Senate negotiators try to agree on a five-year reauthorization of Superfund.
Lee M. Thomas, administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency, has warned Congress repeatedly that unless EPA gets a cash transfusion by April 1, cleanup activities around the nation will begin grinding to a halt.
Thomas has said that without a cash transfusion he would have to begin canceling contracts with private sector companies now working on various toxic waste dumps around the country.
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