Cause & Effect: Toxic Cleanups

CAUSE:

"The Bush administration has told Congress it will not ask for taxes on businesses to pay for federal toxic waste cleanups...In its fiscal year 2003 budget request recently sent to Capitol Hill, the Bush administration said it has no intention of asking Congress to reauthorize corporate taxes used to finance toxic waste cleanups since the passage of the Superfund Act in 1980." The move means the program "will be virtually bankrupt" and will slow down cleanups considerably. 
- CNN, 2/24/02; Seattle Post-Intelligence, 4/22/02; NY PIRG, 8/03

EFFECT:

"Almost one in 10 of the nation's 1,230 Superfund toxic waste sites have not yet been cleaned up enough to guarantee that people and drinking water supplies won't become contaminated, according to Environmental Protection Agency data."
- AP, 7/27/04