The Union Leader
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Bob Smith: Use federal surplus to fund environmental cleanups

By TOM FAHEY
August 16, 2000

  Sen. Bob Smith, R-N.H., said yesterday he’d like to see the country fund environmental cleanups as one use of its growing budget surplus.

  Smith, chairman of the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee, made his remarks during a meeting with about 40 members of the Business and Industry Association. The BIA is drafting an action report on environmental issues for release later this year, filled with suggestions on how to give states more power to handle environmental law enforcement.

  Smith also said he will pay close attention to one of New Hampshire’s next big highway projects — the planned widening of Interstate 93. He said it will serve as a pilot project for streamlining highway construction projects.

  "I’m determined to use the power of the chairmanship to make that project run smoothly," he said after the meeting.

  Delays in the construction of Route 101 from Manchester to the Seacoast "have stuck in my craw for years," he said. The I-93 project, planned to begin in a few years, includes two extra lanes in each direction and a proposed rail right-of-way.

  Smith said he’s already holding meetings with agencies that will be involved. "I want all the ducks in a row before we start construction. I don’t want to see any last minute items causing long delays after work has begun," he said. His committee oversees a number of agencies that get involved in highway construction issues, including the Environmental Protection Agency and the U.S Army Corps of Engineers, as well as administration of the highway trust fund.

  Spending money on infrastructure, whether roads or environmental cleanups, is the right thing to do as the government’s budget deficit eases, he said.

  "In the next 10 to 15 years, if the economy stays strong, we will see surpluses — trillions of dollars in surpluses. As a conservative Republican I believe the right thing to do is to reinvest in our infrastructure," Smith said.

  Priorities for the surplus, he said, should be national debt retirement, a cut in income and other taxes, strengthening the Social Security and Medicare trust funds and spending on infrastructure.

  He said spending on public projects would be "like a tax rebate . . . We took dollars from you over the years to pay the federal debt so this is a good investment that saves you money on work that needs to be done. We need to think that way."

  Smith said he’d like to streamline the process for cleaning up contaminated industrial sites, known as brownfields sites.

  Once sites are restored, he said, they create jobs, rid a community of blight and protect existing green spaces from development, he said.

  Smith said he does not hold much hope for passage of brownfields legislation in this session on Congress even though more than 60 senators have co-sponsored it.

  The BIA draft report suggests that the federal government encourage more state-specific solutions to environmental problems and provide block grants that would allow the states to establish environmental policies.

  The report has nearly 40 suggestions on how to make laws on clean air and water, hazardous waste and enforcement issues more effective and workable.

  They include stiffer emissions standards for diesel engines, encouraging a state and regional transportation plan, giving business leeway on how to reach EPA emission standards, creating targeted tax credits for brownfields redevelopment and increasing federal funding for water system improvements.

  BIA president John Crosier said 40 members of his organization began work on the report after Smith moved into the chairmanship of the EPW Committee last fall.

  Crosier said yesterday, "We saw this as a very exciting opportunity for people of good will to work together."

  In a letter accompanying the report, he said Smith is now "uniquely positioned to address the concerns of business and industry" on environmental matters.