House Majority Leader Dick Armey told a group of cleaners April 8 that he supports the Barton Bill and would help move the legislation through Congress.
Armey said the Barton Bill is "the right approach" and he "will see when and how we can move this legislation." He added that the industry needs to get the public as well as politicians on its side, so that the legislation is viewed as common-sense environmentalism to relieve drycleaners of unnecessarily stringent and costly regulations.
Cleaners from Texas who have been instrumental in getting the legislation introduced, including one from Armey's home district, a cleaner from Ohio and Mary Scalco, IFI's government relations director, attended the meeting at Armey's Dallas office.
The Barton Bill, formally designated HR 2522, would direct EPA to set its cleanup standards for perc at one-tenth of the OSHA-established permissible exposure levels for people who work in drycleaning plants. Currently, EPA uses its drinking water standard for perc of 5 parts per billion to determine whether soil or groundwater is contaminated. The vast majority of cleaning plants where perc is used will show "contamination" under this standard.
The current exposure limit for perc under OSHA is 100 parts per million. If the OSHA standards were adopted by EPA as envisioned by the Barton Bill, the cleanup threshold for perc would be 10 parts per million.
Industry supporters of the legislation say that adopting that standard would relieve most cleaners of their contamination problems while still protecting public health. For those with property still above the cut-off, the amount of cleanup needed, and therefore the cost, would be less.
"It's perfectly logical, it's perfectly reasonable," Armey said of the Barton Bill.
"This is the right direction to go," he added. "We should define the standards. Don't leave it to EPA."
A power in Washington
Armey said that in the past Democrats have left EPA much latitude in setting standards. With Republicans in control of Congress, he wants that to change. Armey has the power to make that change. In an April 1 profile, the New York Times said of him, "It is almost universally accepted in Washington these days that never has a majority leader... commanded so much authority."
The Times noted that Armey was a major architect of the Contract with America, then "supervised the effort to turn the political promises into draft legislation and then held together the Republican majority... to force House passage of all but one of the 10 parts of the contract."
During this election year, Armey's legislative role is even larger as House Speaker Newt Gingrich devotes more of his time to campaigning for Republican candidates.
Armey, the Times said, "has a decisive voice in determining which bill will be brought to the floor, in what form and when."
The legislation was introduced by Rep. Joe Barton of Texas last October. Since then drycleaning trade associations in Texas, Michigan and California have endorsed it. Several others gave support to it in an informal poll conducted by IFI of its joint state affiliates. IFI is supporting the bill as part of its Superfund legislative strategy.
Opposition from Clinton
While Armey lauded the concept of the Barton bill and said he wants to help get it through Congress, he cautioned that the legislation would probably be vetoed by President Clinton.
"He is trying to sell himself as a champion of the environment," Armey said. Gingrich is unwilling to give the president a chance to play that role in this election year, Armey said, so it would be necessary for the bill to reach the president's desk with a large measure of public support.
Armey advised using an "inside-outside" strategy. The inside part involves gaining congressional approval. The "outside" part requires public awareness of and support for the drycleaning industry so that the bill is seen as a redress against overly stringent, costly regulations. Articles on editorial pages and letters to the editor are two ways of getting that support, Armey said.
Two such examples have appeared recently. The April issue of Readers' Digest uses the case of Bill Griggs, owner of Wayside Cleaners in Portsmouth, Va., and an IFI board member, to illustrate how government regulations and regulators can get out of control and cause unnecdessary headaches for small-business owners. Griggs told Readers Digest that he believes govrnment regulations have increased the cost of cleaning a suit by $1 over the past five years.
Earlier this year Newsweek magazine published an article that described how a clean-up of a cleaning plant property had nearly bankrupted its owner in retirement despite the fact that all rules and regulations had been followed over the years.
Date created: 4/9/96 Last modified: 4/9/96 Copyright © 1996, Blind Squirrel http://www.pond.com/~hhorning Hal Horning hhorning@pond.com