REMARKS BY THE PRESIDENT IN SIGNING OF H.R. 2869, THE SMALL BUSINESS
LIABILITY RELIEF AND BROWNFIELDS REVITALIZATION ACT
Millennium Corporate Center Conshohocken, Pennsylvania
9:45 A.M. EST
THE PRESIDENT: Thank you very much for that warm
welcome. It's great to be back here in
Pennsylvania. (Applause.) I'm glad to be
traveling with one of the most effective members of my Cabinet, the
former Governor of New Jersey, now the Administrator of the EPA,
Christie Todd Whitman. (Applause.)
America is getting to know what people in this part of the world
understand, that she is an able Administrator, a fine person, a person
who cares deeply about the environment and our country. And
she's going to go down as one of the best selections I have made in my
Cabinet. So Christie Todd, thank you for coming, and thank
you for your leadership. (Applause.)
I want to thank you all for coming. When I saw the
family over there, it reminded me that we have more responsibilities
than just those on the war. And that is, we've got a
responsibility of making sure every child is educated, and that the
environment in which our children grow up is healthy and clean.
I'm here to sign this bill, and it's a very important piece of
legislation. It's a great accomplishment. And I
do so in Pennsylvania, because your state has been on the forefront of
brownfield legislation, thanks to now the -- in part, to the Director
of our homeland security effort, Governor Tom
Ridge. (Applause.)
I want to share with you, just right quick, my attitudes about how
to keep the peace. And the reason I brought up the family
is, is that it's so important for our fellow Americans to understand
that our efforts overseas and our efforts at home are all aimed at
making sure that little fellow can grow up in a peaceful world, and in
a world that understands freedom. We have learned that there
are some on this globe that hate America, and hate what America stands
for.
Those folks didn't understand our country. They thought
because we were prosperous and free, we would be soft and
complacent. They made a grave mistake. Our war
overseas, and our war at home, to stop terrorist activity, is all aimed
at making sure the youth of America can grow up in a free
society. They will not stop us. They will not
deter us. We will achieve our aims and bring the terrorists
to justice, no matter where they hide, or where they
exist. (Applause.)
So we'll be focused overseas. And we'll be making sure
we follow every single lead about whether or not they're going to try
to hit us again. But we've also got a lot of work to do here
at home. I made that clear the other day when I signed a
really good peace of legislation, and that's the education reform
bill. And I'm now making that statement again when I sign
this sensible peace of legislation, one that emphasizes the need for
environmental stewardship all across the country, and a piece of
legislation that will enhance prosperity and the safety of Americans
living in urban areas.
This bill was passed because of the work of both Republicans and
Democrats. It's an example of what can happen when people
put partisanship aside, and focus on what's best for
America. It shows what can happen when people say, I'm proud
of my political party, but I'm more proud of my country, and I'm in
Washington, D.C., to do what's right for America first, not my
political party. (Applause.)
And so I want to thank Paul Gillmor, from the state of Ohio.
(Applause.) Paul flew over today from his district outside
of Toledo, in order to watch this bill being signed. And
it's right that he's here, because he was the main sponsor in the
House, who has worked hard to get this piece of legislation
through. Paul, I want to thank you for coming. I
look forward to giving you the pen, as I sign the bill. This
should be one of the high marks of your leadership and your service to
the country. So thank you for being here,
sir. (Applause.)
I want to thank two members of the Pennsylvania delegation for
being here, Joe Hoeffel and Bob Borski. Thank you both for
being here and taking time out of your day to
come. (Applause.) It's good to see the old
Governor here. I appreciate Mark coming today. I
appreciate his leadership. And I know the people of the
Commonwealth of Pennsylvania appreciate his willingness to step in when
Ridge left. And he's doing a fine
job. (Applause.)
I want to thank the Attorney General, Mike Fisher, for being here
as well. Michael, thanks for coming, and thanks for your
service to Pennsylvania. (Applause.) And then I
want to thank Brian O'Neill. (Applause.) I knew
the O'Neills were a big family, but I didn't realize -- (laughter) --
they were that big. But I thank Brian for being a risk
taker; somebody who understands that in order to create jobs, you have
to take a risk; somebody who is an entrepreneur; somebody who has had
the vision to take these eyesores and convert them into positive
economic assets that benefit the community at large. And so,
Brian, I'm proud of the work you do, no more so than the citizens of
this community. You're leaving behind a legacy that is
positive and strong. And I'm honored to be here at your
place of business. Thank you, sir. (Applause.)
I also want to thank some of the Senators that worked on this piece
of legislation, none of whom could be here today. They're
traveling around in different parts of the globe. One is
Senator Lincoln Chafee from Rhode Island. He sponsored the
bill. (Applause.) Kit Bond worked on it, Senator
Bob Smith, Senator Harry Reid all worked hard to get this legislation
out of the Senate, and eventually onto my desk.
All of us have a responsibility to be the stewards of our land.
When we use the land, we must do so wisely and responsibly, balancing
the needs of the environment with the best interests of those who live
and work on the land.
The law I sign today addresses the problem of land which has
already been developed, and then abandoned. American cities
have many such eyesores -- anywhere from 500,000 to a million
brownfields are across our nation. These areas once
supported manufacturing and commerce, and now lie empty -- adding
nothing of value to the community, and sometimes only causing
problems.
Many communities and entrepreneurs have sought to redevelop
brownfields. Often they could not, either because of
excessive regulation or because of the fear of endless
litigation. As a consequence, small businesses and other
employers have located elsewhere -- pushing development farther and
farther outward, taking jobs with them, and leaving cities empty.
For its part, the federal government sometimes spent more time
haggling over regulatory details than it did working with states and
cities to fix the problem. The old way of doing things was
to mandate, regulate, and litigate. That began to change a
few years ago as some states, such as Pennsylvania, and some
communities and local businesses began to work together, in a
constructive relationship, to find positive solutions to the brownfield
problem. And the federal government began to help, by
pursuing a more cooperative approach -- with regulatory relief, with
loans and with technical support.
Here at the Millennium Corporate Center, if people take time to
find out what happened, you'll see the possibilities of what can happen
when people work together. For a long time this site was the
site of a steel foundry. After the foundry closed, the
property sat in disrepair. Finally, with a grant from the
EPA, Montgomery County began to work to turn things
around. Then O'Neill came in, with private investment, and
he received cooperation at every level of government. This
place is a good place to work. It is now a good place to
live. And there are going to be more people employed here
than before. (Applause.) This is an example of
what can happen, of what is possible.
And the bill I am about the sign will enable this success to be
repeated many times over, all over America. It gives
protection against lawsuits to prospective buyers and others who didn't
create the brownfields, but want to help clean them up and develop
them. And it will help strengthen state cleanup programs,
with more federal funding and less federal meddling. My
budget for next year will meet this commitment by requesting that
Congress double EPA's brownfields funding.
The law will also make way for the creation of more
jobs. As the employees here know, when a business develops a
brownfield, it turns a stagnant plot of land into a productive
neighborhood. What we ought to be asking in America is, what
does it take to create more jobs? Sure, we want those who
have been affected by 9/11 to be helped with an unemployment check, but
what they really want is a permanent paycheck, in all public
policy. (Applause.) Public policy ought to figure
out ways to make sure that the entrepreneurs can succeed, so that there
is job creation taking place all over the country. This is a
good jobs creation bill.
Further benefit will come as businesses recycle older properties
and spare surrounding lands from development. There has been
a lot of talk about urban sprawl. Well, one of the best ways
to arrest urban sprawl is to develop brownfields, and make them
productive pieces of land, where people can find work and
employment. (Applause.) By one estimate, for
every acre of redeveloped brownfields, we save four and a half acres of
open space.
This legislation will also protect small business owners from
unwarranted Superfund liability. Lawyers and governments
used to tell small business owners that because they sent their trash
to a landfill -- and because that landfill became contaminated -- they
were potentially liable for cleaning up the entire site.
When government acts in such a heavy-handed way, it hurts a lot of
people, and works against its own purposes. It discourages
small business growth. With this bill, we are returning
common sense to our cleanup program. We will protect
innocent small business owners and employees from unfair lawsuits, and
focus our efforts instead on actually cleaning up contaminated
sites. (Applause.)
Environmental protection and economic growth can go on
together. It is possible for the two to exist, if we're wise
about public policy. And the law that I'm about to sign is
good public policy. It's got a lot of common sense in
it. It's wise. It encourages
growth. It fosters the environment. It is the
best -- it shows what can -- it is the best of Washington, when people
decide to cooperate, not bicker, when people put the national interests
ahead of political interests.
And so it's an honor to be here in Pennsylvania, to sign the most
important piece of environmental legislation that came out of the
Congress last year, the Small Business Liability Relief and Brownfields
Revitalization Act. (Applause.)