-our $10 million program to remove PCB's from building transformers, -our direction to the Architect to inaugurate an office waste recycling program, and -our asbestos removal project at the General Accounting Office headquarters building. I am going to insert this lengthy response to Mr. Nader in the record. I commend it to all who are concerned about our environment and are interested in what the Congress is doing in its own precincts to set an example. I have gone into this because we tend to hear a lot more about the charges, and absolutely nothing about the refutation of them, which ought to be on the record. [The information follows:] NEAL SMITH HOWA SIDNEY R YATES ILLINOIS DAVID ROBEY WISCONSIN EDWARD R BOYBAL CALIFORNIA LOUIS STOKES OHIO TOM BEVILL ALABAMA BILL ALEXANDER ARKANSAS JOHN P MURTHA PENNSYLVANIA BOB TRAXLER MICHIGAN JOSEPH D EARLY MASSACHUSETTS CHARLES WILSON TEXAS NORMAND DICKS WASHINGTON MATTHEW F MCHUGH NEW YORK WILLIAM LEHMAN FLORIDA MARTIN OLAV SABO MINNESOTA VIC FAZIO CALIFORNIA WG (BILL) HEFNER, NORTH CAROLINA LES AUCOIN OREGON WILLIAM H GRAY PENNSYLVANIA STENY H HOYER MARYLAND BOB CARR MICHIGAN ROBERT J MRAZEK NEW YORK RICHARD J DURBIN ILLINOIS RONALD D COLEMAN TEXAS ALAN 8 MOLLOMAN WEST VIRGINIA LINDSAY THOMAS GEORGIA CHESTER G ATKINS MASSACHUSETTS JIM CHAPMAN TEXAS MARCY KAPTUR OHIO LAWRENCE J SMITH FLORIDA DAVIDE SKAGGS COLORADO DAVID E PRICE NORTH CAROLINA NANCY PELOSI CALIFORNIA Congress of the United States October 16, 1991 MINORITY MEMBERS JOSEPH M MCDADE, PENNSYLVANIA JOHN T MYERS INDIANA CLARENCE E MILLER, OHIO LAWRENCE COUGHLIN, PENNSYLVANIA CW BILL YOUNG, FLORIDA CARL D PURSELL MICHIGAN JIM KOLBE ARIZONA DEAN A GALLO NEW JERSEY BARBARA VUCANOVICH, NEVADA JIM LIGHTFOOT IOWA CLERK AND STAFF DIRECTOR TELEPHONE (202) 225-2771 Mr. Ralph Nader Government Procurement Project P.O. Box 19367 Washington, DC 20036 Dear Mr. Nader: From its very first sentence, your September 3, 1991, press You contend that Congress is "not being environmentally the truth. During the past ten years that I have been the chairman of the Mr. Ralph Nader October 16, 1991 legislative agencies. The public record is replete with examples of these activities which can be found in hearings testimony, funding decisions, report directives, and the terms of several appropriations bills. For example, your charge that recycled paper is unavailable to Congress is simply not true. Recycled paper is available to Members, committees, and staff offices from the House of Representatives supply store, the majority and minority printers, and the House Office of Printing Services. In fact, the House Office Supply Service reports that 57% of letterhead being printed this year is on recycled paper. Other recycled products routinely available include bond paper, envelopes, copier paper, file folders, facsimile paper, and toner cartridges. In July 1990, Congressman John Porter, a member of the Subcommittee, and I collaborated on a policy directive in the fiscal year 1991 appropriation report (House Report 101-648, at page 18), viz, "The Committee is concerned that the Federal government should more actively promote the use of paper with a post-consumer waste content." The directive went on to encourage the Joint Committee on Printing, who set technical paper standards and conduct procurement oversight for all government paper, to increase the procurement of recycled printing paper throughout the government. This action was taken to support the very same objectives that you propound and that you mistakenly imply we do not. That report commended the Joint Committee for its efforts in meeting and even exceeding EPA recycled paper guidelines. Then in May 1991, our Subcommittee's report outlining the fiscal year 1992 appropriation (House Report 102-82, at pages 23-24 and 30) directed the Government Printing Office to study the feasibility of using recycled paper with post-consumer waste content in its work and to report its findings to the Congress. So your contention that the Congress is not a leader in this area is without foundation. The Government Printing Office, a Congressional agency which buys paper or acquires contract printing for its own and all Federal agency requirements, reports that since August 1988, over 96% of the fine quality printing and writing papers supplied have met or exceeded EPA standards. GPO is even now in the process of acquiring recycled newsprint for printing the Congressional Record as well as the Federal Register, their two largest paper based print products. The We don't hide these facts, Mr. Nader. Your research efforts need improvement. Of course, when you seem to make such good copy out of Congress-bashing, maybe you don't want the facts to Mr. Ralph Nader You also call upon the Congress to use water more efficiently. In that regard, the Appropriations Committee, in fiscal year 1990, initiated a water and sewer payment program for Federal facilities located in the District of Columbia (P.L. 101-168, D. C. Appropriations Act, 1990). There is now a market pricing system for water and sewer usage, which is based upon actual metered usage rather than the previous system where estimates of these costs were lumped together in the annual Federal payment. This new pricing methodology now forces the Federal government, including the Congress, to monitor usage in order to keep its water and sewer payments at a minimum. The Office of the Architect of the Capitol indicates that water consumption is now being metered at nearly 60 different locations and that billed water consumption in the Capitol complex dropped by 17 million gallons between fiscal years 1989 and 1990. This is an example of a market place conservation measure, and I believe that can lead to further savings as we increase our monitoring awareness and recognize the economies of further conservation. We have also done a great deal in energy efficiency and environmental controls. As far back as 1979, by directive contained in the Legislative Appropriations bill, the Architect of the Capitol installed solar collectors at what is now the Ford House Office Building. These solar collectors, which are still in use, preheat the building's hot water system, thus reducing the cost of heating cold water. That same year, 1979, an energy conservation pilot test was undertaken at the Capitol power plant. This pilot eventually led to a comprehensive $2.9 million program which includes a network of sensors installed throughout our Capitol buildings that electronically collect and report room temperature data to a central control system located at the power plant. This system is used to adjust heating and cooling settings in building office spaces during evening and non-peak hours. Based on projections calculated by the Architect's office and reviewed by the General Accounting Office, energy-avoidance costs are estimated at $71 million over the life of this system and will result in a 21 to 1 savings-to-investment ratio. An analysis of this program can be found in part 1 of the fiscal year 1985 Appropriations Hearings before the Subcommittee on Legislative at pages 352-354, and a further discussion in part 2 of those same Hearings at pages 39-40. I find especially disingenuous your abject criticism of the $1 million that we provided to the Architect of the Capitol for fiscal year 1992 to test energy efficient lighting. This project came about as a result of a directive the Committee on Mr. Ralph Nader October 16, 1991 legislative agencies. The public record is replete with examples of these activities which can be found in hearings testimony, funding decisions, report directives, and the terms of several appropriations bills. For example, your charge that recycled paper is unavailable to Congress is simply not true. Recycled paper is available to Members, committees, and staff offices from the House of Representatives supply store, the majority and minority printers, and the House Office of Printing Services. In fact, the House Office Supply Service reports that 57% of letterhead being printed this year is on recycled paper. Other recycled products routinely available include bond paper, envelopes, copier paper, file folders, facsimile paper, and toner cartridges. In July 1990, Congressman John Porter, a member of the Subcommittee, and I collaborated on a policy directive in the fiscal year 1991 appropriation report (House Report 101-648, at page 18), viz, "The Committee is concerned that the Federal government should more actively promote the use of paper with a post-consumer waste content." The directive went on to encourage the Joint Committee on Printing, who set technical paper standards and conduct procurement oversight for all government paper, to increase the procurement of recycled printing paper throughout the government. This action was taken to support the very same objectives that you propound and that you mistakenly imply we do not. That report commended the Joint Committee for its efforts in meeting and even exceeding EPA recycled paper guidelines. Then in May 1991, our Subcommittee's report outlining the fiscal year 1992 appropriation (House Report 102-82, at pages 23-24 and 30) directed the Government Printing Office to study the feasibility of using recycled paper with post-consumer waste content in its work and to report its findings to the Congress. So your contention that the Congress is not a leader in this area is without foundation. The Government Printing Office, a Congressional agency which buys paper or acquires contract printing for its own and all Federal agency requirements, reports that since August 1988, over 96% of the fine quality printing and writing papers supplied have met or exceeded EPA standards. The GPO is even now in the process of acquiring recycled newsprint for printing the Congressional Record as well as the Federal Register, their two largest paper based print products. We don't hide these facts, Mr. Nader. Your research efforts need improvement. Of course, when you seem to make such good copy out of Congress-bashing, maybe you don't want the facts to |