One legislative tactic widely used by opponents of environmental protection this year was to weigh down environmental legislation with weakening amendments; this killed the legislation by forcing pro-environment lawmakers to drop their support of the bill.

In July, for example, Rep. Robert Walker (R-PA) offered a controversial amendment to the Environmental Technologies Act of 1994 (H.R. 3870), which was designed to spur development of environmentally safe technologies. The Walker amendment required the Office of Science and Technology to develop specific techniques for estimating the risks posed by new technologies.

While it may have sounded reasonable, opponents noted that -- in fact -- the amendment would seriously delay or prevent the adoption of public health and safety protections. Among other problems, the Walker amendment specified statistical methods that were vulnerable to bias and would fail to protect sensitive groups -- such as infants and the elderly -- from pollutants and other threats.

On July 26, 1994, the House voted to accept the Walker amendment by a vote of 286 - 139. NO is the pro-environment vote.