The vote is on the Moynihan (D-NY) amendment to the First Budget Resolution (S. Con. Res. 92) adding $60 million for the Superfund to clean up hazardous wastes. This increase was recommended by the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee, which oversees this program. The Budget Committee had frozen EPA funding for Superfund at fiscal 1982 levels.

The Superfund was created to clean up the 418 worst abandoned toxic waste dumps, but under Reagan it has begun clean up work on only five. Some of the remaining toxic dumps are already leaking cancer-causing chemicals into ground water, contaminating wells. 87% of the $1.6 billion Superfund program is coming from a tax on crude oil and chemicals, the sources of most toxic waste. Yet the Reagan Administration has dragged its feet on spending the relatively small amounts of federal money needed to administer and enforce this massive cleanup program, bringing it almost to a halt. Moynihan amendment rejected 41-53; May 21, 1982. YES is the pro-environmental vote. Congress eventually appropriated $20 million more for Superfund, but this money was taken from other equally important EPA programs and was still grossly inadequate.