Legislative inaction: H.R. 564

H.R. 564, also known as the Superfund Reinvestment Act of 2009, was introduced to the current Congress and referred to the Committee on Ways and Means in January 2009. The Superfund program, also known as CERCLA, was passed in 1980 to clean up hazardous waste sites. Two other bills on the same topic, H.R. 832 and S. 3125, are also circulating. S. 3125 is the most recent incarnation, so I will consider it here. It was referred to the Committee on Finance on March 16 of this year.

Conversely known as the Polluter Pays Act, the bill reinstates the corporate environmental income tax until January 2019 to help pay for Superfund cleanups. The purpose behind the legislation is to take the burden of the cost of pollution clean up off the public. The tax was in place until 1995, when Congress failed to renew it. It taxed oil and chemical companies to help pay for clean up of sites without a liable party, either because the original polluter was defunct or in some cases deceased.