Dems: Bush Attacking Environment

President Bush is leading a strategic assault on the environment after he announced plans to rescind a Clinton-era regulation limiting the amount of arsenic allowed in drinking water, a Democratic governor said Saturday.

Washington Gov. Gary Locke said President Bush is in the pocket of big business and is taking his cues from the energy industry.

"It is the wealthy donors and the special interests that helped put him in the White House who want to loosen environmental controls," Locke said in the Democrats' weekly radio address. "As a result, their problems are his problems, and the environmental regulations that are in their way, are in his way too."

The comments were in reaction to Mr. Bush's announcement this week that he will pursue a reduction in the amount of arsenic allowed in drinking water, but not before more scientific studies indicate where the level should be set.

The current standard, set in 1942, allows a maximum of 50 parts per billion. Last year, the Environmental Protection Agency recommended reducing that to 5 parts per billion as demanded by many environmentalists, but President Clinton directed that the standard be set at 10 parts per billion.

The Bush administration says it will withdraw the Clinton standard, which would have taken effect later this year.

Health and environmental groups have been campaigning since 1996 to reduce the standard. The EPA acted as part of a court settlement after the National Academy of Sciences found in 1999 that arsenic in drinking water can cause bladder, lung and skin cancer, and might cause liver and kidney cancer.

Locke said Mr. Bush's action is just the latest in his "anti-environmental initiatives."

"On the campaign trail, then-Governor Bush promised that he would place limits on the level of greenhouse gases released into the atmosphere," Locke said. "Right after he got into the White House, though, that pledge went out the window."

"Two days later, the president announced that he thought our national parks, such as Yellowstone and Yosemite, have great potential for oil drilling," the governor said. "We urge the president in the strongest terms to protect our environment."

In his radio address, Mr. Bush cited proposals to bolster spending for children's health and education as further reasons Congress should pass his budget plan.

"Our children must be a priority of our nation," he said. "My budget is active and compassionate."

The president is making the welfare of children the hub of his schedule over the coming week, visiting a boys and girls club in Wilmington, Del., and welcoming to the White House a group that raises money for pediatric hospitals.

Mr. Bush said his "Reading First" plan would triple the available money to improve and expand reading programs to help all children read by the third grade. He said he also would increase funds for preschool Head Start programs tprepare disadvantaged children to enter school.

The proposed budget would increase spending on research into childhood diseases and establish 1,200 new community health centers to help poor children.

In the address, Mr. Bush also said his budget would: