Washington, D.C.- U.S. Rep. Inslee's amendment to protect taxpayers from subsidizing the mining industry even further passed the House of Representatives late tonight in a 273 to 151 vote. Inslee's amendment is endorsed by Taxpayers for Common Sense, as well as the League of Conservation Voters and the Mineral Policy Institute.

Inslee pointed out that, "Environmental law needs to go forward, not backward. Taxpayers have one, and only one, protection in our mining law, and that is the part that says if you are going to open a mine on public land and pay nothing for it, you cannot dump your cyanide waste on more than five acres of taxpayer's land. This is a common sense, existing, black and white law on the books of this country, and we should not roll environmental law backwards tonight."

Added Inslee, "Taxpayers already pick up the tab for the mining industry's free minerals, free land, and free waste disposal sites. My amendment would stop expansion of these giveaways. Taxpayers should not be liable for cleaning up unlimited wastes, when and if mining companies go bankrupt."

Background:

Earlier this year, U.S. Rep. Inslee led a fight to prevent Sen. Slade Gorton's rider to the emergency spending bill, which allowed the mining industry to override the 1872 Mining Law in the case of the Crown Jewel Mine in Washington State, from becoming law. Tonight's Inslee mining amendment is an effort to block the Craig Rider to the Interior Appropriations bill, which passed the Senate Appropriations Committee, and which will eliminate the five acre millsite waste dumping limitation all over the country.

Under the Mining Law of 1872, gold, silver and other valuable minerals are still mined from public lands with no royalty to the American people. Better yet, at least from the standpoint of the multinational mining conglomerates which hold most of the mining claims, up to five acres of public lands per mining claim may be used to dispose of mining wastes.

Mining waste dumps are responsible for poisoning streams, lakes and groundwater with toxic metals such as lead, cadmium, and arsenic, as well as chemicals such as cyanide.

Incredible as it may sound, the mining industry now says that this sweetheart deal is no longer sufficient. The industry insists that it should receive unlimited quantities of public lands for waste disposal.