Congress will be returning to Washington about the time this Dialogue is published. The Superfund reauthorization bill that did not pass in the last Congress is the natural starting point for the renewed discussion in this Congress of Superfund's reauthorization. This Dialogue is about that upcoming reauthorization and has two purposes.

The first purpose is to educate the public and the environmental bar about some of the fundamental problems in the small print of S. 1834 and H.R. 4916, the most recent Senate and House bills. The bills are complex; the Senate version runs approximately 500 pages, the House version runs 300 pages. Many of the assumptions about the proposed legislation's content and effect are incorrect. Part of the problem is that the legislation worsened as it went through the committee process. The committee process produced legislation that if enacted, will increase costs and complexity, decrease fairness, and slow cleanups.