Architect of clean air, water laws credits compromise for wins

摘要

One of the congressional staffers who negotiated and wrote the Clean Air and Clean Water acts had his first exposure to environmental issues from his parents, liberal Montana newspaper publishers. Leon Billings, 78, a former congressional staffer in the early days of the environmental movement, grew up with parents who ran a weekly newspaper, the People's Voice, that drew early attention to environmental concerns - and didn't pull punches - more than a decade before those topics entered the broader public consciousness.