Believe me, those of us who were raised in northern Arizona are sensitive to environmental concerns.

Allowing Fannie and Freddie to pass on massive profits to their shareholders and huge bonuses to their executives and employees while sticking taxpayers with losses was a huge mistake and it should never be repeated.

This legislation deserves full consideration by this Committee and Congress, and I thank you for allowing me to testify.

I outlined my deep concern over the administration's announcement of withdrawal by 2014.

I have serious concerns about the TMDL--both in terms of process and the likely impacts on our farms and communities.

The health of the Chesapeake Bay and those bodies of water contained in the Bay watershed... deserves our full attention.

I am alarmed at the potential economic impact this will have on states and municipalities in the watershed.

We must also be certain that our Federal Government is not carrying out the requirements of this plan in a heavy-handed manner.

EPA has singled out producers in the Chesapeake Bay states for new regulations and increased penalties...

EPA keeps saying that the Chesapeake Bay TMDL has been a collaborative process, but the states are telling us that EPA has been very heavy-handed and top-down.

The increase in regulatory action by EPA makes targeted conservation funding even more essential.

Efforts to improve Bay water quality, however, should not impede on the livelihood of our family farmers.

Obviously, here in Washington, we face unprecedented challenges in balancing our budget.

Obviously, we are facing--and I want to thank each of you for being here today and providing information to this committee about this proposal.

Our purpose today for this hearing is to ascertain what happened and hopefully stop it from happening in the future.

HUD's current 'Trust but don't verify' approach to oversight is unacceptable.

The worst possible thing that can happen to people like me is to have these programs abused by anyone, for any reason, because it then empowers people who don't like the programs in the first place to say, let us shut down the program or…

When we take American taxpayers' money, they expect us to spend it in an appropriate way.