Thank you for holding this hearing and thank you for your leadership on the Bay challenges.

we have the opportunity, with this Executive Order and President Obama's leadership, to put in place a plan that will get us there by a date certain.

there must be consequences if we fail to meet the expectations imbedded in them.

They changed approach and said we are going to target two-year milestones at a time.

A year ago, the Council did something fairly unique, if not even impressive, and that is they admitted failure.

We can do better.

We want an action plan, we want a watershed management action plan.

Thank you, Representative Edwards, Chairman Johnson, Ranking Member Boozman, and Members of the Subcommittee for allowing me to testify on behalf of COG today.

I think this is a great way for us to accomplish that.

So, I think the funding and the efforts there become even more critical for us to make sure those opportunities are available.

I think we are all on the same page as having an all-of-the-above energy policy here for the United States.

It has got to be something that we do in a timely fashion to make sure we are developing those sources to transition to that next generation of energy.

I am interested in your comment earlier when you talked about securing full funding and dedicated sources of funding for our Land and Water Conservation Fund.

I couldn't agree with you more and your statement about seeking energy independence and also making sure we stop the exporting of dollars and jobs that are related to our dependence on foreign sources of energy.

I agree with the gentleman from North Carolina, Mr. Watt, that most of the questions we have here today need to be addressed.

We were listening for specifics. We were listening to hear something new. And we did not hear that.

sanctions should be reduced carefully but immediately.

There was sometimes validity in the rating agencies when you were looking at State bonds and others, that they did provide that independent arbiter service.