I deeply respect all three of you, but two of you have the distinct good sense to be Marylanders.

They expect that when their children are swimming in a lake, that it is safe for them to be in that lake swimming.

Stop the delay. Two years for this position to be filled is outrageous.

I believe that we all share a common goal of clean and healthy waters.

I would hope that we would allow the Environmental Protection Agency to carry out its responsibility.

It is our responsibility to make sure that the Senate takes up these positions for up or down votes.

If approved by this committee and confirmed by the Senate, it is my intent to work with all toward achieving that objective for this and future generations.

I think this Administration is trying to move in that direction to give some predictability to the laws.

I thank the two Marylanders that are here. Nothing against Oregon, but we do take care of our own State's people first.

People say, oh, 1 degree, what does that mean? But when you see the types of storms that we have seen...

It is urgent that we act and we act now.

It is time that we get serious with three key responses to the climate threat.

If you do not respect our environment, you cannot grow the economy.

We are involved, I serve on the Senate Foreign Committee with Senator Boxer and others on this Committee.

We need national policies to deal with these issues.

These extreme weather events and increased temperatures are not theoretical. They are happening to us right now.

This climate crisis is already happening, and the extreme weather that we have been experiencing as a nation makes it clear.

Rising sea level is creating a security problem for us as we are losing more and more of our shoreline.