We have 400,000 abandoned mines still here in the country, and it brought into question the ability of the Federal Government to adequately manage those other mines and to clean them up, whether they can handle it or not.

A lot of the needs we are going to have in future research with you will be in mine reclamation.

the Federal Government cannot handle the job. The EPA doesn't even have the mining engineering expertise to do so.

Americans need to have those jobs, and we need to start training Americans to take those jobs and expand and make better an industry that still has a lot to give to this country.

That is part of a larger package that we have put together that deals with the Gold King Mine in the omnibus bill that should have been prevented and could have easily been prevented.

I want to thank everyone who is here as well, especially the Colorado School of Mines for hosting this event.

Rest assured, these tactics will not stop this particular committee--and I do consider them to be tactics.

I appreciate Congresswoman Lummis mentioning the bills that we are moving forward that deal with the abandoned mines.

Let me be clear. The mine was not on Interior land.

EPA's astounding unveiling last night at 6:28 p.m. of entirely new information about the Gold King Mine disaster.

the BOR report is factually inaccurate in parts, and sometimes downright misleading.

We should be talking about something of substance, like Ranking Member Grijalva's H.R. 963.

Senator Hatch, a member of this Committee, did a wonderful job in developing the Hatch-Waxman act.

The problem is when you have a facility that the life expectancy is less than 10 years, it's a different set of standards.

You cannot tell me that you've done that every single time when people were killed in those facilities.

I was encouraged by Secretary Burwell's announcement that HHS will be taking steps to revise the regulations relating to the prescribing of buprenorphine and containing products.

As the author of DATA 2000 and subsequent legislation that shaped the structure under which physicians prescribe buprenorphine, I'm keenly interested in ensuring patients have access to the treatments they need to succeed in this battle…

I do think that there's a need for a commitment to national service.