I want to make sure that some of our smaller infrastructure projects that are so key to a very small, local economy that they do not get lost in the backwash of all of this activity.

I think we clearly have common ground to work in so many different areas.

I come from a State where we talk about the fact that we see our climate that has changed...

I appreciate, Administrator Pruitt, with just about every question that you've heard from this panel, you've said, look, delays within the Agency are just not acceptable, we've got to make some hard decisions, we need to move through a…

I have been consistently neutral on potential development in the area, but I've supported the idea that the Pebble Limited Partnership should be allowed to apply for a Clean Water permit from the Corps before the EPA preemptively acts to…

And the record will be kept open for a week then if Members choose to submit additional questions.

I appreciate your direction here this morning.

Rather than being treated as partners, States were often treated as adversaries simply because they had a different plan to comply with environmental regulations.

the purpose of the regulation is to move us towards cleaner air, but you cannot meet the requirements of the regulation.

President Trump has turned his back on America's cities and reneged on his promise to invest in America's infrastructure.

Let me ask you about WOTUS.

Thank you. And you had mentioned in your comments just here your commitment to ensuring that we have clean lands and a level of enforcement for those that would degrade the quality of our lands.

I would like to restart those types of meetings with your folks, and I would like your commitment to that today.

I particularly appreciate the imperative that you seem to be bringing to the Agency that delays in decisionmaking that go on for years do not benefit anyone.

The proposal is a stark change from the funding levels provided in the fiscal year 2017 Omnibus and represents a substantially different vision for EPA than we saw in the previous administration, and that is not necessarily a bad thing.

the best way forward is to maintain an effective national consensus.

I have outlined some of the perhaps more unique issues in the State.

I am pleased that the administration is reexamining the regulation and hopefully going to be coming up with a more sensible proposal.

For years, the Agency has overstepped its appropriate role.

Well, and we've got other situations going on all over the State.

Part of what we have been dealing with the contaminated lands issues is there has not been anybody that has been willing to be lead agency.

the standards now that are put in place and required under this Executive Order 13777.

Rather than focusing on the core mission of cleaning up the environment, the Agency has produced rule after rule using questionable legal authority.

I would ask if you can commit to having a reasonable comment period of 90 days so that everyone in the region really has an opportunity to weigh in and participate if they choose to do so.

I have expressed concern for years that the Agency's work on the Waters of the United States rule was very problematic for the State of Alaska.