Political Quotes

“Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume. Mr. Speaker, I, too, rise in support of H.R. 7283, the Safeguarding Treatment for the Restoration of Ecosystems from Abandoned Mines Act, also known as the STREAM Act. The Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act appropriated $11.3 billion to the Abandoned Mine Lands, or the AML, trust fund. This money is for use by State AML programs to address abandoned mine lands created before enactment of the Surface Mining Control and Reclamation Act of 1977. This historic, fee-based AML program allows a State to set aside up to 30 percent of its annual AML grant in an interest-bearing account to cover the long-term costs of acid mine drainage, or AMD, facilities, which are often needed to address water treatment in historic coal mining states. The Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act reauthorizes the collection of the AML fee at a reduced rate, as well as a 30 percent set-aside authority for States. However, the IIJA neglected to grant parallel set-aside authority for the newly authorized $11.3 billion in Treasury funds for AML projects. This is one of the many areas Congress will need to correct in the hastily passed IIJA bill, and it goes to show why we need to have regular order, why we need to have committee hearings, and why we need to take our time on these large bills. That large IIJA bill never went through a committee in the House.…”