"I thank the Chair for including the TOXIC Act in today's hearing, as well as Mr. LaMalfa for partnering with me to introduce the bill."
"the idea of 'trust land' is not normal and should be fixed to recognize that our Nation is the owner of our lands"
"For 50 years, the official policy of Congress has been to support tribal sovereignty and self-determination."
"what the government has done to us and our lands has been to create a mess."
"the federal government's role should be to protect our lands against sale and external taxation and regulation"
"no question that our 150-year-old mining laws need reform."
"the mining industry uses up our public lands, ignores tribes' concerns, spills their toxic waste into our communities and waterways, and leaves their messes for the rest of us to clean up . . . the Re..."
"As long as the present mining law exists, the legislation we are talking about today, it only makes matters worse."
"We believe that tribes deserve to be meaningfully consulted before development happens on their ancestral lands."
"To start with, the Chair's bill explicitly says, and I quote, 'Environmental reviews shall not require consideration of downstream indirect effects of oil and gas consumption.'"
"I associate myself with the Ranking Member's opening comments. And while my colleagues across the aisle are finally beginning to admit climate change does exist, and that it is real, the bills they ar..."