Alan Lowenthal: “First, I would like to thank the ranking member and Chairman Simpson for bringing to the floor a bill that has…”

“First, I would like to thank the ranking member and Chairman Simpson for bringing to the floor a bill that has incorporated interests from both parties within the limit of the Bipartisan Budget Act. In particular, I want to thank the committee for increasing funding for a specific activity within the Department of Energy's fossil energy research and development. That is the risk-based data management system. This activity supports the funding of a tool which is used by many States for public disclosure of hydraulic fracturing operations. It is called FracFocus. While this tool is intended to be easily usable by the public, it has been pointed out by a special Department of Energy task force that some improvements must be made to this government- funded database in order for it to be more accurate, accessible, and transparent. That is why I was very pleased to hear from the chairman and the ranking member that a portion of the increased funding for the risk- based data management system is intended to help update the FracFocus database to meet modern data, usability, and public transparency standards.”