Alan Lowenthal

NEPA may be the most important issue in my congressional district.

NEPA has been the Federal tool that these communities in my district have used for weighing as major projects have been evaluated.

It is time to raise the bar again

We have got to start making a little more sense around here.

We require that the U.S. Forest Service and BLM pay for their own firefighting.

We save $6 post-disaster for every $1 of predisaster funds that FEMA invests.

My home State had 664,000 acres burned last year.

The roughly half-million abandoned hardrock mines that litter this country are a huge public safety and environmental problem.

the administration is trying to cast aside the Federal responsibility for these assets, cutting investments in the improvements that we need to make to grow commerce at our seaports.

If we are looking for the devil, it is us.

I am the cochair of the Safe Climate Caucus, and I often talk to my community about how we are going to have to adapt to sea level rise and other effects of climate change.

the harbor maintenance fee, which is really a user fee, or a harbor maintenance tax, which generates, I think, over $1.6 billion.

the President prides himself as a builder. And you know our country has tremendous needs for infrastructure improvements, especially in our harbors and waterways.

Not only could we create a permitting system designed specifically for hardrock mining and establish a reclamation program for abandoned hardrock mines, we could also finally make it so that companies can no longer extract billions of…

The fact of the matter is the money is not there.

We do need mines. I am not saying we don't. We do need mines, there is no question about it. But we don't need to continue operating under a law that says mines are all we need.

There is a huge hole in the Treasury that is being filled by the Harbor Maintenance Trust Fund.

So you build resiliency in, knowing that that is really going to be the issue.

So, you know, enough of that.

The hardrock mining industry has no less of a responsibility than the coal industry.

the President is only proposing to spend $900 million of that. We have tremendous needs.

Unfortunately, I believe the administration has ducked the tough decisions that Congress must make.

The President's budget also eliminates the highly oversubscribed TIGER program.

I was glad to hear Congressman Denham mention goods movement.

What I don't understand is, given these statistics, why does President Trump insist that it takes 10 years to go through the permitting process for a transportation project?