Barbara Boxer

But dams are a D, drinking water is a D, inland waterways D^, levees a D^. That is just a sad, sad report card.

I agree with you, we are going to do this, and I am so excited to be working on WRDA with you again.

We have an obligation.

Of course we want industry. Of course we want jobs. You have to have that.

How about there are 21 peer reviewed studies by different people? How about that I am going to put them in the record and these are the facts that were found out.

But that is not my job and is not the job of this U.S. Senate. It is to protect the health and safety of the people, while of course looking at the economics.

We don't have an attorney here who represents the people, who represents the environment, and that is sort of a sad situation.

How do you know what to do? We have the Clean Water Act, we have the Safe Drinking Water Act, we have the Surface Mining Act.

I want to thank you so much for your patience in the face of some anger here.

There is a huge problem, and real people say it who don't get paid by industry.

The fact is the economics that were cited by my friend and that will be cited from my friend from West Virginia, and I have seen those surveys, those studies, they have been refuted, and I think our witness here is going to show that those…

I think that is an important point. You did something right. Everybody is mad at you.

The majority demonizes any Federal agency that tries to help; it doesn't matter if it is the EPA, they demonize.

What a great country is all I can say.

The Stream Protection Rule will place limits on the dumping of mine waste in headwater streams and mountaintop removal coal mines.

This was an unprecedented reach out, and all we hear are complaints about it.

The public support these acts by 90 percent.

Sir, I just want to say to you, regardless of what you hear, you just stand up and you continue to do that. And when people look at you and say, sir, you shouldn't do this, just tell them to look at those families in Flint. This is what…

The poisoning, again, by lead of children in Flint has shaken the Nation.

A growing body of peer reviewed science shows people living downstream from coal mines face a greater risk of cancer, birth defects, and premature deaths.

The bottom line is people have to be kept safe.

The majority party here, with all due respect, this is their philosophy, they demonize anybody in the Federal Government.

To disrupt a rule that is protective of the people I think is the wrong thing to do.

Mountaintop removal coal mining has already destroyed more than 500 mountains, buried more than 2,000 miles of headwater streams, and polluted thousands of miles of downstream surface waters.

It is an incredible lake. And you just look at that lake and you just wonder how clear it is.