Political Quotes

“Mr. Speaker, I rise in opposition to this attempt to politically override the Interior Department's stream protection rule. Much like the destructive mountaintop removal practice that this rule is designed to prevent, this Republican assault on the environment and the health of coal mining communities is a crude and dirty process. Using the Congressional Review Act, a single hour in Congress is going to be enough to remove a rule that reflects 7 years of national public debate, including at least 30 stakeholder meetings, over 100,000 public comments. This blows up the regular legislative and regulatory process, ignores science, marginalizes public health, and puts communities at risk. Let me be clear: when the coal dust settles on this devastating resolution, it certainly won't be Members of Congress who are left drinking polluted drinking water or battling lung cancer, heart disease, and birth defects. Much like the coal executives who profit from exhausting and polluting the natural resources of these communities, the GOP will move on to the next target and look for the next way to let business off the hook, to let them externalize their costs to the environment, to local communities, and, ultimately, to the U.S. taxpayers who have to clean up the mess.…”