"I am proud of what this Committee has accomplished in a bipartisan fashion during my time in Congress and I hope we can continue down that road for the next 2 years."
"The use of rural definitions as basic eligibility criteria has created a separate set of problems."
"I look forward to hearing from both panels on whether or not a new approach is needed."
"I believe that our recommendations, such as the independence of the safety function within the Department of the Interior, are as important as the decisions that Congress made a number of years ago to..."
"We thank Senator Feinstein and Senator Boxer for introducing this legislation."
"With the challenges that Florida has had with psyllid, we are quite anxious to ensure that California does not experience those same problems."
"We are not doing enough. This Administration is not doing enough, in my opinion."
"I appreciate the importance of this hearing today and to have the Secretary of the Interior here."
"It is a constant concern of the devastation of the impacts, economic impacts to the people in my communities of this drought."
"We are going to need all of the flexibility and the attention of the Department of the Interior to help us if, in fact, that occurs."
"Our Subcommittee has tried to look at using all the energy tools in our energy tool box."
"We are talking about using those revenues from oil and gas, both onshore and offshore, over a programmatic period of time to finance that robust renewable portfolio."