Political Quotes

“I yield 1\1/4\ minutes to the gentleman from Oregon (Mr. DeFazio). Mr. DeFAZIO. Mr. Chairman, I thank the gentleman for yielding me the time. I think there is a little misunderstanding here. This is not about a new agency or giving agencies new regulatory authority or direction. I will use a simple example. We have great prospects for wave energy off the Northwest coast. We had a really great wave period doing research at Oregon State. I have a couple of private companies interested, but there are at least three Federal agencies involved. Simply what this executive order does is require that those agencies coordinate and they don't stovepipe, they don't work in silos. So when the wave developer goes to FERC, FERC will also have in the room NOAA, Marine Fisheries; the Pacific Fisheries Management Council will be involved; the other Federal agencies that have jurisdiction will be involved, and we won't end up going through one process with one agency, getting to the end of that, and then having another agency saying, ``Wait a minute. You didn't talk to us.'' This just happened with the bridge over the Columbia River to Washington State where the Coast Guard came in very late and said, ``Wait a minute. We have height concerns about passage under this bridge.'' Had it been coordinated terrestrially inland in the same way that the President is imposing for agencies to work in the ocean, we will have a better, more comprehensive process that serves all interests.”