Hank Johnson: “My friend, Chairman Goodlatte, bemoaned the fact that, over the last 64 straight months of job growth under the Obama…”

“My friend, Chairman Goodlatte, bemoaned the fact that, over the last 64 straight months of job growth under the Obama administration, wages have remained stagnant. That is true except for the wages of the top 10 percent, and specifically the top 1 percent, which have gone through the roof despite what he calls overregulation. We continue to have the problem of income disparity that Pope Francis mentioned today. It is unrelated to this issue of regulations which are there to protect people. They, in fact, protect people and they protect our environment. We have had a speaker today come in and talk about a dredging project that was delayed because of NEPA, but, actually, the truth of the matter is that that project was delayed due to lack of funding. Funding for the project was only authorized last year. While the Republicans in Congress sit around and talk about how much the regulatory agencies study and study and study, what we do in Congress is simply ignore the funding needs for infrastructure in this country, which is what that dredging project was all about. I have got a project down in Georgia, the Savannah Harbor Expansion Project, which was estimated to cost $652 million to complete. But prior to the passage of the Water Resources Reform and Development Act last year, the Federal Government had only provided $1.28 million--$1.28 million--less than 1 percent. The Acting CHAIR (Mr. LaMalfa). The time of the gentleman has expired.”