John Shimkus

I would also like to acknowledge that, in finalizing the rule, the Agency faced a genuine dilemma, create an enforceable permit program for coal ash under subtitle C and designate coal ash as a hazardous waste or promulgate…

We welcome each of our witnesses and appreciate your willingness to be here today to talk about the final coal ash rule released by EPA in December.

I would like to commend EPA for getting the final rule out in time to meet the court-ordered deadline.

I would also thank Mr. McKinley, who has been a driving force behind moving this legislation and for his continued leadership on this issue.

I just wanted to just in the big point just give some credit about how even Chairman Walden is bringing some of us kicking and screaming along with him on this policy.

I think we can move forward and set some certainty.

Businesses always talks about certainty.

I am a paid prioritization guy. So that is where I come from in this debate.

In fact, Senator Lieberman, I was here in 1997 when we attempted to balance the budget, and the SGR arrived.

We have to have an impartial, you know, observer based upon health and safety effects to the consuming public.

So water is undervalued to the point where somebody would pay $2.50 for a cup of Starbucks coffee, but they might squawk at paying the same amount of money for a 1,000 gallons of safe drinking water delivered right to their tap.

And I think one of the aspects will be immeasurable. How do you measure the success of the new techniques, and new farm activities, and get credit for the great work that is being done in that area?

And it is to no one's surprise that I am from one of the largest agricultural districts in the Nation, and I know that good stewardship is important to them, filter strips, and now with incoming technology, the ability to really--I think a…

I believe to fully protect our citizens' public drinking water from cyanotoxins, it is imperative that Federal, State, and local governments work together.

Some folks may be tempted to think there are easy solutions to this problem, but I caution jumping to simple or sweeping conclusions.

I caution jumping to simple or sweeping conclusions. There is no single smoking gun that leads to algae based toxins in drinking water.

I thank Representative Latta for his efforts on this issue, for bringing it to the subcommittee's attention.

I thank my colleague. It is great that you took the time out to come. A lot of our colleagues want to come down but are caught up with time issues. General Leave

I appreciate my colleague from Ohio mentioning Lane Evans. The point of this time is to recognize two of our colleagues who have have passed. We want to remember them. I appreciate Marcy for those kind words about Lane Evans. I am going to…

If we go down the route of trying to beat up corporate America in this process, we are not going to be friends.

The business model to whether it is going to be in diagnostics or testing is the same business decisions that we make in our home. It is simply about risk and reward.

I want to applaud my friend, Bobby Rush, from the State of Illinois for helping us look at how we can get people more--more people back to work.

Primarily the statement that, even in the great recession, in my district, we were building a coal-fired power plant and we are expanding a major refinery.

Happy Liberty Day. I just wanted to let you know I was--left the room. I got accosted by a bunch of--we used to call them broaching snatchers, little kids who then came to ask me a question about the Constitution.

Using a regulatory agency to enforce rules and regulations not passed by the Congress of the United States... is really part of this national debate.