I want to welcome and thank our witnesses who are joining us or rejoining us today.

the President has proposed an increase in this budget year

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…

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 am pleased to note that EPA chose to regulate coal ash under subtitle D, which will help ensure that coal ash continues to be beneficially reused like this.

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

I just want to assure people that there is no discussion even in the last bill of alleviating or taking the citizen's right to sue out of RCRA, so you could rest comfortably in that.

I would like to thank the administration for all the cooperation we have received to date on this issue.

You are more optimistic than I am. I can guarantee you that.

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.

Yes. And the only enforcement mechanism under the recently reduced rule is through citizen suits and more litigation.

And I think it goes to Mr. McKinley's point.

I think we can move forward and set some certainty.

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

Businesses always talks about certainty.

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

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 also want to say congratulations again to my friend Congressman Pallone for assuming the ranking position. We look forward to working with you. Today is a great day. This pipeline should have been approved 6 years ago, like so many other…

I want to thank my friend. This is a debate that we shouldn't even have to have had since this should have been approved 6 years ago. If you understand how Keystone was supposed to happen, all it took was the President and, really, his…

I thank my colleague. Mr. Speaker, I know there are a lot of Members, so I will be quick, but you have to really come down to the floor to recognize a man who has served honorably for so many years--58 years to be exact. I would like to…

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

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

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

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…

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.