Political Quotes

“I thank my very good friend from New Jersey for yielding to me, and I thank my very good friend from Arizona. Mr. Chairman, I do rise in opposition to this so-called Preventing Government Waste and Protecting Coal Mining Jobs in America bill. I know that is what this bill's sponsors have tried to suggest, but the fact is that this promotes destructive mountaintop mining removal and it doesn't protect jobs. The goal of this bill is to require all States to incorporate a now vacated 2008 rule that was issued in the very last days of the Bush administration and was then struck down by a U.S. Federal court. It was an eleventh-hour regulation that was designed to repeal Reagan-era protections for streams and waterways from the impacts of mountaintop mining by providing a buffer zone for waste disposal. Its vague and permissive language sets an alarmingly low bar when it comes to protecting communities and wildlife habitats near mountaintop mining operations. The reality is that this midnight rulemaking of the Bush administration would only hasten further environmental destruction and increase the volume of toxic chemicals entering our water supply. This bill before the House represents a transparent attempt to resurrect an already rejected rule by forcibly enacting it across this country, thereby putting communities nearby coal mining plants at risk while undoing necessary protections from pollutants. But in addition to resurrecting this stream buffer zone rule, H.R.…”