Political Quotes

“Mr. Chairman, I yield myself such time as I may consume. Mr. Chairman, I want to thank our fellow legislators from the other side of the aisle for working with us on this legislation. One of the great things about the House of Representatives is we have the opportunity to come and talk on different sides of the issues. We can have different opinions, we can talk about it, disagree, and then try to move forward. Now, some of the speakers today, when we discussed this legislation, H.R. 4775, have described it as irresponsible, as a radical action to gut the Clean Air Act, to fundamentally weaken the Clean Air Act, and to undermine the Clean Air Act. I would say that that absolutely is not our intent. I think all of us living in America understand that we do, in this country, more than any other country in the world, work to ensure clean air for our constituents and our citizens. We don't have to take a backseat to anyone to make that statement. I might say that the criteria of pollutants, the six of them, the emissions have been reduced by a total of 63 percent--making up the National Ambient Air Quality Standards has been reduced by 63 percent, those emissions--since 1980. So we are committed to clean air. But many people do not realize that, today, 24 States, counties in 24 States and the District of Columbia do not even meet the requirement of the 2008 Ambient Air Quality Standards, which is 75 parts per billion.…”