John W. Olver: “Mr. Chairman, I am somewhat taken aback by the distinguished chairman's belittling of the importance or impact of the…”

“Mr. Chairman, I am somewhat taken aback by the distinguished chairman's belittling of the importance or impact of the report language here. I have to think that if he really believed that, that that language was so weak, that he ought to be supporting this amendment and we could have saved a great deal of time this evening and he could have sent a letter or two letters or a series of letters to EPA on this point with at least equal effect. In fact, he does not believe that. He knows that this is more important language, and that is why we are having this debate. But I think what we have got, then, is something that I will characterize as ghost riders. The appropriations process that we have before us is haunted by these ghost riders. We passed the bill last night and voted on several of them today, and it attempts to remove several of these ghost riders from that bill and those were unsuccessful. Here we have a series of these antienvironmental ghost riders on today's bill that threaten the public's health and safety. This is a simple strategy that every American can read. The strategy is to tie the hands of the EPA and prevent them from performing the duties that they were statutorily charged with carrying out. The American people sent us here to serve them. The people who sent us here both expect and deserve more. Now we have rivers that are not safe to swim in.”