Political Quotes

“I thank the chairman for being such a strong leader and getting us to where we are today. Mr. Speaker, I am proud to stand here in support of this very important piece of bipartisan legislation, which I am leading with my good friend and colleague, Representative Fred Upton. This is a meaningful bill that is the product of good bipartisan work by the Energy and Commerce Committee. It passed the House with strong bipartisan support in the last Congress, and it is an example that bipartisanship does exist on Capitol Hill. This bill embodies it, and today's vote will once again validate that. PFAS chemicals are an urgent threat to public health. This class of manmade chemicals is extremely persistent in the environment and has long been linked with adverse health effects, including cancer. These chemicals were birthed out of the Manhattan Project, and, now, nearly every American, almost every American, has PFAS coursing through their blood after generations of use of these drugs in our modern society. The EPA has understood the risks posed by PFAS since 1998. The Defense Department has understood the risks since the 1970s. The FDA has understood the risks since the 1960s. And industry has known about the dangers for decades. But we still do not have a strong Federal policy to combat these forever chemicals, which are a crisis. We have yet to set a national drinking water standard for PFAS that our water utilities need to meet.…”