Political Quotes

“Madam Speaker, I rise today as a member of the House Sustainable Energy and Environment Coalition to express my strong opposition to provisions in the bill before us today that will vastly limit public input and curtail opportunities to save taxpayers money. The provisions I am speaking about in the WRRDA bill aim to decrease delays and help move projects forward, which sounds great in theory. Who doesn't want to remove bureaucrat red tape? But in reality, what the bill does won't actually fix the problem that holds up so many Army Corps projects. This bill would strictly limit the environmental review process that has proven time and again to save taxpayer dollars. The Assistant Secretary of the Army for Civil Works has even testified about this fact before the United States Senate. The real reason for projects being delayed is simply that the Congress authorizes around $20 billion worth of projects but then only appropriates the funds to cover just $1 billion in projects. So let's not try to place all the blame on the environmental review process, a review process that has time and time again saved taxpayer dollars, preserved historic sites, and protected endangered species, all while producing better projects with more public support. I appreciate the bipartisan work that Chairman Shuster and Ranking Member Rahall have done to put together this bill. This is an important piece of legislation that we consider in this House today.…”