Political Quotes

“Mr. President, if I sound a little hoarse, it is because my allergies are acting up, but I feel just fine. Let me start out by thanking Senator Cantwell. Her leadership on the Energy and Natural Resources Committee is pretty incredible. For this Congress, I think this is the very first CRA that has been turned down. We have been voting on many of them since the Congress came back in session in January. This is the very first victory we have had on denying the CRA. When we talk about what a CRA does, it is a very blunt instrument that has only been used once until this Congress, and what it does is just blow out an entire area of the law. So if you talk about this BLM methane rule and you have a part of the law that says the government shall try to prevent waste, well, if you blow that provision of the law out, the agency can do nothing until we get to the point that the Congress acts again, and sometimes we move very slowly. So I really appreciate the leadership of Senator Cantwell, and I want to thank her so much and all of the members of her committee, in particular, Senator Heinrich. Senator Heinrich serves on that committee and has been very outspoken on this rule, and I believe his leadership has always been acknowledged by Senator Cantwell as well. This issue that we are debating and that we had this good vote on is about three things. First of all, it is about the waste of a natural resource that the public and the Tribes own.…”