Paul Tonko

This week, one of the largest employers in my district, General Electric, announced it would be cutting hundreds of jobs nationwide due to Congress'--due to the leadership in this House-- inability to renew the Export-Import Bank. This…

Pope Francis will address this body in a joint session this month, and I join my colleagues on both sides of the aisle when I say I am eager to receive the Holy Father's message of peace as a reminder of where our priorities should be in…

This agreement is the best option available to prevent Iran from acquiring a nuclear weapon. The alternatives are simply too risky and too costly, which is why the deal's opponents have failed to articulate a realistic alternative. During…

The good news is that sites are being cleaned up. When sites are cleaned up, the surrounding community benefits from a cleaner, healthier environment, and returning abandoned, contaminated land to productive use improves the local economy.

Last Congress, this committee considered legislation to change the treatment of Federal facility cleanups under Superfund.

The Federal Government is subject to the Superfund law, and the government spends billions of dollars annually to clean up hazardous contamination at Federal facilities.

Congress enacted the Comprehensive Environmental Response Compensation and Liability Act, commonly known as Superfund, some 35 years ago, but communities across the country are still dealing with the legacy of toxic waste.

Thank you, and good morning. I thank Chair Shimkus and Chair Whitfield for holding this hearing.

Access to affordable, quality health care is a fundamental value, and Medicare and Medicaid have helped millions of Americans live with economic security and dignity for 50 years. President Lyndon Johnson signed Medicare and Medicaid into…

Once again, the House is considering a bill to set standards for coal ash disposal. Unfortunately, H.R. 1734 does not contain standards that will prevent the problems from poor disposal practices that have plagued communities across the…

I demand a recorded vote. A recorded vote was ordered. The SPEAKER pro tempore. This is a 5-minute vote. The vote was taken by electronic device, and there were--ayes 245, noes 176, not voting 12, as follows: [Roll No. 447] AYES--245…

Well, I just say, let's move forward with investment. It happens when we have a laser sharp focus on just where to apply our resources to capital, physical, and human infrastructure, so as to be the strongest competitor out there in a…

Thank you, Representative Garamendi. It is always a pleasure to join you on the House floor to speak to any issue, but in this case, to Make It In America. I am certain through the hour you have talked about the capital and physical…

We are closing in on yet another deadline and yet another needlessly manufactured crisis at the end of this month: the reauthorization of the highway trust fund. Two months ago this body passed a short-term extension of the highway trust…

If now we are incurring these costs only to export the oil, support for expanded domestic production will be even less popular than it is already in non-oil producing areas of the country.

Even though many in Congress still refuse to admit that climate change is a very real problem, the administration has been leading action on what has become one of the most important issues of our generation. This week the White House…

I would like to see us become less dependent on oil, imported or domestic, but that has not yet been achieved.

Thank you for your leadership and your obvious grasp of the issues is a tremendous benefit to EPA.

This bill represents a misguided attempt to hold back change and progress. Climate change is a problem. We must deal with it. The clean power plan is an important step in that direction. It is very disappointing to hear such a ``can't do''…

I thank the gentleman from New Jersey and our ranking member on the Energy and Commerce Committee, Representative Pallone, for yielding. Mr. Speaker, 40 years ago, Congress passed the Toxic Substances Control Act, which created a Federal…

Last week Pope Francis echoed the chorus of 97 percent of climate scientists whose findings prove that climate change is real and is manmade, and climate change has the potential to destroy the only planet that we have. Let me say that…

I thank the gentleman. I urge my colleagues to end the ineffective chemical policy that we have had for four decades and to support H.R. 2576. I, too, would like to thank some individuals who are very pertinent to this discussion and final…

That chart is very powerful. The trillions--with a T--will really balloon our budget, and really it is undoable. It gets to a level where it will exhaust, it will overwhelm other areas of investment that are required. But translate that…

Thank you, Representative Garamendi, for bringing us together in this very Special Order as we discuss the impact of Alzheimer's upon the quality of life not only of the individual living with the disease, but on family members and loved…

Absolutely. Representative Garamendi, it only takes one visit, but there have been many visits that I have made to the centers, the day care center operations that are conducted for individuals and families who are living with Alzheimer's…