Bill Johnson

Like my colleagues, I, too, am saddened and outraged by the terrorist attack in Benghazi that claimed the lives of our four American citizens, including U.S. Ambassador Stevens.

This Committee has an oversight responsibility to the American people to ensure that tax dollars administered by the VA are going to legitimate, qualified, veteran owned businesses.

Thank you for yielding.

But shouldn't the regulation be based on the law, Mr. Leney?

Thank you, Ranking Member Donnelly.

You will get a chance to come back, Mr. Leney, because it is a violation of the law.

So why are you waiting for the Secretary to tell you to do something that the law clearly requires?

The recommendations made by the GAO and the VA's inspector general go unheeded.

I can assure you veteran business owners are losing patience.

Not only does this Administration have a war on coal, but you have a war on the very idea of American exceptionalism

You are making the case that we are here trying to make to the American people and the people of eastern and southeastern Ohio and West Virginia and other places across this country that are dependent upon coal.

If the price of electricity continues to go up, that will be the course there.

You are talking about people that are already struggling day to day, unemployment in many places, some double digits, and yet they are going to have to pay higher utility rates to power their homes.

It is a really big impact.

We need that. We need that basic undergirding of the economy or else Ohio is going to be in desperate straits.

The Administration has begun an all-out attack on the very energy sources to fuel any kind of resurgence in manufacturing.

I want to acknowledge Congressman Johnson because I know he has worked very hard on this.

I want to thank you and your colleagues, Chairman Jordan, for conducting this much needed oversight of the Obama Administration.

We have seen the EPA slow-wall permitting for coal mines, and in one egregious case they even retroactively vetoed a permit that had been approved by the Army Corps of Engineers.

The fight has been a 2-front war, one on the production side of coal and one on the market side of the coal industry.

Since taking office, this President and his Administration has led an all-out fight against the coal industry.

The President and his political advisors know that if they go forward with this rule, they will destroy tens of thousands of jobs in States that are critical for him to be re-elected.

The American taxpayers deserve better, and I hope that today, though I am not optimistic based on what I have seen thus far, would begin to shed some light for the American people on this job-killing plan.

I am after the truth. Because this boils down to one thing and one thing only for my district and many Americans throughout America where coal mining is such an important industry, and that is jobs.

If this policy resulted in the layoffs of over 500 people at Maple Creek, why would you expect it to turn out any differently if replicated on a nationwide scale?