On the recordJuly 9, 2013
I want to commend both gentlemen for offering this amendment, and also Congresswoman Brownley for being down on the floor on the same subject of nondefense cleanup. As I can't speak for the chairman, I think that we share a concern for cleaning up these sites. I think one of the problems with the amendment is the offsets from departmental administration and the office of the administrator. I think you're calling attention to a very important unaddressed issue in our country. From coast to coast, we have these sites that need to be cleaned up. I think the problem with this amendment is where the money is being taken from, from our standpoint, departmental administration. There have been other nicks to that diminishing account as we've gone through the bill today, and I truly have heard the concerns expressed by the gentleman from New York that we are not adequately investing in cleaning up contaminated sites not just in New York, but in California and Ohio and other places around our country. Without question, the chairman was given an inadequate allocation, and the choices he made on levels of funding were for the most part very thoughtful. I think it's fair to say that overall this bill is truly inadequate in meeting the needs of the Nation. We talked about that earlier today. And these accounts are among those that are terribly underfunded. We keep picking off the bones of this spine, and there aren't sufficient funds to go around.…
