Jim Inhofe

I am proud to see the work that NOAA has done, but the United States is not the only country on the Gulf Coast.

But we did just a lot of overregulation in every area, and we were successful, and this President came along and doing away with some of these regulations.

The committee meets today to receive testimony on the posture of the U.S. Air Force and its fiscal year 2019 budget request.

Today, we have an Administration that will support the necessary funding to rebuild our military.

Under sequestration, Defense accounted for 50 percent of the cuts, but only 16 percent of spending.

But when you have senator Inhofe saying there are things that need to be looked at.

A lot of serious allegations against him that I would want to check out and I'm doing it.

Let me wholeheartedly agree with the Senator from Oklahoma on Mike Pompeo, as well as the comments he has made about Jim Bridenstine.

Let me, first of all, join my friend from Illinois in this tribute he is making to Tammy and the baby. I do have to correct him on one thing, however. He talked about diaper bags. They don't use diaper bags anymore. They are disposable…

As a general rule, Democrats think things are done better when they are regulated from the Federal Government, and we live with this every day. I am of the opposite view.

I would say to Ms. Mettler, can you explain why it is best that States are in the best position to manage groundwater than the Federal Government?

Wouldn't the Federal regulation be duplicative? And it seems the costs would be higher while there would be little environmental benefit.

I think it is a dramatic difference in our agricultural world.

But then when I look at what is happening now, I would have to say how would this Federal groundwater expansion impact the progress being made to repeal and replace the 2015 WOTUS rule?

Right now we are in much better shape in this country with the regulations that we are dropping down that have caused us to really be suffering here.

I do have three questions I want to make sure we get on the record, so I am going to talk fast, all right?

Now it is 25 years later and nothing has happened. But, nonetheless, it is still just as important as it was.

And 25 years ago, we made a decision that 50/50 was arbitrary and we were going to figure out some way to be more sophisticated.

You know, General Levy, I can remember back 25 years ago when we were talking about the organic capabilities that we had to have and the reason for it.

But every time we have agreed it has been very successful.

I would be interested, for the record, in any of the rest of you who have ideas.

I would like to have you elaborate on your feelings how successful this could be.

It just chills the investment environment. It is just that simple.

The FAST Act is a good example. We did the FAST Act primarily because of that permitting reform.

We will have to continue to use fossil fuels as a major part of our energy supply in a way that satisfies everyone.