Jim Inhofe

I save one of the best for last, and that is Alex Herrgott. I neglected to mention him.

I will not use 7\1/2\ minutes, but I will be using that after the vote. I do want to include one more person who has not been thanked, and that is Senator McCain. Right now we are in the middle of the must-pass bill every year, the Defense…

Thank you very much for that explanation, Senator Vitter. Mercury-Specific Provisions in the bill

I appreciate your clarification on the intent of an important aspect of preemption under this act and also wanted to follow up with a question on judicial review. Specifically, what changes to TSCA's judicial review provisions have been…

Thank you, Senator Vitter. That response raised an interesting follow up question I would like to ask. If EPA's final Section 6(a) risk management rule includes a restriction or prohibition on some of the conditions of use identified in…

Senator Vitter and I rise today to discuss a few provisions in the bill with the desire of clarifying what the Congressional intent was behind specific provisions of the legislation. Senator Vitter, I would like to start with a question to…

I ask that the Chair lay before the Senate the message to accompany H.R. 2576. The Presiding Officer laid before the Senate the following message from the House of Representatives: Resolved, That the House agree to the amendment of the…

A year ago, when we were considering this same bill, the language of the bill that was presented to us had a pilot program that would temporarily look at privatizing five commissaries. We elected not to do that. We had an amendment at that…

They say that the WOTUS, those regulations scare them the most because you don't know.

I suffered through being mayor of the city of Tulsa through over-regulations and unfunded mandates.

We are part of the partnership, and all we are asking is for that partnership to be brought back together.

I would invite her to Erwin, Tennessee, the tiny town that was home to CSX Rail, which just late last year had to shut down its operations because of what we call the war on coal, and 300 jobs were lost overnight.

The worst is nothing that is found in the ag bill, it is the overregulation by the EPA.

EPA's regulatory process has a pattern where the Agency evades the requirements in laws that are meant to serve as a check on EPA's regulatory overreach.

I think my fears are there are rural tribes out there that don't have the economic development.

At that time, unfunded Federal mandates on Tulsa... forced me to pursue a 1 cent sales tax for capital improvements.

I was an original cosponsor of the Unfunded Mandates Reform Act (UMRA), enacted in 1995.

I think the idea is good.

Frank and I used to talk about that. I have 20 kids and grandkids. We used to compete with each other in exchanging pictures, one of the many things that we had in common. I look forward to visiting. I look forward to making this a major…

I appreciate that--and personalities also. We had the far left and the far right. Everybody realized that this is something we all can agree on. Do I understand from the Senator that Bonnie Lautenberg is here today?

He was really quite outspoken. He had contended for a long period of time that of all the problems that farmers and ranchers in the State of Oklahoma, and he contended outside also, was nothing that is really found in the agriculture bill…

This hearing validates those concerns with concrete examples of how the Corps and EPA are already implementing the expanded Federal control.

Last, Mr. Schiff, you referred to this, so I direct this to either Ms. Gallaway or Mr. Parrish or Ms. Wilkinson, that the WOTUS rule has been stayed by the Second Circuit Court of Appeals.

Well, you know, one of the things that they say, I am not sure how formal this is, but I have heard the Corps and the EPA claim jurisdiction if a farmer wants to change just from grazing to growing hay, or from rice farming or to walnuts…

I have heard concerns that the Corps and EPA are continuing to expand Federal control over land and water without any change in the statute or regulations.