Jim Inhofe

That was one of our early successes. Maybe our only success.

Why is it that the Federal Government is the chief opposition to everything I am trying to do?

The poetic justice part of it is I now chair the committee that has jurisdiction over the bureaucracy that tried to put me out of business for 20 years.

This is what the President came up with and made a commitment in Paris that we in the United States would reduce emissions by between 26 and 28 percent by 2025.

Instead of robust review and meaningful input from small businesses prior to issuing a regulation, the Obama-EPA has treated the RFA has a mere 'check-the-box' exercise.

There is a mentality that somehow Government has to intervene to make sure you are taking care of your property and all this.

If we had done a better job of passing the regulations to begin with it wouldn't be necessary for the courts to come in and intervene.

I am very thankful that the courts have gotten involved in some of these.

They don't know how they are going to do it.

Our Nation's best ideas and economic success stories stem from small businesses. Yet it is small businesses that are most vulnerable to Federal regulatory overreach.

It would have devastating effect on the reliability, the reliability, the predictability.

Decades later, we are amidst a regulatory regime under the Obama administration that has grown too big and short-changed this process.

I consider Senator Markey one of my closest personal friends, and I have even back when we were serving in the House together.

I have every conference. I am in the leadership; I have talked to the leadership on our side, Barbara has done the same thing on her side, and I am anticipating that we will be able to do this, get this out of committee, on the floor…

I acknowledge that there are a lot of problems that we have, but there are a lot of solutions just from members of this committee.

The affordability of water and wastewater infrastructure is a critical concern around the country.

I believe that that attitude of, frankly, an arrogant, dictatorial attitude out of the agency is very real for most cities.

We need increased investment. It is very, very clear.

The EPA treats some of the small communities like prosecutors.

Our concern is the fact that it is a policy; it is not the law.

EPA has identified $384 billion in drinking water needs and $271 billion in wastewater needs over the next 20 years based on capital improvement plans developed by local utilities.

I think these are some of the things that we can do in our committee.

As parents in Flint know, there is no safe level of lead in children.

Thank you, Senator Gillibrand.

Would any of the other three commissioners object to this request that I am making?