Political Quotes

“Mr. Chair, today, the House will pass yet another bill that weakens important environmental laws. I will vote against this legislation--H.R. 2641--which if enacted would gut the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA). The NEPA process requires federal agencies to go through a public assessment of the environmental impacts of certain proposed federal actions. As part of this, it mandates the consideration of alternatives to those actions. The process can identify alternatives that are often less costly with fewer impacts to the environment. H.R. 2641 undermines this important process, by placing restrictions on alternatives that can be considered, and allowing parties with vested interests in projects to prepare environmental review documents, creating potential conflicts of interest. It could also force agencies to approve projects if review and analysis cannot be completed before arbitrary deadlines. The claimed goal of this bill is to help projects--including infrastructure projects--to move forward more quickly. The NEPA process, however, is not the reason for project delays. The reason is a lack of investment from the federal government. At the Army Corps of Engineers, there is a $60 billion backlog of authorized water resources projects that were successfully approved under NEPA, but have not been built due to lack of funding.…”