Political Quotes

“Still a member in my heart, of the Transportation Committee, Mr. Rahall. I appreciate your courtesy in permitting me to speak on this. I've been listening to debate on the floor, and I really could not disagree more with the proponents of this legislation. They would seek to overturn a 40-year record of trying to get people to follow the law. Look at the record of what States have done over the course of the last 100 years dealing with water quality. And it isn't that the Federal Government overreached and the States had done too much. We have the Clean Water Act because the States consistently failed to meet their obligations. Today, there are wide variations around America in terms of how zealously individual States take their responsibility and how they balance. There's tremendous pressure for short-term economic gain at the expense of the environment. And in some parts of the country, it doesn't bother them to bulldoze mountaintops into streams. And, in fact, EPA has not been vigilant in dealing with that. It's only been recently that we are starting to have people come to grips with this issue. It is important that EPA has the opportunity to withhold--to have some sanction--when States don't follow through on their plans. This bill would take away the ability of EPA to have sanctions. It's important that we have a third party to be able to do some mediation when there are differences between States.…”