Peter DeFazio

Are we meeting here today to amplify the efforts of Senator Cruz, Senator Lee and Sarah Palin last Sunday on the networks?

This hearing is a sideshow, it's political theater.

The Republican-caused government shutdown is irresponsible, causing credible economic hardships to the public servants you have put out of work.

Instead of trying to prevent economic hardship, potential financial catastrophe, we're having a hearing that is at best nonsensical.

Our Nation is already threatened with a credit downgrade, close to the point of default, because the Republicans have linked their shutdown now to the debt limit.

The Republican majority closed down the Federal Government in a vain attempt to repeal or delay the Affordable Care Act; Obamacare, as they call it.

H.R. 3189, legislation introduced by Rep. Tipton, touches at the heart of these issues.

My legislation reauthorizes the 1991 Reclamation States Emergency Act for an additional 5 years until 2018.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Mr. Chairman, thanks for the hearing today on 3176. I appreciated being put on the agenda.

I urge my colleagues to ask the Speaker to bring the Senate CR to the floor for a vote so we can bring an end to this Republican shutdown so that agencies like the EPA can get back to work and provide certainty to the many people who…

And you think that this could have an impact on water quality?

Isn't it true that there would be hundreds of thousands of tons of toxic tailings or potentially leachate tailings, that would have to be sequestered forever, in order not to impact water quality?

You know, it's been said that this is this national war, this Federal agency coming in to a place where it is not wanted.

The EPA is right to be doing their watershed assessment, they're right to be taking a close look at mining impacts, and they're right to be holding miners accountable.

If EPA determines that there is no way to put a mine in this region without unacceptable water quality and fishery impacts, then that is not the right place for a mine.

Bristol Bay deserves a particularly hard look. It is an important economic driver for both the State of Alaska and the entire Pacific Northwest.

Their shutdown is making this fantasy a reality, grinding the entire Federal leasing and permitting system to a halt.

The longer this goes on, the more severe the impacts will be.

The real war on mining and jobs is currently being waged by the House Republican Majority through their misguided shutdown of the entire Federal Government.

I heard some incredible hyperbole, no offense, Mr. Chairman, during the opening remarks.

We are taking testimony on an issue and an area upon which this committee has no jurisdiction...

It is my belief that the Bristol Bay watershed is too important, and too fragile, to allow a massive open-pit mine...

The Bristol Bay salmon fishery contributes $1.5 billion in economic value, and provides half of all the sockeye salmon in the world.

It is hard to argue with a straight face that somehow the EPA or this administration is carrying out a, quote, regulatory assault on mining.

If the EPA were here, they'd be able to directly refute the dual implications of this hearing: that they are somehow opposed to mining jobs, and that mining jobs are disappearing.