Political Quotes

“Mr. Speaker, I rise today to bring awareness to our Nation's abandoned mine lands. Our abandoned mine lands desperately need to be reclaimed to prevent harm to our communities and to our environment. When these sites are cleaned up and mines reclaimed, it improves the quality of our air, soil, and water. Pennsylvania has more abandoned mine sites than any other State in the country. In fact, my district, Pennsylvania's 15th Congressional District, has more abandoned mine sites than each of the remaining 434 congressional districts combined. This past September, my Democratic colleague from Pennsylvania's Eighth Congressional District, Matt Cartwright, joined me to introduce H.R. 4248, the Abandoned Mine Land Reauthorization Act. The abandoned mine land trust fund is set to expire in September 2021, and this bill will not only reauthorize the fund for the next 15 years but help spur economic growth in coal communities impacted by mine closures. For more than 40 years, this program has properly closed more than 46,000 open mine portals. To continue this momentum, the AML trust fund must be reauthorized. There is still work to be done. This past month, I had the pleasure of visiting the Anderson Creek watershed in Clearfield County. Reed Johnson, a constituent of mine who has owned property in that area for 30 years, has been working tirelessly ever since to clean up the abandoned mine site on that property. Mr.…”