Political Quotes

“The underlying bill I seek to amend has been labeled today as Preventing Government Waste and Protecting Coal Mining Jobs in America. The true label for this bill ought to be the ``No Streams Protection'' bill. Mountaintop removal coal mining is a process that has buried over 2,000 miles of streams throughout Appalachia, contaminating surface and drinking water, and destroying wildlife in Appalachia communities. The practice is currently governed by a rule written by the Reagan administration. The Reagan rule needs to be updated, and this is what the Obama administration wants to set about doing. H.R. 2824 seeks to accomplish two things: to write into statute a stream buffer rule promulgated in December of 2008 by the Bush administration and then to prohibit the Obama administration from working on writing a new stream buffer rule for at least 5 years while precluding the States also from issuing their own more stringent rules. Members ought to be aware that the Federal District Court of the District of Columbia handed down a decision on February 20, just last month, vacating the 2008 rule because the Bush administration refused to consider the impacts of coal mining on threatened or endangered species in writing the rule. As a result, the rule this bill would write into statute no longer exists.…”