Tom Rice: “I yield myself such time as I may consume. Mr. Chairman, so many things we do here in Washington are nonsensical. Our…”

“I yield myself such time as I may consume. Mr. Chairman, so many things we do here in Washington are nonsensical. Our tax system is not competitive; our immigration system is not competitive; our regulatory system is not competitive, and our infrastructure is deteriorating. Our ports are certainly a very, very critical part of our infrastructure. When we have a situation where it takes 15-plus years to get environmental permitting done for the Port Everglades, when we are on the fourth year of studying the Charleston port--one of the most efficient ports on the East Coast--and when it has been 10 years since we have had dredging funds for the small Port of Georgetown in my district, our infrastructure continues to deteriorate; the country becomes less competitive, and thousands more American jobs are lost. With limited funds, it is increasingly difficult for small harbors to compete with larger projects. Given this competition for scarce funds, very few small projects make the President's budget and receive funding. What my amendment proposes to do, Mr. Chairman, is to remove $4.5 million from the Army Corps' regulatory budget, which the regulatory division of the Army Corps of Engineers continues to grow and promulgate more regulations that make our country even less competitive, such as the expansion of the Clean Water Act that are currently proposed.…”