Political Quotes

“Mr. Speaker, I rise in opposition to the Rule for H.R. 2641, the ``Responsible and Professionally Invigorating Development Act of 2013, or as some have termed it, the ``Regrettably Another Partisan Ideological Distraction Act.'' If the RAPID Act were to become law in its present form, a permit or license for project would be ``deemed'' approved if the reviewing agency does not issue the requested permit or license within 90-120 days. Mr. Speaker, I share some of the frustrations expressed by many members of the House Judiciary Committee, which marked up this bill last summer, with the NEPA process. There is something odd about a system in which it can take half a year or more to approve the siting plan for a wind farm but fracking operations regulations can be approved and conducted a few hundred feet from somebody's home with no community oversight process in just a few months. Something is wrong with this picture. But I strongly believe that this bill is a solution in search of a problem. The bill in its current form is an example of a medicine that is worse than a disease. There is a major problem with the section that my amendment addresses, namely automatic approval of projects with the need for positive agency action. I expect to speak on my amendment shortly but suffice it-to-say, this bill goes out of its way to ensure that some projects might be prematurely approved. That's because under H.R.…”