Political Quotes

“Mr. Speaker, I yield myself the balance of my time. Much has been said about what Colorado has been able to do as a State on this particular issue, and that's good because Colorado, as a State, has the legal responsibility and legal authorization to work with the EPA on this particular issue. Naturally, industry would be liking that because the States are far more effective in dealing with industry than the BLM ever is, which still does not have statutory authority in this particular area. In fact, even Colorado has its limits. When they were cut out of the process on the stream buffer rule that we talked about earlier, they also joined the lawsuit against the EPA and against the Federal Government for that particular issue. It is simply hypocritical for BLM to pretend that this is about waste when they refuse to actually solve the problem by pipeline approval and rights-of-way approval, which is the total solution. So what we come down to is that simply this is a rule that violates all three of the criteria set forth in the Congressional Review Act. It is a rule that is terribly expensive; it is a rule that is redundant; and it is a rule that exceeds the statutory authority of the entity that is making that particular rule, a prime candidate for use of the Congressional Review Act, which is our responsibility. It's a congressional responsibility to establish these standards, not the executive branch agencies.…”