Political Quotes

“Mr. Chairman, I rise in opposition to the amendment. This amendment denies the benefit of the bill's permit streamlining provisions to any and all projects that could be terrorist targets or involve chemical facilities or other critical infrastructure. That includes projects that would help to protect those infrastructures and facilities from terrorist attacks or other adversities. Why would we want to delay permitting decisions on projects that would help to protect us? The bill, moreover, already provides up to 4\1/2\ years for agencies to complete their environmental reviews for new permit applications and reasonable additional time for agencies to wrap up final permit approvals or denials after that. As I have said before, if agencies can't wrap up their environmental reviews in that much time and then meet the bill's remaining deadlines, there is something terribly wrong with those agencies. Mr. Chairman, new projects, whether they be infrastructure projects that make a dam stronger or make a highway safer or make a nuclear facility less vulnerable to attack, are all important things to do, and we should do them with expedition, not take longer rather than shorter to get them done, because all the time that we are spinning our wheels with the permitting process that can take 20 years or more, we are more vulnerable during that time. Almost all new infrastructure projects are better than what they are replacing, and that should be our guiding principle.…”