Patrick Leahy

The budget is abysmal. It does not maintain America's greatness. This is not a budget to make America great. It is a budget to diminish America.

You have recommended severe cuts to our weather and storm warning models.

It eliminates the Economic Development Administration. It eliminates much of NOAA, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, grant funding.

The request for the department cuts nearly $1.5 billion, or 16 percent, from the fiscal year 2017 appropriations level.

You have stated that you think there are too many burdensome EPA regulations and that you are extremely concerned about how much certain environmental regulations might cost some sectors of our economy.

If we vote to add--to continue programs, even if they've been eliminated in the budget you present here, if we pass legislation that continues them, do I have your pledge you will follow what the Congress has done and maintain those…

You propose doing away with all of these, all of this financial support around this country.

Your budgets cuts the money. Your budget cuts out the money. Would that hurt the cleanup? It's a simple question.

As some have said, the intent of the administration to actually dismantle the EPA as a Federal agency over the next 4 years.

Clean air and water, and the monitoring and the science that help achieve that, are the real priorities of the American people.

You are at the heart of this administration's abandonment of our role as the global leader in addressing the adverse impacts of climate change.

As an American, I liked the fact that America was the leader, the world leader, in the environment.

We ought to be doubling down on our investment to protect our environment for the sake of our children and our grandchildren, and curb the effects of climate change.

The EPA is providing critical support for States and regions across the country working to clean up our lakes, our rivers, our estuaries.

They don't accept your false choice, and they reject the idea of turning the EPA into a polluter protection agency.

Regulation is essential for solving problems like that.

You're ignoring compelling scientific evidence. You've separated us from nearly every nation on the planet.

Your budget is not what the American people want and deserve. They deserve better than what this budget puts forward.

The American people know we can have both jobs and clean water, and they don't accept your choice.

The Trump administration in this budget has demonstrated really contempt for the better work that the Environmental Protection Agency does.

We are not looking for a one size fits all, but we want to have the remedies we had in the Violence Against Women Act that we all voted for to be there.

You said you would work with Congress to accomplish that goal.

The EPA budget, as I said before, is really the worst I've seen. I don't think it invests in our future.

This administration is tearing down the legacies of the Clean Air Act and the Clean Water Act.

We have a right to clean air and clean water. We accept that as a right in America.