Thank you, Mr. Chairman, and I thank the Ranking Member as well.

I appreciate your digital empowerment agenda.

Prepared statement.

I would like to just make a comment that I think is important, too, in this area, is we've heard a lot about the states having different regulatory issues, not just in broadband, but in transportation and everything.

The screening that occurs in those small airports can be exceedingly important when we saw what happened.

Thank you to our State's junior Senator, Shelley Moore Capito, for her assistance in improving West Virginia's rural water infrastructure.

I think the intention of WIFIA is to use those as a jumping point; not intending to decrease their value or decrease their amounts but to use them as a leverage point.

We need a functioning Environmental Protection Agency, and Americans deserve the change at the EPA that they voted for this fall.

Disagreement with a nominee's position cannot justify a decision to boycott a scheduled Committee vote.

80 percent of life is showing up. They are living on 20 percent of life right now.

I voted to expand that reach of EPA to make sure that I have clean water and that if a spill happens in a community around this country, what has happened in Flint, Michigan, doesn't have the far reaching implications that it does.