I am glad to be here today to be on the Senate floor to rise to urge my colleagues to confirm Mike Pompeo as our next Secretary of State. The Senate is an institution built on history and tradition. We hear that quite a bit as we walk the…

my concern is that withholding these funds from States like mine, who have no sanctuary cities and have remained compliant with all relevant statutes, runs the risk of disrupting local law enforcement's ability to protect public safety.

Thank you very much for being here with us and we appreciate in West Virginia, Senator Manchin is here, we enjoy our national forest, that is for sure.

The athletes are sort of throw-aways.

It becomes part of the system is what you're saying.

I'm thinking maybe this is an avenue to improve the situation.

I hope that it will become moving forward that you equip the psychologists with that kind of--yes, did you want to say something?

As everything becomes more and more public, I think this is something that is probably going to be more pervasive than what we really know at this point.

Thank you for the hearing and thank all of you. Your stories are very compelling.

Another issue for us in the State is opioid and opioid use. And we have the highest rate of deaths resulted from overdose than any other State in the Union.

I think it comes to another, a bigger, question really probably throughout the Park System is that your communities that are supportive of the Park System, many times are small communities because you are in rural areas, you are in outdoor…

But in order to keep them viable and growing, you have to make sure that we are taking care of communities at the same time.

I appreciate the opportunity to speak today about the nomination of Andrew Wheeler to be the Deputy Administrator of the EPA--an extremely important position. Mr. Wheeler's expertise and experience make him extraordinarily qualified to…

The visits to West Virginia and going underground, I think, does really make you realize what a tough job coalmining is.

I think this is a concern if we are going to move forward.

If West Virginia can pull this off and get it together like we did, then I think your States really need to look to step up.

It was a huge milestone for all of us because we had a bipartisan group of Senators, a diverse coalition of coal and oil industry, environmental groups, and the labor organizations that were supporting us.

I think you all have done a really nice job talking about why CCUS is important for the environment.

I hope we can get another pro-CCUS bill. It is a win-win; it is an energy bill; it is a carbon emission reduction bill; and it will benefit all of us economically.

We have always had a strong working relationship with the EPA, but this Administration has been coming to States for that technical information as opposed to just imposing its will through the Federal implementation plan.

Not every aspect of our environmental policy can or should be dictated from here in Washington.

I would like to ask a simple question of everyone. Senator Whitehouse, in his opening statement, got me thinking about this.

So I would say--you say you regret that decision that you wish you had been more transparent at the time.

And next time you visit if you would please bring some fiber because we do not have connectivity in our rural areas like we really need.

I want to know, could I get a commitment from you today that Facebook will commit to having a representative with Commissioner Gottlieb to finalize with this meeting?