Alan Simpson: “This is really hard, Mr. Chairman, but given our allocation, we had to cut many EPA programs, including programs we…”

“This is really hard, Mr. Chairman, but given our allocation, we had to cut many EPA programs, including programs we support like the clean water and drinking water State revolving funds. In the base bill, we reduced nearly every EPA geographic program below the 2011 enacted level, in addition to providing none of the requested increases. Despite the cuts, restoration of the Great Lakes remains a committee priority as demonstrated by the fact that the Great Lakes program is the largest recipient of funds in the geographic programs. It's the largest geographical area, also, so you would probably expect that. While I appreciate the intent of the gentleman's offset, where he offset this from, we cut EPA's climate budget by $23 million--and it's easy to vote against funding for climate change or the increased funding that we have put into climate change--in the chairman's mark, and, believe it or not, there are some EPA programs we support under the climate change heading, including research and development of new automotive technologies, including the hydraulic hybrid technology for trucks, carbon capture and sequestration, and initiatives to increase methane transmission. The reality is that over a period of time, because ``climate change'' is now kind of the key phrase, that if you want to get money for your basic science, you call it ``climate change.'' Just like after 9/11, if you wanted money for some program, you called it ``homeland security.'' That was the key phrase.…”