Energy and Water Development and Related Agencies Appropriations Act, 2016

Floor Speech

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Mrs. CAPITO. Mr. President, I am extremely pleased to rise to express my support for the open debate we are going to have on the fiscal year 2017 Energy and Water appropriations bill.

I would certainly like to thank the Senator from California and my colleagues on the Appropriations Committee, and I would like to thank Senator Alexander for his leadership and work on their collaboration. As a person who has only been in the Senate for a year and a half and on the Appropriations Committee for about that amount of time, it has been fun for me to watch seasoned pros as they weave their way through the appropriations process. So I thank them for that. But this is what our constituents sent us here to do: to legislate, to express an opinion, to amend and debate. And I appreciate my colleagues' willingness to do that with this piece of legislation.

This is a fiscally responsible, bipartisan bill which unanimously passed out of the Committee on Appropriations last week.

It is also worth noting--and I have heard it noted already today and will probably hear it many more times--that we are considering appropriations bills on the Senate floor at the earliest point since 1974. I look forward to the bill passing with many priorities that are important to my home State of West Virginia, and I also look forward to passing the other 11 appropriations bills as we move through this process.

We can all agree that governing by continuing resolution is not ideal. The leadership in the Senate, and through the work of the Appropriations Committee, of which I am a proud member, has put us on a path to passing bills that will fund our government in a reasoned manner, in a transparent manner, and in a manner which is an open, deliberative, fair, and responsible process. Today marks an important step forward--one of many to come, I hope.

The bill before us has enormous importance to every State and particularly my State of West Virginia. It includes resources that ensure safe and stable infrastructure, promotes and stimulates research in the fossil fuel industry, and provides resources for rural areas most negatively impacted by the economic downturn and continued assault against coal-producing areas in Appalachia, where I live.

A few weeks ago, I visited the Bluestone Dam in Hinton, WV. It is an engineering marvel. It was built in the late 1940s and completed in the 1950s. But we must maintain and modernize to make sure we have the safest and the most technologically superior dams for the prevention of flooding. The importance of the Bluestone Dam to its surrounding area-- and really all of West Virginia--cannot be overstated. It is protecting the neighboring capital city of Charleston, where I live, from massive and catastrophic flooding.

This bill provides construction funds for the Army Corps of Engineers for projects such as Bluestone, as well as operation and maintenance funds for hundreds of locks and dams across the country, including many in my State besides Bluestone--from Elkins, to Beech Fork Lake, to Tygart Lake. Disappointingly, the President's budget cut funding for the Corps of Engineers. I don't know how you can do that. That irresponsible action is eliminated in this bill. We restore the cut and fund the Army Corps of Engineers by more than $1 billion above the President's request.

A smaller but equally important investment in West Virginia is the Appalachian Regional Commission, known as the ARC. I am pleased the Senate is again proposing to boost funding for the ARC following the increase in last year's omnibus bill. While it might not be familiar to a lot of people, the ARC really spearheads many worthwhile efforts in the Appalachian region, including actions to help communities impacted by the downturn of the coal industry through worker training, economic diversification, and job services.

One way to provide our citizens with greater opportunities is to provide them with broadband access. West Virginia is not wired for broadband like a lot of our other States. We need to meet the acceptable standards set by the FCC. We understand we have mountains and it is difficult, but if we don't do this, if we don't make this change, West Virginia will be left further behind. This is an economic, educational, and health care tool.

The ARC is one of the entities that are helping West Virginia connect to the Internet, and by doing so, it connects the possibilities for commerce, education, health care, and other things that all of us-- particularly these young people in front of me--have come to think of as essential to life as bread and water.

This bill maintains the funding level for fossil fuel energy research and development at $632 million. Sixty-seven percent of the electricity generated in the United States is from fossil fuels--coal, natural gas, and petroleum--and this will not change anytime soon. The Department of Energy's own Energy Information Administration predicts that coal will still make up about one-third of U.S. electricity generation for decades to come.

If the administration itself acknowledges that fossil fuels will be critical to electricity generation, we must ensure that we are using these in the cleanest way possible. Therefore, we must continue to make that investment in research and development for clean coal technologies, which is a large component of this funding. This funding is $272 million above the President's request. The President's proposed cut and those proposed by some of my colleagues--and as we move through the markup we anticipate proposed cuts to fossil fuel research--in my view, are shortsighted because they fail to realize the value of the research being done in places like the National Energy Technology Lab in Morgantown, WV, known as NETL.

NETL has reorganized and restructured its budget to be more transparent, so we can understand what is actually going on, where the dollars are being appropriated, and better focus on research and maximize those funds. I applaud these efforts. Frankly, I think we should all applaud them. Their work is very important to each and every one of us.

There are many other provisions in this bill that are very noteworthy, but I wish to close with this: For West Virginia, this legislation provides funding and support that will help us in many ways. I am proud to have supported it in committee and now on the floor. I will be very excited to see my first appropriations bill actually come to the Senate floor. Well, we maybe did do one last year, but this will be the first time Energy and Water has been on the floor. I look forward to this debate by my colleagues.

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