Department of the Interior, Environment, and Related Agencies Appropriations Act, 2018

Floor Speech

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Mr. Chairman, I strongly oppose this amendment.

This amendment discriminately cuts programs in this bill without any thought to the merit of what is contained in this bill.

For example, in Indian Health Service, it really means fewer patients being seen. It means fewer safety inspectors ensuring accidents don't occur. Deferred maintenance in our drinking water, sanitation, and
infrastructure. We will lose investments in environmental infrastructure, and, with that, jobs will be lost.

But the EPA, as has been pointed out quite a bit tonight for cuts and for shifting funding around within this bill, is $2.2 billion less than 2010: 2,000 fewer employees. So employees are being pulled out of my region and your region and all over to respond down in Harvey, meaning work isn't being done. And I bet they are going to get the call to leave their families and go look at sewer systems that have broken apart, and water systems that don't have the ability for safe drinking water. This is an agency that was funded and cut again in this bill,
and they have real jobs to do.

So when you discriminately cut across, you are also cutting across those programs that we are relying right now for the EPA to do in Harvey.

And then the Forest Service just notified us that they are out of money for fire suppression. So we are going to cut the Forest Service across 1 percent?

There might be places where you and I could agree, Mr. Chairman, where we could be doing some cuts, and I could work with my colleagues on it. But across the board, this year, in this bill, is something I can't support.

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