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

Floor Speech

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Mr. Chairman, I appreciate the consideration of what was two amendments that we just merged into one because they went hand- in-glove.

My amendment restores critical funding to three additional Appalachian States, the same number of States currently funded by the Abandoned Mine Reclamation Fund, for the reclamation of abandoned mine lands in conjunction with economic and community development and reuse goals.

Now, let me explain the program quickly. This was the brainchild of Chairman Rogers a couple of years back, and what the idea was, originally, when they did the Abandoned Mine Land program, you could just restore the land. They came up with the concept in the hard-hit devastated areas of central Appalachia that we should not only allow it to be a restoration of the land, but that that land could be used and looked at as an economic purpose, a reuse the community could use for community development or economic development, and that was important.

Funding for these reclamation grants was first established in fiscal year 2016, but it was originally provided only to the three Appalachian States with the greatest amount of unfunded reclamation needs. Unfortunately, that didn't, of course, reach all the States, and so last year, an additional three States were added, those States being Virginia, Ohio, Alabama, the original three being Pennsylvania, West Virginia, and Kentucky.

This year, as things were working through, Virginia, Ohio, and Alabama were not currently included. My amendment basically makes sure they are included. We have worked with the team on the Appropriations Committee to word it correctly. We think we have got it worded correctly so that we now have the ability to add in all three States.

I think this is important. Folks often say to us: Those of you in coal country, in central Appalachia, need to transition your economy. Well, we can't transition our economy if we have huge blocks of land which we can't use because they are unusable due to prior acts that left them in a condition where we know they need to be reclaimed, but you can't reclaim them looking at economic development.

So this is a way to retool. Chairman Rogers came up with it. We would like to extend it to the other States that would be greatly helped by this, the three that I mentioned previously, Ohio, Alabama, and Virginia, and that is what my amendments do.

I would ask all to support this amendment to help those areas that are economically devastated in central Appalachia and expand on a program which is already showing signs of success. Mr. Chairman, I reserve the balance of my time.

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