Commerce, Justice, Science, and Related Agencies Appropriations Act, 2020

Floor Speech

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Ms. McCOLLUM. Mr. Chair, I rise in opposition to the amendment.

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Ms. McCOLLUM. Mr. Chair, this amendment, once again, indiscriminately cuts programs in this bill without any thought to the relative merit of the programs contained in the bill.

To just reiterate again, fewer patients would be seen at Indian Health Services, fewer safety inspectors would be ensuring that we don't have oil and gas accidents on public lands or the other areas which they oversee, deferred maintenance on our Nation's drinking water--we don't want another Flint--deferred maintenance on sanitation infrastructure.

One of the things that Members came up and asked me for, by and large, to make sure that we took a hard look to see what we could do to make sure that we protected our Nation's drinking water, and we moved on what we could do with our sanitation infrastructure.

The National Estuary Program by the President was zeroed out; the USGS science was cut; school construction for Native American children, the future of their communities, the future of our shared Nation, zeroed out; the arts, the humanities, zeroed out; and the EPA cut by 31 percent, the agency that is in charge of making sure we have clean air and clean water.

More generally, investments in our environmental infrastructure and our public lands would be halted and the associated jobs would be lost.

This legislation in front of us today that we are talking about creates lots of good jobs, lots of good-paying construction jobs that are important to the health of our communities.

This amendment would not encourage agencies to do more with less. They would simply force the agencies and our constituents to do less with less, and they have been doing that for too long.

Mr. Chair, I urge Members to oppose this amendment, and I reserve the balance of my time.

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Ms. McCOLLUM. Mr. Chair, I yield 1\1/2\ minutes to the gentleman from Ohio (Mr. Joyce), the ranking member of the subcommittee.

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Ms. McCOLLUM. Mr. Chair, may I inquire as to how much time is remaining?

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Ms. McCOLLUM. Mr. Chair, am I correct that the author of the amendment has yielded back his time?

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Ms. McCOLLUM. Mr. Chair, first, I would just like to address some of the comments that the gentleman made.

I have the honor and privilege of serving on the Appropriations Defense Subcommittee as vice chair with Chairman Visclosky, and I take great pride in the bipartisan work, the nonpartisan work that we do to make sure that our military is strong and our intelligence agencies have the tools they need to keep America safe.

Mr. Chair, I just wanted to add that for the record, because there was, I think, some confusion as to where I and my colleagues on the Appropriations Committee on both sides of the aisle, when it came to defense, what our positions were. Our positions are making sure our servicemen and -women have what they need to fulfill their mission and come home safely.

But going back to the comments about this amendment, we need to stand together. We need to stand together to oppose this amendment, because it will harm the American people.

There will be less clean water to drink, our air will be not as well protected, people will go without healthcare, and our communities will suffer.

Mr. Chair, I oppose this amendment and I encourage my colleagues to join me in opposing it.

Mr. Chair, I yield back the balance of my time.

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Ms. McCOLLUM. Mr. Chair, I claim the time in opposition to this amendment.

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Ms. McCOLLUM. Mr. Chair, I would like to clear up a little bit of information.

There was a time a short while ago where the National Academy of Sciences asked the EPA, under the IRIS program, to tighten up their process. It needed fixing. It needed adjusting.

The Agency reacted. They got an A-plus rating from the scientists now. So the fine-tuning that was unnecessary to make this good program even greater happened.

But what this amendment would do is it would prohibit the EPA from funding the Integrated Risk Information System. Now, the Integrated Risk Information System, or IRIS, is an electronic base containing information on human health effects that may result from exposure to various chemicals in the environment.

This was developed by the EPA's staff with consistent information to uniform risk assessments and regulatory decisionmaking with respect to health effects from exposures to chemicals found in the environment.

There is a chemical right now that has captured the attention of people all across the United States, in fact, across the world, and it is PFOS.

We need now, more than ever, to be laser focused, working with IRIS to do everything we can to get the data and the information so we know the health effects from being exposed to these chemicals for both military and civilian people all across the United States. It is a very serious problem, and IRIS' program review process is widely considered to be a gold standard when it comes to accessing chemical toxicity.

Now, it is based on extensive scientific literature; it is peer- reviewed; and IRIS' toxicity assessments are relied upon by programs at the EPA and across the Federal Government, by States, and it is because of the high quality of the assessments.

Because these assessments assess risk across a variety of exposure paths, assessments can inform regulatory decisionmaking across all media offices in the EPA. So they can look at it holistically and be making very informed decisions.

It is no surprise, Mr. Chair, that the chemical industry has long sought to undermine the IRIS program. From their point of view, the less the public knows about the risk from toxic chemicals, the more money the chemical industry can make. We ought to be looking out for the safety and welfare of the American people, not the bottom line polluters who profit from pollution.

Mr. Chair, I yield back the balance of my time.

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Ms. McCOLLUM. Mr. Chair, I rise in support of this amendment, and I thank the gentlewoman from California for bringing it forward.

This bill provides substantial funding to prevent and suppress wildfires. For the first time, this bill includes $2.25 billion in cap adjusted fire suppression funding, for a total of $5.2 billion for wildland fire management.

Forest Service research and development is increased by $10 million to advance the understanding of wildland fires and climate adaptation.

While the administration proposed to eliminate the Joint Fire Science Program, this bill includes funding at the fiscal year 2019 enacted level of $6 million.

Hazardous fuels is $27 million more.

I would like to take this opportunity to remind my colleagues that we only have the fire cap adjusted funds for 2 years. We must ensure that any budget agreement includes the fire cap adjusted funds in future budget years. These critical funds will allow the Forest Service to fight wildland fires without borrowing from nonfire programs.

Mr. Chair, I appreciate the gentlewoman's efforts to reduce the risk of catastrophic wildfires, and I support this amendment.

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Ms. McCOLLUM. Mr. Chair, I rise in support of the amendment from the gentlewoman from Washington to block the Trump administration from trying to weaken Mercury and Air Toxics Standards for power plants.

Power plants across the country, as has been pointed out, have already complied with the rule. In fact, they have been doing it since 2012, and it has given huge health benefits.

The power sector opposes what the Trump EPA is trying to do, unions oppose what the Trump EPA is trying to do, and so do States and public health communities.

Mr. Chairman, I thank the gentlewoman for bringing this amendment forward, and I urge my colleagues to support this commonsense amendment.

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Ms. McCOLLUM. 5 offered by the gentlewoman from Minnesota (Ms. McCollum) be withdrawn to the end that the question be put de novo.

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Ms. McCOLLUM. Mr. Chair, I move to strike the last word.

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Ms. McCOLLUM. Mr. Chair, I rise along with Mr. Joyce to thank our staff on both sides of the aisle and also our personal offices for all of the work they have done.

I yield back the balance of my time.

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Ms. McCOLLUM. Mr. Chairman, I move that the Committee do now rise.

The motion was agreed to.

Accordingly, the Committee rose; and the Speaker pro tempore (Ms. McCollum) having assumed the chair, Mr. Himes, Acting Chair of the Committee of the Whole House on the state of the Union, reported that that Committee, having had under consideration the bill (H.R. 3055) making appropriations for the Departments of Commerce and Justice, Science, and Related Agencies for the fiscal year ending September 30, 2020, and for other purposes, had come to no resolution thereon.

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