Full-Year Continuing Appropriations Act, 2011

Floor Speech

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

The Acting CHAIR. The gentlewoman from Minnesota is recognized for 5 minutes.

Ms. McCOLLUM. I rise today to let the American people and all Minnesotans know that this continuing resolution is an unprecedented assault on our public health and environment.

We know that the Federal budget is in crisis, and we know we must make tough choices; but those choices must be prudent, wise, and invest in our future. It should not put the basic health of Americans at risk. The Republicans' plan before us proposes to cut $3 billion from the EPA's budget, the largest percentage cuts to this critical agency in 30 years.

The bill also proposes radical policy language to keep the EPA from carrying out its historic mission--a mission to protect the health of the American people--by limiting the EPA's ability to enforce the Clean Air Act and Clean Water Act.

The EPA needs to be allowed to do its job, and it needs the resources to do this job. This bill would cause the EPA to lay off 80 percent of its employees who are responsible for protecting public health.

State clean water programs are gutted by $2 billion in the Republican budget. Our local communities are struggling with their own budgets, and these vital funds allow for communities to hire engineers, construction workers, to upgrade water plants and drinking water projects.

It is the EPA's investment in clean water that allows parents to know that if their child walks up to a drinking fountain anywhere in America, they can have the peace of mind that that water is safe for their child to drink. These irresponsible cuts jeopardize that peace of mind.

The EPA does important work, and the work that the EPA does saves lives. I strongly oppose these reckless Republican cuts and radical deregulation proposals that endanger our communities. Congress needs to make difficult choices. Mr. Chair, I believe that these are foolhardy choices to shortchange clean air, clean water, and the health of our families.

On Monday, I received over 1,000 valentines from Minnesotans, and those valentines were dedicated to the EPA. My constituents understand the important work that the EPA has done to protect our water, our land, and their health over the past 40 years. And it's work that they feel must continue. This continuing resolution would turn back all the tremendous progress we have made in cleaning up our environment, and I firmly reject it and urge my colleagues to do as well.

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

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Mr. MORAN. Mr. Chairman, I yield to Ms. McCollum from Minnesota to explain why the Democrats on the subcommittee are very strongly opposed to this amendment.

Ms. McCOLLUM. Mr. Chairman, first of all, I want to make it clear that while the Congressman says the amendment eliminates the U.S. Forest Service's International Programs, it does not. The amendment only calls for a reduction in the budget of the Department of Agriculture, Forest Service, State and private forests. Should this shortsighted amendment pass, the agency would decide what to cut within its budget. That being said, the gentleman from Kansas has unfairly maligned an important agency that's doing unsung work.

The U.S. Forest Service's International Programs plays a unique role as one of the few Federal agencies working with international governments and NGOs to, one, stop the flow of illegal wood that is undercutting our U.S. timber industry and costing us jobs. Another example, protecting western Canada's boreal forests in partnership with Ducks Unlimited to ensure future generations of hunters will have access to waterfowl habitats. This area is the second most productive breeding ground for ducks that migrate to the United States.

The examples of working with China and Russia are important, working with China and Russia to address such invasive species as the emerald ash borer and the Asian gypsy moth, both of which currently are threatening millions of forest acres in my home State of Minnesota and have devastated parts of the eastern part of the United States.

Similarly, all wildlife salmon migrate from the rivers of the West Coast of North America to eastern Russia to the Pacific Ocean. The Forest Service is working with the Russians to improve the watershed management on these rivers in eastern Russia to preserve the wild stock of this important species for future generations.

One of the things that disturbs me most is the way that a program has been described that allows students to interact with one another and learn about forestry management, biology, and how we are interconnected in this world. There are no Mexican students that go on field trips here in the United States, but there is an exchange of classrooms in Canada and the United States and in Mexico where teachers online follow the migration of the monarch. Students learn about, yes, insects. They learn about the trees that are important to them, and they learn biology.

These are very, very important programs. They should not be maligned. And this amendment, while it does not eliminate the program, should still be opposed.

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