Department of the Interior, Environment, and Related Agencies Appropriations Act, 2012

Floor Speech

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Mr. GARAMENDI. I was just listening to the debate here, saying: What are they thinking? What is the rationale? What is the purpose for the legislation that we have before us, more pointedly, the amendment that was just offered?

This is an incredible country. This is a country that very recently took great pride in cleaning its rivers, in protecting its citizens from toxins and pollutants and chemicals and poisons. This is a country that took great pride in creating the first-ever in this world national park and then expanded it over time to create the most awesome National Park System in the entire world. This is a country that took great pride in the Snake River and the use of the Land and Water Conservation Fund.

An argument was made a moment ago that there is not enough money. Yet not more than a month ago, an effort to increase the royalties from our oil that is pumped from our land, the land of the people and of the United States--and in fact even to get a royalty--was rejected by our Republican colleagues. So money was available if we simply had gone for the royalties that should be there under any case. This legislation, however, goes far beyond that, and over time will destroy the pride that we have taken in creating our national parks, in setting aside for future generations the great vistas of America, protecting our air, our land and our water.

You look at this bill. You look at the details of this bill, and you go, Oh, my. How could they? How could they put in legislation that would block the effort of the EPA to eliminate mercury poison in our air and water? How could they allow a bill that would create more soot in our atmosphere, put 34,000 lives at risk, and exempt the oil companies from air pollution standards in offshore drilling, which in California is a big deal because the air blows, the wind blows onto the land? How could they threaten the health of millions of Americans by jeopardizing the EPA's critical air, land and water regulations? Then our children. They block the EPA from limiting dangerous air pollution. How could they put together a bill that potentially could contaminate 117 million Americans' water?

How could you do that? Have you no pride in this country? Do you not care about the basic things that we have done to create a country that cares about clean water? You talk about jobs. Yet, in this bill, you eliminate the funding for the Clean Water Act, which is really building sanitation facilities in our community.

I remember in the 1960s the great pride that the 500 people in my community of Mokelumne Hill took when they got that money from the Federal Government and actually built the first sanitation system in that small town. How could you deny Americans the opportunity for that--and the drinking water and the jobs that go with it?

That's what this bill does. Take pride in what you're doing, gentlemen, because at the end of the day, the American public will not take pride in what you're doing to this piece of legislation.

I yield back the balance of my time.

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