Concurrent Resolution On The Budget, Fiscal Year 2016

Floor Speech

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Mr. McCONNELL. Mr. President, I believe the next amendment is No. 836.

The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator is correct.

Mr. McCONNELL. Let me just say to my colleagues that this is an amendment which ought to pass 100 to 0. Let me tell you why. The Administrator of EPA just testified within the last couple of weeks that she does not have the authority under the Clean Power Plan to cut off State roads and bridges funds.

So today, with my friends from Kentucky and Oklahoma, I have offered an amendment that is really quite simple. It says that Washington bureaucrats should not be allowed to punish innocent Americans by threatening the roads and bridges they use just because a citizen's State may take a wait-and-see approach--a wait-and-see approach--as courts rule on massive EPA regulations. These are regulations which would threaten the middle class without having a meaningful impact on the global climate.

The legal issues here will resolve themselves eventually. But whatever our party or ideology, we should be able to agree that the Federal Government should not be punishing hard-working families just to score political points as States await legal clarification.

Let me say it again. The Administrator of the EPA does not believe she has the authority to do this. We need to make it clear that the Senate opposes any step in that direction.

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