Hearing of the House Agriculture Committee - FY 2016 Energy and Water Appropriations

Hearing

Thank you, Chairman Simpson, for yielding, and I thank you for working with Ranking Member
Kaptur to produce an Energy and Water Development and Related Agencies Appropriations Bill for
Fiscal Year 2016. This is the first subcommittee markup for FY16, and I am pleased that we are
moving along at such a rapid pace in getting these bills out of the gate. I thank my colleagues on both
sides for all you have done to help complete our work in this manner.

Today, we have before this subcommittee a bill appropriating funding for our nation's energy and
water resources. This bill impacts nearly every community in every District across the country, so it
always involves difficult choices. In my estimation, this legislation strikes an appropriate balance
between our nation's many energy and water related priorities. This bill makes significant investments
in energy research, nuclear security programs, and in critical infrastructure constructed and maintained
by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers. Through this legislation, this subcommittee supports the Corps'
primary missions of flood mitigation and navigation, while also reaffirming the Corps' and Congress's
commitment to recreation opportunities on our cherished natural resources. Additionally, this bill
prioritizes investments in energy research and new technologies that will make energy production in
this country safer, and more efficient. It also provides $8.7 billion to ensure the effectiveness of our
nation's nuclear weapons stockpile.

In my District in Southern and Eastern Kentucky, we have been hard hit by the Administration's
energy and environmental policies and so I am particularly pleased that this bill makes much needed
investments in fossil energy research and takes action to roll back the harmful, job-killing regulatory
attacks that we have seen on the coal industry. We provide $605 million - $45 million above the
President's woefully inadequate request -- to promote new fossil energy technologies and make them
more efficient. This bill also stands firm against the layer upon layer of environmental red tape that this
Administration keeps laying out in hopes of crippling the coal industry. For example, we take on
wrong-headed policies such as the attempt to change the definition of "Fill Material," which would
shut down coal mines nationwide, and the new "Waters of the United States" proposal in which the
Administration seeks to regulate almost anywhere water could conceivably run. This subcommittee
takes responsible action through this bill to prevent regulatory overreach that would devastate energy
production in the U.S. and communities nationwide.

This a good bill, I support it, and it deserves the support of each Subcommittee member.

Thank you, and I yield back.

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