Ken Calvert

Mr. CALVERT

Mr. CALVERT. Mr. Chairman, I rise in opposition to the amendment.

Mr. CALVERT. Mr. Speaker, I ask unanimous consent that all Members may have 5 legislative days in which to revise and extend their remarks and include extraneous material for the further consideration of H.R. 5538, and that I may include tabular material on the same.

Mr. CALVERT. Mr. Chairman, I don't want the gentleman from Pennsylvania to think I am picking on him because I certainly understand and share the gentleman's frustration with EPA and with this administration's overzealous regulatory agenda. In fact, in this bill, as the gentleman well knows, we tried to reverse all of the overreaching agenda that this administration has placed on the American people. We have gone through this bill line by line for the Agency's budget to identify areas for targeted and strategic cuts. In total, fiscal year 2017 bill cuts EPA by $164 million, and $291 million below Obama's budget request. The bill cuts EPA's air regulatory program $25 million below the enacted level and $93 million below President Obama's budget request. The bill denies the Obama administration's request for additional staff at EPA and keeps the number of EPA personnel at the lowest level since 1989. That is when George Herbert Walker Bush was President. I am sure you would like to go back to 1976, but I think we have done a pretty good job of cutting it back to 1989. Unfortunately, the gentleman's amendment would penalize States by cutting the grants they need. It would reduce the funding for the clean water and drinking water grants, which support construction jobs in every district. It would impact the geographic program, such as the Great Lakes, that are important to many Members. It would reduce funding for the clean-up of toxic Superfund sites, and, unfortunately, the gentleman's proposal for a general cut would impact all those important programs. I would like to remind the gentleman that with the cuts included in this bill, we have already cut EPA funding by $2.3 billion or 23 percent in this bill since 2011. So we have continuously done this every year. I looked at this bill very carefully and have tried to do everything we could to make sure that we do responsible cuts to the Environmental Protection Agency without damaging the environment. Mr. Chairman, I reluctantly oppose this amendment. I think I have said everything I need to say about this. I yield back the balance of my time.

Mr. CALVERT. Mr. Chairman, in closing, based upon the way we read this amendment, it would shut down the Department of the Interior's current operations and eliminate its ability to use unmanned aircraft systems. While that may not be the intent of the amendment, that is what it says and does, according to our folks who have read through it. Now, hopefully next year, as we go through the authorization process, we can come back here and have a policy because I believe in private contracting for these type of services, but right now I don't want to have the unintended consequence of taking away vital equipment that is being utilized at this time. So I would reluctantly oppose the gentleman's amendment and hope that we could come to a resolution within the next year and not just within the Department of the Interior. There are other departments who use this. Mr. Chairman, I yield back the balance of my time.

Mr. CALVERT. Mr. Chairman, reluctantly, I oppose this amendment. I would be happy to work with the gentleman in the future to come to some resolution of this problem. I do agree that it is a concern that we should all work together on, on both sides, because the so-called militarization of some of these agencies is concerning, but individuals within these agencies should be able to protect themselves in situations that may arise from time to time. I would urge opposition of the amendment. I yield back the balance of my time.

Mr. CALVERT. Mr. Chair, I yield to the gentlewoman from Minnesota.

Mr. CALVERT

Mr. CALVERT. Mr. Chairman, I rise in opposition to the amendment.

Mr. CALVERT. Mr. Chairman, I rise in opposition to the gentleman's amendment.

Mr. CALVERT. Mr. Chairman, I yield the gentleman an additional 30 seconds.

Mr. CALVERT. Mr. Chairman, the administration, as already mentioned, already removed the Atlantic leases from consideration in the 5-year lease plan from 2017 to 2022. This language is completely unnecessary, and I urge all the Members to oppose this amendment. I reserve the balance of my time.

Mr. CALVERT. Mr. Chair, the bill provides funds for law enforcement functions of the Forest Service and the Bureau of Land Management. Even if these agencies wanted to, they could not eliminate their law enforcement offices and responsibility. Neither could they provide more or less funding for them without the approval of the Appropriations Committee, and this committee has no desire to end the law enforcement function of either the Forest Service or the Bureau of Land Management. This amendment has no purpose and, therefore, it is not needed. It is nothing more than a nuisance amendment, in my opinion. I would urge my colleagues to oppose the amendment. I reserve the balance of my time.

Mr. CALVERT. Mr. Chair, as I mentioned earlier, we already had a number of debates about each of the provisions that the gentleman is trying to strike; therefore, this amendment is totally unnecessary. Nevertheless, the committee included each of these provisions for sound reasons, and each have their own merit. Broadly speaking, these policy provisions are included in the bill to put the brakes on flawed policies that this administration is trying to implement. I urge my colleagues to oppose this amendment. Mr. Chair, I yield back the balance of my time.

Mr. CALVERT. This is a good amendment. We are willing to accept the amendment.

Mr. CALVERT. Mr. Chair, I yield 1 minute to the gentleman from South Carolina (Mr. Duncan).

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

Mr. CALVERT. Mr. Chair, I rise in opposition to the amendment.

Mr. CALVERT. Mr. Chairman, I yield 2 minutes to the gentleman from Utah (Mr. Bishop), the chairman of the Committee on Natural Resources.

Mr. CALVERT. Mr. Chair, I yield 2 minutes to the gentleman from Wisconsin (Mr. Ribble).

Mr. CALVERT. Mr. Chair, I rise in opposition to the amendment.

Mr. CALVERT. Mr. Chairman, I rise in opposition to the amendment.

Mr. CALVERT. Mr. Chairman, I reserve the balance of my time.

Mr. CALVERT. Mr. Chair, I urge everyone to vote ``no'' on this amendment. I yield back the balance of my time.

Mr. CALVERT. Mr. Chair, I like the gentleman's amendment. Criminals shouldn't get contracts. I accept the amendment.

Mr. CALVERT. Mr. Chair, first, I want to point out that we have had separate and stand-alone debates on each of the provisions that the gentleman is trying to address, so obviously we have already had this debate. I yield 2 minutes to the gentleman from West Virginia (Mr. Jenkins).

Mr. CALVERT

Mr. CALVERT. Mr. Speaker, I move that the Committee do now rise.