Date: 2014-02-05
Speaker: SEAN PATRICK MALONEY (democrat)
Chamber: H
State: New York

Mr. Speaker. this is the final amendment to the bill. If adopted. it wont kill the bill. If adopted. the bill will proceed to final passage immediately. as amended. Mr. Speaker. I agree with many of those on the other side on much of the underlying bill. Lets open our public lands to recreational hunting. fishing. and shooting. Lets make it easier to maintain public shooting ranges. No argument from me. But we can and should make this bill better. and my amendment will do just that. Preserving our public lands and common spaces also means investing in the critical infrastructure that allows us to bring our families there safely. That is why the bipartisan SAFE Bridges Act should be in this bill to ensure that our Nations highways and bridges are safe. But the biggest omission in this bill is the failure to protect our citizens from toxic spills that would threaten our water supplies. A few weeks ago. we all woke up to learn that 300.000 people in West Virginia couldnt drink their water. A mother trying to put her child in the bathtub couldnt turn on the faucet. A father mixing baby formula for an infant couldnt trust what came out of the tap. For more than a week. families couldnt do things that each of us do every day. Hundreds were hospitalized. Because businesses had to lock their doors. even people making the meager Federal minimum wage of $7.25 couldnt go to work. Businesses were shut down. and they couldnt provide for their families. Schools shut down. Anxious and worried residents by the thousands lined up every day for National Guard troops to supply them with safe water. This happened right here in America. and not in some foreign country. It happened for a reason. It happened because one greedy operator thought it made sense not to inspect and maintain a storage tank with thousands of gallons of a toxic chemical right next to the water supply. You cant tell me that the free market took care of that problem. Tell that to the hundreds of thousands of West Virginians who cant drink their water. Mr. Speaker. my amendment ensures companies making chemicals with the potential to contaminate water supplies are simply required to report the hazards of these chemicals. It is pretty simple. In my neck of the woods. the New York City watershed delivers approximately 1.4 billion gallons of water to my district. supplying it to millions of people every day. If this spill on the Elk River had happened on the Hudson River. we would be talking about a different problem in the order of magnitude that would affect millions and millions of people. Have we lost so much faith in ourselves acting together that we cant protect the American people from this kind of toxic spill? If this House isnt doing this and if we arent protecting a mom or dad trying to give baby formula to their child. what are we doing here? Again. I join many of you in supporting the underlying emphasis of this bill. Lets get government out of the way for our hunters. anglers. and sportsmen. A dad should be able to share that first marksmanship experience with his son or daughter. like my dad did with me and my brothers. To preserve these freedoms. government needs to get out of the way at times. but surely it must also protect us at times from those who would destroy these treasures for profit. It was Teddy Roosevelt. after all. who said: Here is your country. Cherish these natural wonders. cherish the natural resources. cherish the history and romance as a sacred heritage. for your children and your childrens children. Do not let selfish men or greedy interests skin your country of its beauty. its riches or its romance. If we really want to protect the national beauty of our country. it starts with protecting something as fundamental as our water. Mr. Speaker. if we dont do this. we are doing nothing. and if those on the other side will not use that gavel in this House to protect the American people. then some of us on this side would like to borrow it for a whilebecause we will. I yield back the balance of my time.