Washington, D.C. — The following are opening remarks, as prepared for delivery, from Ranking Member of the House Committee on Transportation and Infrastructure Rick Larsen (D-WA) and Vice Ranking Member of the Subcommittee on Water Resources and Environment Hillary Scholten (D-MI) during today’s hearing titled, “America Builds: Clean Water Act Permitting and Project Delivery.”
Video of Ranking Member Larsen’s and Vice Ranking Member Scholten's opening statements are here and here.
More information on the hearing can be found here.
Ranking Member Larsen:
Thank you, Chairman Collins, for holding this hearing on ways we can ensure job-creating infrastructure keeps America moving and reduces supply chain challenges.
This hearing is part of a series, “America Builds.” Thanks to the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law, America is building again, and we need to keep it going.
Holding up job-creating investments will not help America build. Slashing the workforce of agencies that play a critical role in permitting these projects will not keep America building.
Congress invested $13.8 billion in the BIL to upgrade wastewater systems, prevent pollution and support quality of life across the country.
These investments are critical, providing a lifeline to communities struggling to maintain water quality.
These investments equal jobs.
For every $1 billion invested in cleaning up pollution in your water, approximately 28,000 jobs are created, according to the National Utility Contractors Association.
These investments are helping drive the low, 4 percent unemployment rate while modernizing our infrastructure.
In just the last few years, in my own district, Washington State’s Second District, local workers are upgrading aging sewer and water equipment and protecting local groundwater supply.
From a $1.4 million State Revolving Fund (SFR) loan in Whatcom County for replacing antiquated equipment to a $200,000 engineering review grant to Lummi Nation for assessing their wastewater needs, these job-creating investments are making a difference.
And the work isn’t finished. The most recent Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) report on wastewater infrastructure needs estimated we would need $271 billion nationwide over the next twenty years to meet standards that keep pollution out of your water.
These challenges are not limited to one region; they affect communities from coast to coast, from my coast, to the Chair’s coast, to the inland lakes and rivers of the Vice Ranking Member.
Part of keeping America building is improving permitting for infrastructure projects. Through the BIL, the Inflation Reduction Act and the CHIPS Act, we are seeing the benefits of investing in the workforce and technology necessary to approve projects.
Through investments in enhancing permitting efficiency across the federal government, the Biden administration reduced the median time to complete an Environmental Impact Statement (EIS) by eight months—23 percent faster than Trump 1.0.
So let’s keep that going.
We can invest in infrastructure and protect the environment at the same time, ensuring that America builds while also making sure that America breathes clean air and drinks clean water.
When Congress passed the Clean Water Act over 50 years ago, Members recognized the effectiveness and importance of comprehensive pollution prevention measures—stopping pollution before it happens rather than simply cleaning it up.
The Clean Water Act was enacted with an overwhelming bipartisan majority. Before this law, rivers and lakes served as little more than open sewers—Lake Erie was pronounced “dead,” and Ohio’s Cuyahoga River literally caught on fire.
Thanks to the Clean Water Act, the Cascade River in my district was designated as an Outstanding Resource Water by the State of Washington, which protects that river from future activities or development that would degrade water quality.
For decades, Republicans and Democrats shared these bipartisan principles to defend clean water: maintain a strong federal-state partnership to protect our waters; stop pollution from entering the system in the first place; and support a robust federal floor of protections while allowing states to do more, but not less.
The BIL shows what happens when Congress does the right thing and funds infrastructure.
Step one to keep the progress going is ensuring that states and local government leaders can continue to depend on federal investment.
Freezing funds from the State Revolving Fund, Superfund or other EPA programs is a step backwards.
Predictable, reliable funding helps states and local government leaders make decisions on allocating their taxpayer dollars to ensure the biggest bang for the buck.
Sowing chaos and uncertainty on federal and state efforts to protect our water and environment will not continue to help the American people.
Working in a bipartisan fashion, Congress passed comprehensive environmental protection laws like the Clean Water Act and historic investments in infrastructure like the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law.
I look forward to finding ways to build on these bipartisan accomplishments this Congress.
Thank you to our witnesses for being here today. I look forward to your testimony.
Vice Ranking Member Scholten:
Thank you, Chairman Collins, and congratulations for your selection to lead the Subcommittee on Water Resources and Environment. I look forward to working with you as the Vice Ranking Member in meeting the water-related needs of our nation, our communities, and the hardworking families that we represent.
I'm privileged to serve Michigan's 3rd Congressional District in Congress, representing miles of beautiful Lake Michigan shoreline. It's a district whose history, lifestyle, and economic well-being are bound with the health of the Great Lakes.
The Great Lakes are arguably the largest source of freshwater on the surface of the Earth, containing roughly 20% of the world's freshwater supply. For our region, the protections of the Great Lakes and the health of our environment is not a partisan issue, it's something that is ingrained in our culture, as we responsibly teach the next generation to be good stewards of our environment.
Our quality of life and our very existence depend on clean water for everyday consumption—for commerce, recreation, and the overall economic vitality of the region. It supports our farmers who grow their crops from apples to pears, peach trees and soybeans. It supports the foundation of the great craft beer that forms Beer City, USA, that I'm so proud to represent. That is why I am so deeply concerned with the harm that this administration and the allies in Congress are imposing on our clean water future.
In just three weeks, the President has thrown cities and towns into chaos by shutting down funding allocated by Congress for water infrastructure projects, including the historic investments in water infrastructure provided through the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law. This disarray has forced communities of all sizes to re-evaluate how to deliver critical water infrastructure projects and will result in these projects taking longer, costing more, and ultimately delaying critical local economic development, environmental and public health benefits. The administration's efforts will also undermine the roughly 28,000 jobs that are created for every billion dollars in water infrastructure investment, putting the jobs of laborers and manufacturers at risk, in addition to threatening our supply chains.
Finally, these actions will hit the wallets of hardworking American families who will see higher water bills because of this uncertainty at the same time that inflation is back on the rise. The silence of my colleagues across the aisle whose states and communities are equally impacted by the President's moves to undermine water infrastructure spending is somewhat surprising. It is my sincere hope that this silence is not a green light for further reduction in federal water infrastructure spending. We need it more now than ever. Our communities cannot withstand further setbacks to federal and state efforts to protect our water and our environment, and we cannot allow the President and his allies to burden American families with increased costs and public health risks.
I welcome my colleagues to join me as I stand firmly in defense of our Great Lakes and freshwater supplies across the country to ensure a healthy environment and a strong economy for future generations. We can do both, and I look forward to working with anyone to realize this goal. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I yield back.
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