[Senate Hearing 118-412]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
S. Hrg. 118-412
BUSINESS MEETING
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MEETING
OF THE
COMMITTEE ON
ENVIRONMENT AND PUBLIC WORKS
UNITED STATES SENATE
ONE HUNDRED EIGHTEENTH CONGRESS
FIRST SESSION
__________
FEBRUARY 1, 2023
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Printed for the use of the Committee on Environment and Public Works
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Available via the World Wide Web: http://www.govinfo.gov
__________
U.S. GOVERNMENT PUBLISHING OFFICE
56-768 WASHINGTON : 2025
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COMMITTEE ON ENVIRONMENT AND PUBLIC WORKS
ONE HUNDRED EIGHTEENTH CONGRESS
FIRST SESSION
THOMAS R. CARPER, Delaware, Chairman
SHELLEY MOORE CAPITO, West Virginia, Ranking Member
BENJAMIN L. CARDIN, Maryland KEVIN CRAMER, North Dakota
BERNARD SANDERS, Vermont CYNTHIA M. LUMMIS, Wyoming
SHELDON WHITEHOUSE, Rhode Island MARKWAYNE MULLIN, Oklahoma
JEFF MERKLEY, Oregon PETE RICKETTS, Nebraska
EDWARD J. MARKEY, Massachusetts JOHN BOOZMAN, Arkansas
DEBBIE STABENOW, Michigan ROGER WICKER, Mississippi
MARK KELLY, Arizona DAN SULLIVAN, Alaska
ALEX PADILLA, California LINDSEY O. GRAHAM, South Carolina
JOHN FETTERMAN, Pennsylvania
Courtney Taylor, Democratic Staff Director
Adam Tomlinson, Republican Staff Director
C O N T E N T S
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Page
FEBRUARY 1, 2023
OPENING STATEMENTS
Carper, Hon. Thomas R., U.S. Senator from the State of Delaware.. 1
Capito, Hon. Shelley Moore, U.S. Senator from the State of West
Virginia....................................................... 3
LEGISLATION
Rules of Procedure for the Committee on Environment and Public
Works.......................................................... 6
Resolution authorizing expenditures by the Committee on
Environment and Public Works................................... 11
BUSINESS MEETING
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WEDNESDAY, FEBRUARY 1, 2023
U.S. Senate,
Committee on Environment and Public Works,
Washington, DC.
The committee met, pursuant to notice, at 10:02 a.m., in
room 406, Dirksen Senate Office Building, Hon. Thomas R. Carper
(chairman of the committee) presiding.
Present: Senators Carper, Capito, Cardin, Whitehouse,
Merkley, Markey, Kelly, Padilla, Fetterman, Lummis, Wicker,
Sullivan, Mullin, Ricketts.
OPENING STATEMENT OF HON. THOMAS R. CARPER,
U.S. SENATOR FROM THE STATE OF DELAWARE
Senator Carper. I am pleased to call this business meeting
of the Environment and Public Works Committee to order. I thank
everyone for joining Senator Capito and me today for the first
EPW committee meeting of the 118th Congress.
We have one person who is missing in action this morning,
Mary Frances Repko. She is now working over in the
Administration, someone who has been very much a part for over
like a quarter of a century a key player in the House of
Representatives, where Steny Hoyer worked for her for 10 years.
[Laughter.]
Senator Carper. You think I am kidding. Just ask him.
She has gone on, I will not say to bigger and better
things, but she will be a good partner with all of us. She has
been succeeded by Courtney Taylor, sitting right by me over my
left shoulder. If you have not had a chance to meet her, I
think you are going to like her a lot. She is settling, and she
and Adam have already started working together, which is a key
to our success.
I want to begin by welcoming several of our newest members
of our committee. And it says we have 10, so we can begin to
vote any time. Thank you.
The newest members of our committee are Senator John
Fetterman of Pennsylvania, I do not see John, although I saw
him earlier today. And Markwayne Mullin of Oklahoma, Pete
Ricketts of Nebraska. I hope I am not missing anybody. Welcome
aboard. We were pleased to have a chance to meet with some of
our new Republican colleagues yesterday.
Today we are going to vote on a couple of items, the
committee's funding resolution and the rules that govern our
committee's conduct. Senator Capito and I have agreed to begin
voting as soon as we have established a quorum. I understand we
have established a quorum of 10 people.
At that time, we will hit the pause button with respect to
our members' statements and proceed straight to the items on
our agenda. After our voting concludes, I will happily
recognize any additional members who may wish to speak.
I am going to go ahead and finish this statement, it is not
very long. Before we do, I want to take a moment to reflect on
this committee's incredible accomplishments from the last
Congress, most of them bipartisan, and express my hope for
building on that work this Congress with Senator Capito and
colleagues on both sides of the aisle.
The 117th Congress was an extraordinarily productive
session for the Congress as a whole, and especially for our
committee. In 2021, we rolled up our sleeves, we got to work
early on and we never stopped. We unanimously advanced two
pieces of bipartisan infrastructure legislation out of our
committee, our drinking water and wastewater legislation and
our surface transportation and highway legislation which
included the first-ever climate title.
Our bipartisan success with both of those became the
foundation of the historic Bipartisan Infrastructure Law that
became law in November 2021. We were able to build on this
success by passing the Inflation Reduction Act, the most
significant investment to combat climate change in our Nation's
history.
In our committee's title alone, we invested more than $40
billion in reducing climate pollution, and advancing
environmental justice. This historic law, and I think this is
an important point to keep in mind, we created with that
legislation millions of good-paying jobs from coast to coast.
We will be helping to build a stronger, cleaner economy.
We didn't stop there. In December 2022, just about 2 months
ago, we continued our committee's triumphant streak of passing
the Water Resources and Development Act, WRDA, on time and with
bipartisan support. Reauthorization of the Army Corps of
Engineers, the fifth, I think consecutive 2 years we have done
that. This law is going to deliver on critical water resources
projects from Delaware to California and across the Nation from
Nebraska, through New Orleans and every place in between. All
50 States participated, we got great input from everybody, and
we are delighted to have gotten such strong support from our
colleagues and from the Administration.
As we begin this Congress, it is more important than ever
to continue to work on a bipartisan basis to tackle some of the
challenges facing the American people. I know that I have the
great, maybe the best partner of any committee chair in the
Senate, in Senator Capito and her staff, led by Adam, critical
to many of our successes of our committee in the last Congress.
I am confident that together we will continue to do great
things, important things, for all of our States to protect our
environment and to invest in our infrastructure and create a
nurturing environment for job creation.
I believe this work includes watching over and helping
guide the Biden Administration as they work to implement the
historic laws that we passed in the last Congress, and includes
taking action to address toxic chemicals like Per- and
Polyfluoroalkyl Substances (PFAS) that harm human health. It
includes reauthorizing important programs that foster economic
growth like the Economic Development Administration and
Brownfields programs. And it includes improving our recycling
systems just to name a few.
I look forward to working closely with Senator Capito, our
subcommittee chairs, ranking members and all the members of
this committee here on its best traditions of bipartisanship
and hard work in the 118th Congress. With that all being said,
I want to recognize the Ranking Member, Senator Capito, and
again to thank her for being just a terrific partner, as we
have done all these things together. Thank you.
OPENING STATEMENT OF HON. SHELLY MOORE CAPITO,
U.S. SENATOR FROM THE STATE OF WEST VIRGINIA
Senator Capito. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I want to take
just a brief moment, but I thank you for years past and this
coming session as well. I always look forward to working with
you, and welcome to Courtney as well to the committee.
We notched many wins last year, as you talked about. Since
our last meeting, the Water Resources Development Act of 2022
was signed into law as part of the 2023 National Defense
Authorization Act. So this is critical support for all of our
States, certainly in West Virginia for floor control and
prevention, to improve and expand drinking water, wastewater
and stormwater projects, and identify future opportunities for
additional economic development.
Passage of WRDA on a 2-year schedule ensures timely
progress on projects that enable our Nation's commerce and
restore our water resources and protect our communities. Last
Congress, as you mentioned, the committee also developed the
backbone of the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act,
including the 5-year Surface Transportation Reauthorization
legislation as well as strong drinking and wastewater
infrastructure legislation. I think we are starting to see the
results of that in a lot of our States. These successes will be
hard to top, but I know we are going to try.
As we start the new Congress, I would like to join you in
welcoming our new members on our Republican side, we are
excited to have Senator Mullin and Senator Ricketts on EPW.
Then-Congressman Mullin and I served together as members of the
House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee, so it is
nice to be reunited. And welcome, Senator Ricketts. I
facetiously say you are joining that exclusive club of the
former Governors club that are now Senators.
Senator Carper. Would you yield for a moment? I call it the
recovering Governors.
[Laughter.]
Senator Capito. I call it something else, but I couldn't
say it in public.
[Laughter.]
Senator Carper. Senator Capito, as you know, is the
daughter of a former Governor of West Virginia. I start way too
many sentences with these words: ``When I was Governor of
Delaware,'' so many have heard it more than they want to.
Senator Capito. Anyway, welcome, and we know that you have
a passion for agriculture. I look forward to working with you
on issues such as oversight of Waters of the U.S. definition
and other things.
On the Democrat side, we certainly welcome Senator
Fetterman, and I look forward to getting to know him.
Our first order or business is to organize. Last Congress,
the committee adopted special rules to reflect the 50-50
equally divided Senate consistent with past precedent from
2001. Chairman Carper and I agreed at that time we now support
returning to the committee's rules that have governed when one
party had an outright majority.
The committee will therefore vote to adopt a modernized
version of these rules that were last applied in the 116th
Congress. I support adoption of these rules, as well as the
proposed committee budget that we are considering today.
Once we are organized, our work will begin in earnest to
develop legislation in areas that are ripe for bipartisan
attention, including advanced nuclear legislation, brownfields
reauthorization and economic development legislation, just to
name a few. And of course, the Congress will work to keep WRDA
on the 2-year timeframe this committee has followed.
I will continue to scrutinize, as the Ranking Member, the
Administration's agenda and actions, and conduct robust
oversight.
The Biden Administration has announced plans to move
forward with many regulations that will create regulatory
uncertainty, slow development of critical projects, and add
cost. So we will be scrutinizing those as we move to the next
session. I look forward to it.
Senator Carper. Thank you, Senator Capito.
I see a quorum has been reached. We welcome everyone, one
and all.
Moving now to our approve our committee's budget resolution
and our committee's rule en bloc. Is there a second?
Senator Capito. Second.
Senator Carper. Thank you for that second. All in favor say
aye.
[Chorus of ayes.]
Senator Carper. Opposed, say nay.
[No audible response.]
Senator Carper. The ayes have it.
In the opinion of the Chair, we have approved the committee
budget resolution, which will be reported favorably to the
Senate, as well as our committee's rules. The organizing
portion of our meeting is concluded and I am now happy to
recognize any member of our committee who would like to make a
statement on the committee resolutions we just approved, or
other matters, if you prefer.
With that, raise your hand and we will recognize you.
Senator Cardin. Mr. Chairman, we are all so excited to be
back together again. How do we do an encore from what we got
done in the last Congress?
Senator Carper. I do not know. If I live to be 100, I tell
people back in Delaware, if I live to be 100, I do not know how
we are going to do a better job done of getting stuff done than
we did in the last Congress. It was just a terrific, terrific 2
years. But we will try. We will try. Everybody here had a role
in that.
Anybody else with a statement or comment? With that, I will
see you guys and gals on the floor. Thank you, Senator Capito.
Senator Capito. Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
Senator Carper. We are adjourned.
[Whereupon, at 10:13 a.m., the business meeting was
adjourned.]
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