[Congressional Record Volume 158, Number 99 (Thursday, June 28, 2012)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Pages E1176-E1177]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




         OPPOSING THE CONFERENCE REPORT TO ACCOMPANY H.R. 4348

                                 ______
                                 

                         HON. EDWARD J. MARKEY

                            of massachusetts

                    in the house of representatives

                        Thursday, June 28, 2012

  Mr. MARKEY. Mr. Speaker, I have declined to add my signature to the 
Conference Report to accompany H.R. 4348, legislation to reauthorize 
the highway trust fund.
  While the highway bill has traditionally been the product of 
reasonable, bipartisan compromise, the House Republican's version of 
this year's bill was so extreme the Conference Report was hobbled from 
the start.
  House Republicans took the jobs and economic development promised by 
this highway bill hostage--with unrelated provisions like the Keystone 
pipeline as the ransom--and the Senate had no choice but to negotiate 
with the hostage takers.
  Provisions allocating critical conservation funding across the 
country, through the Land and Water Conservation Fund and a National 
Endowment for the Oceans, was struck from the Conference Report; only 
funding for the five Gulf States--Alabama, Mississippi, Louisiana, 
Florida and Texas--has survived. That funding will certainly be 
beneficial but the broader conservation programs should have been 
included, as well.
  The Conference Report also includes provisions prohibiting the 
National Park Service from complying with the law limiting the impacts 
of aircraft noise on Grand Canyon National Park. Why we would want to 
use a transportation bill to make one of the crown jewels of the 
National Park System louder and dirtier is a mystery.
  Most troubling, the Conference Report includes unjustified and 
harmful provisions which will undermine environmental reviews of 
highway and transit projects. Republicans have claimed environmental 
reviews delay highway projects but the facts are that most 
transportation projects already proceed under expedited environmental 
reviews and there is no evidence whatsoever that these reviews cause 
delay.

[[Page E1177]]

  Nevertheless, the Conference Report includes several broad new 
categorical exclusions from the National Environmental Policy Act, or 
NEPA. These new exclusions lack flexibility or adequate standards and 
will limit public participation and careful consideration of 
transportation projects that can have devastating impacts on 
neighborhoods and our natural, cultural and historic resources. In the 
end, the purpose of these provisions is to speed up highway 
construction, not by cutting alleged ``red-tape'' but by making it 
harder for local communities to gather information and have input in 
projects that may go right through their backyards.
  Unbelievably, the Conference Report also includes a radical new idea 
that agencies should be fined, through rescission of up to 7 percent of 
their budgets, for missing arbitrary deadlines for environmental 
reviews. Given that the main reason agencies struggle to complete these 
reviews quickly is a lack of funding and staff, cutting their budgets 
as punishment will only make the problem worse.
  Inclusion of funding for the Secure Rural Schools and the Payment in 
Lieu of Taxes programs are positive steps, while removal of divisive, 
unrelated provisions on coal ash and the Keystone Pipeline are welcome 
improvements, compared to the House Republican bill.
  Finally, the process used to develop this Conference Report was 
unfortunate. Conferees have been asked to sign an agreement we have had 
little or no time to review and the substance of the agreement was 
negotiated largely without input from most conferees.
  This Conference Report will harm those living and working near 
transportation projects in the future and fails to address some of the 
most pressing conservation needs facing this nation. We can and should 
do better.

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