Connolly Statement in Opposition to House Energy and Water Appropriations Bill

Statement

Congressman Gerald E. Connolly issued the following statement in opposition to the House Energy, Water Appropriations Bill:

Once again, the House Majority has presented an appropriations bill that disinvests in American research and development, innovation and the exploration of clean and renewable energy sources, bakes in sequestration cuts, and continues their unrelenting assault on clean water and clean air protections.

This legislation slashes clean and renewable energy funding by more than $279 million from current spending, while increasing fossil energy accounts by $34 million. It cuts $81 million from solar energy, $16 million from wind energy, and $21 million from the building technologies account.

We can, and must, be willing to make strategic investments, especially in the technologies of tomorrow. Unfortunately, this legislation falls far short of that goal.

Moreover, the Majority's continued willingness to attach dangerous policy riders demonstrates their unprecedented effort to inject Congress' will outside its purview.

First, they tried to get into the local permitting process by forcing states to accept the Keystone XL pipeline. Repeatedly, they've tried to tell the District of Columbia, and its constituents, how they can govern. Now, they wish to halt federal rulemaking prescribed under the Clean Water Act, almost a decade in the making and after more than a million public comments and numerous public hearings and stakeholder meetings, just before a final rule is released.

Congress has a role to play. But it shouldn't be an obstacle to public health and a 21st century clean energy economy.

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