Volume 163, No. 156 covering the 1st Session of the 115th Congress (2017 - 2018) was published by the Congressional Record.
The Congressional Record is a unique source of public documentation. It started in 1873, documenting nearly all the major and minor policies being discussed and debated.
“H.R. 3354” mentioning the Environmental Protection Agency was published in the Extensions of Remarks section on pages E1293-E1294 on Sept. 28, 2017.
More than half of the Agency's employees are engineers, scientists and protection specialists. The Climate Reality Project, a global climate activist organization, accused Agency leadership in the last five years of undermining its main mission.
The publication is reproduced in full below:
H.R. 3354
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HON. SUZANNE BONAMICI
of oregon
in the house of representatives
Thursday, September 28, 2017
Ms. BONAMICI. Mr. Speaker, I rise today in strong opposition to H.R. 3354, the Make America Secure and Prosperous Appropriations Act. I am grateful to the Chairman and Ranking Member for including many of my policy priorities in the bill, but I cannot support the final measure because of the devastating cuts to education funding, environmental resources, and our nation's healthcare system.
In 2015, Congress passed the bipartisan Every Student Succeeds Act. It is our responsibility to provide the resources necessary for states and localities to fully serve students as authorized by ESSA. Unfortunately, the bill we are voting on undermines one of the great successes of the ESSA by significantly underfunding the Student Support and Academic Enrichment Grants. Congress intended these grants to go to school districts so they can provide locally-tailored programming and supportive services for students, including school-based mental health programs, drug prevention programs, expanded access to arts, music, and foreign language programs, and other programs that fit the needs of districts. I am grateful that my amendment to highlight the need for full funding of this program was included in the bill, but I am deeply disappointed that we have not committed to providing this critical resource to local communities.
Another central tenet of the ESSA was a commitment to reducing student testing, and making sure that states and school districts are able to audit their assessment systems and eliminate duplicative and ineffective tests. The State Assessment Grants provide funding for these efforts, and I thank the Appropriations Committee for accepting my bipartisan amendment to fully fund these efforts.
The final bill includes my bipartisan amendment to increase funding for Women in Apprenticeship and Nontraditional Occupations Grants, which will provide tradeswomen in Oregon the support and assistance necessary to advance their careers and retain good-paying jobs. The bill also includes my amendment to fund Title VIII Nursing Workforce Programs through separate line-items, which will preserve funding for the individual programs, including Advanced Education Nursing; Nursing Workforce Diversity; Nurse Education, Practice, and Retention; and the Nurse Faculty Loan Program.
Additionally, my amendment to provide critical resources to combat coastal climate threats by highlighting the need for funding ocean acidification programs was adopted, as was my amendment to increase funding to mitigate harmful algal blooms. Ocean acidification and harmful algal blooms are decimating our oceans and lakes, destroying wildlife, and crippling our local economies. Increasing funding for NOAA's ocean acidification and harmful algal blooms programs will give our coastal communities additional resources to understand and address these threats.
Despite these victories, the bill did not earn my support because of the harmful cuts and policy riders that remain. The bill underfunds the Environmental Protection Agency and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, and undermines the National Oceans Policy. It eliminates Title X Family Planning, and eliminates funding for Teen Pregnancy Prevention Programs. The bill undermines the Affordable Care Act by prohibiting funding from being used to further provisions of the law, including ACA navigators. As Congress continues work on an FY2018 funding package, I urge my colleagues to put aside their partisan policy priorities and advance a bill that invests in our communities and sets them up for success.
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