{"database": "press", "table": "releases", "rows": [["https://mcclintock.house.gov/newsroom/press-releases/wastewater-forum-opening-statement-by-representative-tom-mcclintock", "Wastewater Forum, Opening Statement by Representative Tom McClintock", "2010-09-27", "2010", "2010-09", "Republican", "House", "CA", "Tom McClintock", "M001177", "mcclintock.house.gov", "mcclintock", "https://mcclintock.house.gov/newsroom/press-releases", "scraper", "Auburn, California. September 27, 2010. Thank you all for coming today. The purpose of today\u2019s hearing is to air this community\u2019s concerns over regulatory and litigatory excesses that are imposing increasingly oppressive costs on our families and businesses for the operation of local water and sewer systems.\n\nColfax has been a flashpoint for this revolt \u2013 its residents are being eaten alive by litigation filed by predatory law firms who party while residents pay. But as we will hear, Colfax is hardly alone \u2013 small communities across Northern California face the same outrages \u2013 and are now demanding relief.\n\nLike all movements, the impetus for stronger environmental protection of our air and water was firmly rooted in legitimate concerns to protect these vital resources. But like many movements, as it succeeded in its legitimate ends, it also attracted a self-interested constituency that has driven far past the borders of commonsense and into the realms of political extremism and outright plunder.\n\nWe\u2019ll hear today of requirements that water be purified to ridiculous standards having nothing to do with public health or safety and with absolutely no concern for prohibitive costs. We\u2019ll hear of communities that meet every expensive requirement heaped on them by state and federal agencies only to be told at the end of the process, \u201cSorry, the rules have changed and you\u2019ll need to start over.\u201d We\u2019ll hear of lawsuits filed over technicalities that reap unconscionable windfalls for the lawyers \u2013 all paid by struggling families in our communities.\n\nIt is time that pendulum moved back to the middle, and the purpose of today\u2019s proceedings is to define what reforms are necessary to restore common sense and rationality to these laws at both the state and national levels.\n\nI am very honored to be joined by my neighboring colleague, a senior member of the House of Representatives, Congressman Wally Herger. Wally has been a leader in fighting to restore balance to our environmental laws and I\u2019m very grateful to him for making the trip to Auburn today.\n\nI am also honored to have with us Senator Sam Aanestad, representing the 4th State Senate District of California. He is leaving after a truly distinguished legislative career due to term limits, and it is a testament to his dedication to this district that he remains at his post actively engaged in these issues.\n\nFinally, one of the great forces in the State Assembly, Assemblyman Dan Logue, joins us today. Californians could not possibly have a more fearless or energetic defender against an over-reaching bureaucracy than Dan Logue and I am very glad to have him here today as well.\n\nWe have assembled two panels of experts. The first panel is comprised of representatives of our local communities that have struggled with this situation until it has become intolerable. This hearing is actually the direct result of a meeting I had in my district office with local officials whose story I believed our region needs to hear.\n\nThe second panel is comprised of representatives from the Federal EPA and the State Water Resources Control Board that administer the current law and write the regulations under that law.\n\nAfter each panel\u2019s initial testimony, there will be up to five minutes of questioning by each of us on the dais.\n\nFinally, we will open the proceeding to public comments.\n\nSince we have many to speak and much to say, I will do my best to rigorously maintain time limits of five minutes for each testimony, five minutes for each round of questions and three minutes each for public comments.\n\nIt is my hope that at the end of this hearing, we will have accomplished two things: First, we will have established a clear view of the problem; and second, that we will have produced a list of concrete and specific legislative reforms that can be introduced in the upcoming legislative and Congressional sessions to bring these excesses and abuses under control.\n\nWe will be recording the hearing and submit it into official congressional proceedings at the earliest opportunity in the 112th Congress.", 1, "2026-03-30T01:40:41Z", "2026-04-06T21:13:43Z"]], "columns": ["url", "title", "date", "year", "month", "party", "chamber", "state", "member_name", "bioguide_id", "domain", "scraper", "source", "date_source", "text", "has_text", "collected_at", "updated_at"], "primary_keys": ["url"], "primary_key_values": ["https://mcclintock.house.gov/newsroom/press-releases/wastewater-forum-opening-statement-by-representative-tom-mcclintock"], "units": {}, "query_ms": 0.8018398657441139, "source": "dwillis/congress-press", "source_url": "https://github.com/dwillis/congress-press", "license": "MIT", "license_url": "https://github.com/dwillis/congress-press/blob/main/LICENSE"}