▶ 0:17:52Chair Capito: Chair capito: good morning to everybody. Committee members, thank you for being here. I know there is a lot going on this morning. Now we have critical mass here. I want to thank ranking member white house and staff for working with me and my staff to bring two bipartisan bills before the committee today. I would like to thank senator boozman for his leadership on the bipartisan recycling legislation we will consider it. The agenda is to hold three votes after ranking member whitehouse and I give our opening remarks.
▶ 0:18:23Chair Capito: The first will be to approve the committee rules a budget resolution the next will be to approve bills that previously passed this committee with unanimous support. Today we will consider s. 347, the brownfields reauthorization act of 2025. This bill which passed unanimously out of the committee will review the brown's field program -- the brownfields program.
▶ 0:18:52Chair Capito: The program has been a success story for our economy and the environment. Cleaning up abandoned and looted brownfields is a powerful economic tool and revitalizes moral and economically challenged communities where it is needed most. Despite the program positive achievements, the grant application process remains a key challenge.
▶ 0:19:15Chair Capito: Rural and underserved communities lack resources needed to help keep large entities, putting them in an unfair position. Our bill streamlines the application process to level the playing field. The legislation modernizes program grant amounts to mast -- match current construction costs and project sizes, aligning them with the reality of doing business today.
▶ 0:19:41Chair Capito: I look forward to advancing the brownfields reauthorization act of 2025. Next we will consider s. 351, the strategies to eliminate waste and accelerate recycling development act of 2025. This legislation combines two separate recycling ills we had last congress that passed unanimously not just by this committee but also out of the united states senate.
▶ 0:20:09Chair Capito: The steward act reflects years of input from members on both chambers on both sides of the aisle. These efforts result in a bipartisan agreement that nearly became law at the end of last congress.
▶ 0:20:26Chair Capito: Far too many americans -- for too many americans cannot recycling rains out of reach, either because facilities do not exist in communities or because the infrastructure to make recycling economically feasible is not in place. The act aims to close those gaps by ensuring recycling services are available to all communities.
▶ 0:20:51Chair Capito: The data provisions of the steward act will empower decision-makers to make progress and make informed decisions that will drive real change in our nation's recycling system. These bills, the committee can begin passing legislation through the well-established bipartisan tradition that has characterized this committee's success. I urge my colleagues to support these bipartisan bills.
▶ 0:21:19Chair Capito: Also on the agenda, items run the committee, our rules, and our budget. My staff reviewed the previous rules of the committee and propose some updates for the rules.
▶ 0:21:34Chair Capito: The three main changes to the rules we are providing for -- are providing for receiving sworn testimony from witnesses, having transcripts kept from business meetings, and setting a clear process for issuing subpoenas either by agreement of the chairman and ranking member or by a majority vote of the committee. Passage of our committee funding resolution is necessary to ensure we continue the good work of the committee into the 190th congress.
▶ 0:22:03Chair Capito: Our budget will ensure the committee has resources to develop the surface transportation reauthorization bill, work toward bipartisan solutions to fix our environmental review and permitting processes, reauthorize the toxic substance control act, and continue our work on oversight and implementation of the laws and the committee. I urge our members to support the committee rules and budget resolution.
▶ 0:22:30Chair Capito: I would like to join my team member joining our new member from ohio. We are glad to have you here. With that, I will turn into the ranking member.
▶ 0:22:41Sen. Whitehouse: We should also add our gratitude to senator moran for his two weeks of service to the committee. We had a real -- made a real contribution. I will think share capital -- chair capito for moving bipartisan bills out of committee. I'm pleased to join the chair and -- in the steward act. We are living through a plastic pollution crisis.
▶ 0:23:12Sen. Whitehouse: Every minute, a garbage truck with the plastic gets dumped into our ocean. There are more than 16 trillion pieces of micro plastic and just the top two inches of the floor of the bay. That is nearly a thousand tons of plastic. Micro plastics have been turning up in a lot of unwelcome places, like human blood, human hearts, human brains, breastmilk, and placentas of pregnant women.
▶ 0:23:42Sen. Whitehouse: We are learning how plastics affect human health, but the effects potential include cancer, diabetes, reproductive disorders, and neurological impairment. In our country is handling disposal of plastic waste abysmally. The national academy study, a bill that center verse -- senator sullivan and I lead, found the U.S. was the biggest producer of plastic waste, yet the recycling rate for plastics in the U.S.
▶ 0:24:11Sen. Whitehouse: Was between 5% and 9%. That blue been is basically a fake. In light of the vast scale of the plastic pollution crisis, I want to stress that the steward act is one step toward solving a huge and complicated problem. There is more we need to do to improve recycling rates and reduce the amount of plastic seeping into our bodies and environment.
▶ 0:24:37Sen. Whitehouse: I look forward to mark -- to working with chair capito and other members of the committee to continue work on this bill before it gets to a vote on the floor.
▶ 0:24:52Sen. Whitehouse: I would be remiss not to make clear, given the moment we are in, that our ability to work together on future legislation will be highly dependent on whether president trump and the executive branch respect the constitutional order and statutory law and end their illegal funding freeze and the impoundment threats.
▶ 0:25:21Sen. Whitehouse: The appropriations clause of the constitution is clear that congress determines how much money the government will spend and for what purposes. With respect to already obligated funds, federal law and regular require those moneys be dispersed absent a real showing of wrongdoing on the part of the recipient. As if it were not bad enough that the laws -- that the administration is usurping congressional authority, it appears it is ignoring the judicial branch as well.
▶ 0:25:51Sen. Whitehouse: Not one but two federal courts have ordered the administration to end this illegal freeze, and yet you're hearing across the country of projects and programs that remain frozen. In rhode island, or state government reports moneys awarded marine frozen. Our transit agencies have zero clarity about whether money awarded under various grant programs will come through.
▶ 0:26:14Sen. Whitehouse: It appears the administration has retreated behind a fog bank of non-camino k and non-response -- communication and nonresponse so there is no individual saying no who can be targeted with a court order but funding remains frozen. That is not a fair way to treat courts and not the right way constitutionally to behave. In massachusetts, grant money awarded under nepa brownfields program remains frozen.
▶ 0:26:44Sen. Whitehouse: In new mexico, money is awarded under epa tribal grants to prevent flooding of schools is still frozen. These are a few of many examples and I'm sure you have heard examples from your states as well. This is wrong and harming our constituents. Programs to remove lead from drinking water and clean up heavily precluded -- polluted communities will not move forward.
▶ 0:27:12Sen. Whitehouse: Renewable energy will not be deployed, preventing improvements in air quality and ensuring our constituents remain vulnerable to price shocks from a volatile oil and gas market. This is also wrong because it represent a breakdown of our constitutional system of government. I have worked with many here in congress on legislation. I have worked with the chair on nuclear and carbon capture bills. I have worked with senator cramer.
▶ 0:27:40Sen. Whitehouse: I have worked with senator wicker on anti-doping legislation. I have worked with senator graham on legislation targeting corrupt oligarchs. I have worked with senator sullivan on plastics legislation. I am someone who wants to get things done and I started congress excited about bipartisan possibilities for carbon capture, geothermal, and carbon tariffs, to name a few. I do not say this lightly.
▶ 0:28:07Sen. Whitehouse: I believe I speak for my side of the dais and the whole democratic caucus and I say our appetite to move bipartisan legislation will disappear if this funding freeze does not and and the impoundment threats sees -- cease.
▶ 0:28:28Sen. Whitehouse: I appreciate that the chair has defended congress's power of the person appreciate she and her staff have worked with me and my staff to find a path forward on matters affecting our constituents. I hope all of us can agree that epa and other agencies we oversee must provide us answers. That was the opening question in the matter of form and this committee.
▶ 0:28:54Sen. Whitehouse: Friday comment democratic members of the committee wrote to them in a result in asking for information about the funding freeze. My staff has followed up twice with no response. We are waiting for answers. So are our constituents. We are also trying to get information about the effort to induce epa employees to quit with an offer that has neither statutory authority nor appropriated funds to back it up.
▶ 0:29:24Sen. Whitehouse: I think that is called fraud in the inducement. There are parliaments in autocratic regimes all over the world. We can all agree that is an example to avoid. This issue is bigger than democrats versus republicans. It goes to the core operations of our constitutional republic. Let us work together to end this illegal funding freeze and preserve our constitutional order.
▶ 0:29:53Chair Capito: Thanks to the ranking member. I know center blunt rochester once to speak on the rounds field bill. If she would hold while we go ahead and take the votes while we have critical mass here, that would be appreciated because a quorum is not present so we are going to proceed to the voting portion of the business meeting. I will recognize any member who would like to speak after the voting is complete.
▶ 0:30:19Chair Capito: The ranking member and I agreed to consider the committee funding resolution and to consider the substitute amendment to the committee funding resolution as adopted. The substitute was a minor typo change. I moved to approve the committee funding resolution as amended by the substitute amendment and committee rules. Is there a second? All those in favor, say aye. In the opinion of the chair, the ayes have it.
▶ 0:30:51Chair Capito: The committee rules are approved. I know for the record a quorum of the committee is present at the time of this vote. I will now call up s. 347, the brownfields reauthorization of -- act of 2025. Does anyone wish to be recognized to offer an amendment?
▶ 0:31:11Sen. Markey: I think the chair and appreciate your efforts to move forward these bills, but looking at the chaos in the executive branch caused by elon musk and his unelected and unqualified minions who are running amok in every one of the agencies tasked with executing the laws passed by congress and delivering services to our constituents, I have to ask, what are we doing here?
▶ 0:31:42Sen. Markey: Brownfields money was shut off unilaterally last week. The hard-working men and women who serve their communities by cleaning up toxic waste were not sure if they would get a paycheck. The community is counting on economic revival were not sure if they will get stuck with toxic legacies for decades to come because the trump administration has managed under the thumb of the unelected billionaire elon musk to illegally stop programs to clean up our environment that were authorized and appropriated by
▶ 0:32:12Sen. Markey: Congress on a bipartisan basis. Yet we are here, working diligently on behalf of all those who elected us to office to reauthorize and approve that browns field -- that program knowing administration might decide to ignore the law again tomorrow. It is more than just brownfields.
▶ 0:32:34Sen. Markey: The environmental protection agency was forced to stop providing funding to programs authorized and appropriated by congress to get toxic pollution like p fast -- pfas out of our drinking water, to help buy new school buses and make homes safer and more comfortable.
▶ 0:32:55Sen. Markey: Judges across the country have stepped in against the trump administration illegal funding cut off, but the chaos continues . Uncertainty continues. Our constitutional crisis continues. Why are we working together collaboratively across the aisle with people in all 50 states to pass new laws if the trump administration is going to pick and choose which laws it will follow?
▶ 0:33:20Sen. Markey: What is the point of congress, which holds the power of the purse and all legislative powers under article one of the constitution if our laws can be ripped up on the whims of one single unelected billionaire? I know my colleagues may not always agree with every law on the books. I know you have voted against some of those programs. I don't like all the laws we have either, but I do not think that means the constitution does not apply to the laws I do not like or you do not like.
▶ 0:33:50Sen. Markey: That is why I offer the men meant to this bipartisan reauthorization. It simply states that the president has to fully follow the law and that funding cannot be withheld once authorized and appropriated by congress and if we passed laws on behalf of the american people these laws should work on behalf of the american people.
▶ 0:34:20Sen. Markey: I appreciate that chair capito and the environment -- that chair capito and senator whitehouse want to the environment protection agency and I believe you do. Thanks to our efforts, court efforts -- court orders appeared to be working and the inflation reduction act -- these are laws that came out of this committee to clean up the air, water, land
▶ 0:34:52Sen. Markey: In our communities. We should not need a sense of congress for laws passed by congress to be executed by the president. I am not calling this amendment up for the vote because it should be enough, but if the trump administration continues to illegally seize funding and unconstitutionally stop operating programs to clean up our communities and stop pollution, I civilly do not see how we can let the committee work as if we are in business as
▶ 0:35:23Sen. Markey: Usual going forward. I cannot commit to that. This is our first test. Are we a nation of laws or not? Will the administration except that this committee has the ability to pass laws? And that an unelected billionaire cannot go in and arbitrarily select the laws that will be enforced? This is our first test. We are a nation of laws.
▶ 0:35:54Sen. Markey: We must pass that test before we can pass these bills. That is the sense that I have of where we are historically because this is just one small subset of all of the laws on the books that protect all the people and it is not for one unelected billionaire to say we are throwing entire agencies or entire sections of the law into a wood chipper because he does
▶ 0:36:25Sen. Markey: Not like it. If he has individual objections, he should come. You have the majority. We should have the hearings and vote on whether we want to wipe out agency after agency, but that is our job. They should identify the fraud and bring it to us and we will vote on it.
▶ 0:36:46Sen. Markey: Much of that fraud, I will vote with you to root out, but not if it is going to be futile for us to act and vote whether it will be implemented. That is the moment in history we are at this committee as part of that and my sense of congress resolution is that these laws should be upheld is acidly central to our own common understanding of who we are and what we represent.
▶ 0:37:15Chair Capito: I understand you have withdrawn the amendment -- you offered the men meant as stated. I appreciate that and I think that is why we are here, because the brownfield program is important to all of us. There is very strong support. My understanding is that the epa as of tuesday evening meant the program is not subject to the funding pause. I understand concerns going forward.
▶ 0:37:41Chair Capito: Our staff have spoken about this issue and we have been working with you for your particular project to make sure it can move forward expeditiously. I would say in response to one of the comments that the ranking member made, I heard and ministers alden -- administrator zeldin say he would respond to our inquests and requests for information.
▶ 0:38:07Chair Capito: We have frustration over the last four years from unanswered inquiries from our side of the aisle from the previous administrator, so I will be in my next conversation with the administrator making sure he is more responsive in a timely fashion. With that, I am going to call up the brownfield bill. I move that the committee report the bill -- are there any other amendments?
▶ 0:38:33Chair Capito: Is there a second on the brownfield bill? Senator sullivan, did you have something?
▶ 0:38:44Sen. Sullivan: The chair deferred on hearing senator blunt rochester because there are other committees that need members present and the sense of the chair was we would vote and then here debate. If we are going to have extended debate, we are going to have to notify other committees that members will -- I propose that we go ahead and hear your motion.
▶ 0:39:14Chair Capito: I called for amendments. Senator markey had an amendment he was going to put up and withdrawal. >> I will yield to my colleague and talk about my amendments -- I was going to put forward but I will withdraw. I will talk about it after.
▶ 0:39:29Chair Capito: Thank you for bringing that forward. We will move forward with the committee report. Is there a second? All those in favor? All those opposed? In the opinion of the chair, the legislation is favorably reported. A quorum of the committee is present at the time of the vote. I will call up s.
▶ 0:39:49Chair Capito: 351, strategies to eliminate waste and accelerate recycling development. >> I'm going to offer an amendment and withdraw it. This amendment deals with the topic about reuse and rebuild.
▶ 0:40:12Chair Capito: Could I interrupt for a second? We are under a time constraint from the senator's committee. Would you mind withdrawing? >> I am offering to withdraw it now with the understanding that our teams have talked and you will work with me to pursue this piece.
▶ 0:40:32Chair Capito: I will work with you to pursue this, yes. I appreciate that. I move that the committee report the bill favorably. Is there a second? All opposed, say no. In the opinion of the chair, the legislation is favorably reported. I note they quorum of the committee is present at the time of the vote. That concludes the voting portion of today's business meeting.
▶ 0:40:59Chair Capito: With any senator -- would any senator like to be recognized now? >> I want to thank my colleagues for working with us to pass this legislation, to reauthorize the epa program that helps breathe new life into communities across our country. As everyone here knows, the program empowers states, communities, and stakeholders to work together to address environmental contamination and repurpose land.
▶ 0:41:30Chair Capito: When a brownfield is cleaned up, redevelop end of that property rings new jobs and increased tax revenue. In 2017, a study concluded cleaning up brownfield's can generate up to 97 million dollars in additional tax revenue for local governments.
▶ 0:41:47Chair Capito: These are great benefits that help improve our environment, our economy, our health, and job opportunities and I am proud to coleader this bill with you as I take on the work of our former chairman, senator tom carper. I want to thank him for his leadership as well. Today moves us closer to providing meeting funding -- needed funding to help repurpose cut reimagine, and redevelop neighborhoods.
▶ 0:42:15Chair Capito: I would say in closing that it was important for me to be on this committee because my state is the lowest mean elevation state in the country. We have challenges like others, but one of the reasons why I wanted to be on this committee, having worked with you, is because of the bipartisan nature.
▶ 0:42:39Chair Capito: I hope this moment, which is an inflection point for all of us, that the historic nature of this committee continues to operate that way, in a bipartisan fashion.
▶ 0:42:53Chair Capito: I am concerned about usurping the power of congress and I hope we can stay unified in our efforts to make sure these programs that we fund, that we appropriate, that we legislate are actually and lamented -- implemented so we can see the benefits are for two in my statement.
▶ 0:43:15Chair Capito: I recognized senator sullivan.
▶ 0:43:19Sen. Sullivan: I wanted to touch on the two amendment's I had, sullivan one in sullivan two. I am hopeful we can move these in a bipartisan way. This relates to alaska native lands in alaska. The background is in 1971 congress passed the biggest land claim settlement probably in the history of the world for native people, 40 4 million acres of state and federal land, I think bigger than california, went to the native people of alaska.
▶ 0:43:53Sen. Sullivan: They set up alaska native corporations and regional corporations. They own this land. It is a very innovative program. Unfortunately, a lot of the land that the feds gave to the native people of alaska was polluted, very polluted. We have legislated in this committee before -- senator carper was a cosponsor of some of my legislation. It has been very bipartisan.
▶ 0:44:17Sen. Sullivan: I am hoping that colleagues can join me in my amendments because the amendments essentially make no sense. The first amendment addresses a challenge. In terms of brownfield programs, to have clean up on alaska native lands that the federal government gave to the native people polluted, it says -- it does not include petroleum that pollutes those lands.
▶ 0:44:48Sen. Sullivan: Why would it not include petroleum? This is the federal government that polluted the land, nobody else, so we want an amendment that says you can apply for funds that would include cleaning up petroleum sites that the federal government gave to the native people of alaska polluted with petroleum. It seems crazy that is not in the law now. I would like to try to fix that.
▶ 0:45:17Sen. Sullivan: Sullivan two is even crazier, which requires right now fixing something crazy, which requires now on the law before you can start a cleanup of contaminated lands in alaska, on alaska native lands polluted by the federal government, you have to start with a process to get permission to clean up contaminated lands. I think that is nuts because it takes time, money.
▶ 0:45:50Sen. Sullivan: Everybody knows these are contaminated lands because of the feds. We need a categorical exclusion saying do not need a process to start the cleanup of polluted lands for the native people of my state. Those are the amendments, very common sense. Senator carper and I have worked together previously. Previously it was going to say the feds gave you polluted lands and now you have to clean them up and pay for it. What?
▶ 0:46:23Sen. Sullivan: We fix that in this committee in a bipartisan way. These are more common sense amendments that I hope we can get past that bring fairness to what we are all trying to do, clean up polluted native lands that were polluted by the federal government when they gave the lands to the native people of alaska in the first place. Thank you. I appreciate that.
▶ 0:46:48Chair Capito: For my standpoint, I want to work with you to try to work through these issues. It does sound very much common sense in my opinion. Serving on this committee with you as I have for several years, I have learned so much about your history and your state's history and the unique challenges. We all have unique challenges in our statement but you may have the most unique challenges.
▶ 0:47:17Chair Capito: Thank you for being willing to keep this last bill on track and we will help address this petroleum contaminated sites.
▶ 0:47:23Sen. Whitehouse: I look forward to working with senator sullivan as well. A concern will be to make sure if there is liability for the pollution on the part of the fossil fuel industry that they are paying an appropriate share to remedy what they did. If it is only the federal government that has cost this, it is one thing.
▶ 0:47:43Sen. Whitehouse: If the federal government -- if it was polluted by the fossil fuel industry and transferred without settling up with the fossil fuel industry for that harm, they should not be able to walk away from accountability. That is the issue we have to address.
▶ 0:47:59Chair Capito: With no further business, the committee stands adjourned. I want to thank everyone. Thank you. [captioning performed by the national captioning institute, which is responsible for its caption content and accuracy. Visit ncicap.org]