Doris O. Matsui, CA
“I want this bill to pass. We can clean dirty places and get useful stuff from them at the same time. Many places are dirty. My district has dirty places too. Taxpayers pay to clean them. We need that stuff for clean energy. Trump is to blame for high energy prices. The bill will help get that stuff out of dirty places. It will also make people clean up dirty places. It is good for the environment and good for getting that stuff. Please vote for the bill.”
“I want the House to pass this bill. It helps the EPA clean up polluted land and collect important minerals from the waste. We need these minerals for clean energy to help lower families' energy bills.”
“Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume. Mr. Speaker, I rise in support of H.R. 9616, the Environmental Monitoring and Remediation Technology Assessment Initiative Authorization Act. This bill would help us reach the dual goals of cleaning up toxic sites while also ensuring critical minerals found at those sites don't go to waste. This bill authorizes the Environmental Protection Agency to establish a grant program to identify and recover critical minerals from contaminated sites. There are countless Superfund and other contaminated industrial sites across the country, including in my home district. Many of these sites have been abandoned for decades, with local communities suffering the consequences. While we clean up through public funds, we could also help replenish our domestic supply of critical minerals needed for clean energy projects to save American families money on soaring energy bills, and those bills are soaring now thanks to Trump's reckless war of choice in Iran. This program is a shot in the arm for emerging technologies to extract critical minerals from contaminated sites and waste that would otherwise sit in landfills. It also has an added benefit of incentivizing cleanups of some of the world's worst toxic sites in the Nation. This program is a clear win-win for the environment and our domestic supply chain. I urge my colleagues to support H.R. 9616, and I reserve the balance of my time.”
Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume. Mr. Speaker, I rise in support of H.R. 9616, the Environmental Monitoring and Remediation Technology Assessment Initiative Authorization Act. This bill would help us reach the dual goals of cleaning up toxic sites while also ensuring critical minerals found at those sites don't go to waste. This bill authorizes the Environmental Protection Agency to establish a grant program to identify and recover critical minerals from contaminated sites. There are countless Superfund and other contaminated industrial sites across the country, including in my home district. Many of these sites have been abandoned for decades, with local communities suffering the consequences. While we clean up through public funds, we could also help replenish our domestic supply of critical minerals needed for clean energy projects to save American families money on soaring energy bills, and those bills are soaring now thanks to Trump's reckless war of choice in Iran. This program is a shot in the arm for emerging technologies to extract critical minerals from contaminated sites and waste that would otherwise sit in landfills. It also has an added benefit of incentivizing cleanups of some of the world's worst toxic sites in the Nation. This program is a clear win-win for the environment and our domestic supply chain. I urge my colleagues to support H.R. 9616, and I reserve the balance of my time.