So we can debate the law and what is appropriate but we cant give criminals a free pass toig north law or the laws that reason pass to ignore the laws or the laws that are on the books. Im sorry, i must oppose the amendment and strongly urge my colleagues to do the same. The chair does the gentleman reserve . Mr. Calvert i reserve the balance of my time. The chair the gentleman from california reserves his time. The gentleman from alabama is recognized. Thank you mr. Chairman. With all due respect to my colleague from california, no one is in favor of allowing criminals to commit crimes at any level of federal government. Palm palm or any part of the country mr. Palmer or any part of the country. I think it should be troubling to every member of this body that we have gone over the line in regard to becoming what could be viewed as a police state. In regard to the raid on the Wastewater Treatment facility, that is a city facility. That is the federal government sending armed agents and full in fullbody armor with weapons to a municipal facility. And i would beg the question, what was the threat assessment . This is going on in other parts of the country as well. And i think we have a responsibility to draw a line where Law Enforcements involved. If there is a threat assessment that would indicate the need to have armed officers assist the e. P. A. In an investigation or raid, theres ample Law Enforcement available to do that. So in that regard, i think this is an area where the e. P. A. Has overreached and respect to their responsibilities as regulators of the environment in respect to their sponlts as regulatering responsibility as regulators of the environment. I reserve the balance of my time. The chair the gentleman from california is recognized. Mr. Calvert i thank the gentleman. This is an important debait. I recognize that weve had federal agencies that have had overreach and have done things that go beyond their training and possibly should be done by other agencies. I wont disagree with that. But doing this in an appropriation bill is not the right place to do this. We should be the authorizers should have this debate and we shouldnt be making these determinations with an appropriation bill which just broadly states that were going to get rid of a whole swath of Law Enforcement, whether theyre good or bad. It doesnt determine that. Because we cant do that in this type of legislative process. With that id be happy to yield to the gentlelady from minnesota. The chair the gentlewoman from minnesota is recognized. Ms. Mccollum thank you. Mr. Chair if i may inquire how much time is remaining, so i dont consume all of the gentlemans time. The chair the gentleman from california has 45 seconds remaining. Ms. Mccollum thank you, mr. Chair. So ill just be short and sweet. I support the gentleman from californias strong objection to this amendment and would encourage people not to vote for it. Let me conclude with this. An e. P. A. Law enforcement official deserves a right to come home to their families safe at night. So they should have the tools that they need in order to do that. With that i yield back. The chair the gentlewoman yields back the balance of her time. The gentleman from california is recognized. Mr. Calvert again, i oppose this amendment and i yield back the balance of my time. The chair the gentleman from california yields back the balance of his time. The gentleman from alabama. Mr. Palmer how much time do i have . The chair 2 3 4 minutes remaining 1 4 minutes remaining. Mr. Palmer i appreciate the gentlelady from minnesotas response and i too agree that every federal official deserves to be able to go home safe and sound to their family. That, though, does not address the specific issue here in regard to whats going on with the e. P. A. If there is a need for armed intervention with a business or, in this case, with a municipality, there should be a clear threat assessment. There isnt any. There was no reason for anyone to think that they needed to go in in full body armor with weapons drawn. I think that that is part of what is going on here, that a lot of american citizens are concerned about. Is the overreach of the government. And particularly in regard to 70 federal agencies having armed agents in their employment. I agree with the gentleman from california, this needs to be a broader discussion. But with that, in that regard i think we should have that. But in respect to my amendment, i think we need to divert this funding away from this armed agency that the e. P. A. Is deploying, i think, without due course or without proper course. For that regard, i urge my colleagues to vote yes on this and i yield back the balance of my time. The chair the gentleman yields back the balance of his time. All time has expired. The question is on the amendment offered by the gentleman from alabama. Those in favor say aye. Those opposed, no. In the opinion of the chair, the noes have it. The amendment is not agreed to. The gentleman from alabama. Mr. Palmer mr. Chairman, i request a recorded vote. The chair pursuant to clause 6 of rule 18, further proceedings on the amendment offered by the gentleman from alabama will be postponed. For what purpose does the gentleman from california seek recognition . Mr. Calvert mr. Chairman. The chair for what purpose does the gentleman from california seek recognition . Mr. Calvert i move that the committee do now rise. The chair the question is on the motion that the committee rise. Those in favor say aye. Those opposed, no. The ayes have it. The motion is adopted. Accordingly, the committee rises. The speaker pro tempore mr. Chairman. The chair mr. Speaker, the committee of the whole house on the state of the union having had under consideration h. R. 2822 directs me to report that it has come to no resolution thereon. The speaker pro tempore the chair of the committee of the whole house on the state of the Union Reports that the committee has had under consideration h. R. 2822 and has come to no resolution thereon. For what purpose does the gentleman from texas seek reck fligs . Mr. Burgess seek recognition . Mr. Burgess mr. Speaker i send to the desk a plived privileged report. The speaker pro tempore the clerk will report the title. The clerk report to accompany House Resolution 350, resolution providing for consideration of the bill h. R. 6, to accelerate the Discovery Development and delivery of 21st century cures and for other purposes. The speaker pro tempore referred to the house calendar and ordered printed. Pursuant to House Resolution 333 and rule 18, the chair declares the house in the committee of the whole house on the state of the union for the further consideration of h. R. 2822. Will the gentleman from illinois, mr. Hultgren, kindly resume the chair. The chair the house is in the committee of the whole house on the state of the union for further consideration of h. R. 2822, which the clerk will report by title. The clerk a bill making appropriations for the department of the interior, environment and related agencies for fiscal year ending september 30, 2016, and for other purposes. The chair when the committee of the whole rose earlier today a request for a recorded vote on an amendment offered by mr. Palmer had been postpone and the bill had been read through had been postponed and the bill had been read. For what purpose does the gentleman from california seek recognition . Mr. Calvert mr. Chairman i rise to strike the last word. The chair the gentleman is recognized for five minutes. Mr. Calvert mr. Chairman, i want to thank chairman rogers for his leadership and support. Under his guidance, the Appropriation Committee is again setting the standard for getting things done in the house. This is the seventh of the appropriation bills that have come to the floor, that we hopefully will be able to pass tomorrow. And i also want to thank my good friend and ranking member, ms. Mccollum, for her partnership and work on this bill. Finally i want to thank each our subcommittee members for their efforts and their collegiality and that continues to be the hallmark of our subcommittees deliberations. Even though we may have differences of opinion within this bill, i greatly appreciate the members constructive contributions and i mean that sincerely. The committee has made some very difficult choices in preparing this bill. As reported by the appropriations committee, the fiscal year 2016 interior appropriation bill is funded at 30. 17 billion which is 246 million below the fiscal year 2015 enacted level and 3 billion below the budget request. Weve made a sincere effort to prioritize the needs within our 302b allocation and id like to point out some of the highlights of the bill. Again, this year the committee has provided robust wild land fire funding, Fire Suppression accounts department of interior and Forest Service are fully funded at the 10year average level. The hazardous fuel program was increased by 75 million to 526 million in fiscal year 2015enacted and that increase has been maintained in this bill. The bill also continues critical investments in indian country, a nonpartisan priority of this committee. Building upon the bipartisan work, former subcommittee chairman mike simpson, jim moran, norm dick, certainly my friend ms. Mccollum, the bill continues to make investments in education, Public Safety and Health Programs in indian country. Overall, funding for the Indian Health service has increased by 154 million or 3 while funding for the bureau of Indian Affairs and education is increased by 165 million or 6 from fiscal year 2015 levels. The largest percentage increase in this bill. The bill provides full funding for fiscal year 2016, for payments in lieu of taxes or the p. I. L. Program. P. I. L. Payments are made to 49 of the 50 states, as well as the district of columbia, guam, the u. S. Virgin islands and the commonwealth of puerto rico. The bill provides 2. 7 billion for the National Park service including more than 60 million in new funding relating to the centennial of the park service. Weve also addressed a number of priorities within the fish and Wildlife Service accounts. The bill funds popular costsaving sharing programs costsharing programs. It also provides for additional funds for combat to combat International Wildlife trafficking, protects fish hatcheries from cuts and closures continues funding to fight Invasive Species and reduces the backlog of species that are recovered but not yet delisted. The bill provides 248 million for the Atlanta Water conservation fund. Programs that enjoy broad, bipartisan support. Some members would prefer more funding, others would prefer less funding for lwcf. We attempted to forge a middle ground that begins to return an emphasis to lwcf to its original intent of recreation. Overall funding for e. P. A. Is reduced by 718 million or 9 from fiscal year 2015enacted levels. Members of the Great Lakes Region will be pleased to know that the Great Lakes Restoration Initiative is maintained atitiescal year 2015enacted level of 300 million rural water textcal assistance grants and many Technical Assistance grants and many categorical grants including ray done grants ra don grants. Again this year theres a great deal of concern over a number of regulatory actions being pursued by e. P. A. Which weve discussed over the last day and the absence of legislation without clear congressional direction. For this reason, the bill includes a number of provisions to stop unnecessary and damaging Regulatory Overreach by the agency. Id like to address the endangered species act. Weve had a number of amendments over the last day about this subject. Certainly this committee has no interest in interfering with science or letting any species go extinct but we are concerned about federal regulatory actions lacking in basic fairness and commonsense. And force departments to cut corners to meet arbitrary deadlines. No where is this more evident than with the sage grouse. States are concerned about land use plans and zates and private land owners. These partnerships are necessary to save both sage brush ecosystems and local economies. So long as sage grouse are not under imminent threat of ex tinchings, conservation must be given a chance to work. Thats why it maintains a oneyear delay. And with that. Mr. Chairman, i would like to strike the last word. The chair the gentleman is recognized for five minutes. Mr. Calvert as long as sage grouse are not under imminent threat, conservation must have a chance to work. And the sage grouse along with full funding to implement conservation efforts. The next step in a long legislative process. I hope over the coming months we will come together to find Common Ground and in that spirit i look to work with the members of the house on both sides of the aisle. As this bill moves forward hopefully the senate will act on a bill soon and we will be able to get back to regular order which is the hope for both sides. In closing, i thank the staff. Minority side, i thank rick, rita, joe, as well as rebecca. They played a roll role in the process and their efforts are appreciated. On the minority side, kristen, jackie, betsy, jason, daron and dave. I would like to thank ine and rebecca, alexander and tricia for their great work. Mr. Chairman this is a good bill and i enjoyed the bill over the last couple of days. And i thank you, mr. Chairman. One thing i want to talk about under my five minutes the wild and hazardous fuel Management Program is that it was mentioned earlier in the debate we are attempting to work out an agreement with both sides that we can hopefully move mr. Simpsons language forward and have a hazardous wildfire bill that h. R. 167, we are looking for cosponsors of the bill and looking for more support of that bill as we move this process forward. We did fund the bill with the 10year average. But this still isnt going to be sufficient if we have a significant wildfire year that we expect. Catastrophic wildfire can literally burn through any amounts of money we have set aside and it causes disruptions within the department of interior and department of forestry as to how they manage those accounts which is not Good Management on our part. I hope we can move with mr. Simpsons bill as quickly as possible. We also discussed the endangered species act and continue to talk about the states and the difficulties they are having working with fish and wildlife and other agencies in trying to work out their state plans. Its a deal with attempting to try to deal with these significant issues. As we look at our sage grouse strategy, we have 11 states involved in this program. We are doing everything we can to have cooperative program with private land owners and state lands and federal lands to make sure that we continue to have a sage grouse. We want to make sure that the sage grouse persists and we found funded b. L. M. And make sure that we have the Resources Available to do that. I would be happy toll yield to mr. Davis. Mr. Davis i want to congratulate the chairman of the subcommittee who has done a great job of getting this bill through the house. I would like to thank the ranking member. I sat in that chair last night where you were presiding over many different amendments. Much discussion on a wide variety of issues, but its what we came here to do in this institution, work in a process that i call our constitutional appropriation fs process. If we are to regain the power of the purse we ought to work through the appropriations process that so many hardworking colleagues have put in. This is an opportunity for us to begin the process once begin of prioritizing of how washington spends money which the way washington spent money when washington wasnt nearly as broke. We have the opportunity to come here to the floor and we get an upordown vote. And when our amendments dont pass, we shouldnt regain the power that congress has been given in our constitution. Mr. Chairman, congratulations. I look forward to supporting your bill. I had a great time presiding over the debate. And i kwleeled back. Mr. Calvert we will be having other bills in front of us. We are looking to having the Financial Services bill on the floor next week and other appropriation bills for the ball answer of the month. We want to have all 12 bills brought to the floor debated. And as we move back to regular order which the chairman has done a great job of moving this committee back to its historic importance. We appreciate your continued support this that process. As i mentioned on the Forest Service funding allocations, we are continuing to work to make sure that monies are available to fund the Forest Service research and development, to make sure that the analysis and Inventory Program continues to be funded. We recognize the renewable resource domestic timber supports local communities and u. S. Industry especially in the west, also helps reduce fuel load in our National Forests which is combrately needed because these fires are burning hotter and fire seasons are growing longer and more communities are at risk. Our forests need to be managed. Forest Service Estimates up to two million acres of land need to be actively managed. In the rocky mountains, 4 million acres have been affected by the bark beetle. We have seen results of that in my area, where thousands of acres have been devastated by this beetle that attacks weaken trees and certainly exposes a problem to wildfire conditions. And once those wildfires start, the fires become catastrophic and as we have seen just recently in a fire in a the san bernandino national forest. We are fortunate that it was well below the normal with 87 of the 10year average. And we are praying that is going to occur in the 2015 wildfire season. Most people believe thats not going to occur that because of the drought,