Growth in louisiana and prohibit us from protecting our citizens and residents from future damage caused by storms and also Prosper Economic Development at the same time. With that, mr. Chairman, i yield back. The chair the gentleman yields back the balance of his time. For what purpose does the gentlewoman from ohio seek recognition . Ms. Kaptur i move to strike the last word. The chair the gentlewoman from ohio is recognized for five minutes. Ms. Kaptur and rise in opposition to these very able gentlemans amendment and while i have some sympathy for this issue, and its not a new one this bill, i believe that more consistency should be brought to the way we evaluate wetland impacts, not less, as this amendment would ensure. The charleston method has been utilized for over two decades in various districts and is a quick and inexpensive and consistent methodology for use by the regulated public and the corps. In 2006 and 2007, the new orleans district worked with its federal and state partners to modify the charleston method reflected the er unique conditions found in south louisiana, resulting in the modified charleston method that our colleagues have suggested. Is a e of this method longstanding one in many corps districts. Many regulatory customers use the tool to assess their potential mitigation requirements for their impacts, as well as credits required at mitigation banks. This transparency in corps mitigation requirements has helped the applicant prepare a complete application package and determine mitigation costs up front. Importantly, costs. Up front. Costs often that are borne by the federal taxpayer. Suspension of the use of the charleston method in corps districts would require that any pending permit application under section 404 of the clean water act and pending mitigation banks, would need to be reevaluated using a different Assessment Tool or methodology in the absence or in the absence of such a methodology use the best professional judgment to determine appropriate mitigation requirements for impacts and for available credits in mitigation banks. All approved mitigation banks with available credits that were determined by the process would be temporarily closed until a new methodology could be developed and the banks credits converted to the Credit System of the new methodology. These banks were established utilizing the Credit System of the charltston method and until a similar Credit System can be determined for proposed impact sites it would not be possible to correlate the new requirements in the old Credit System. So were into the weeds on this one. And we know that the difficulty at the edges where the water meets the land, where we have very severe coastal conditions that occur as a result of whether changes weather changes and so forth do require us to be more landplanning conscious. I think that the corps ive seen that the work theyve done in louisiana, and i appreciate the gentlemans concern about their home state. I think to try to change this in this bill is probably not wise policy and we know the cost of these damaged areas to the taxpayers of the United States. With coastal storms being what they are, we anticipate greater coastal activity and i think that wiser planning is better than moving to a process that i think is less rigorous. So on those by a cease i oppose the gentleman bases i oppose the gentlemans amendment but i do have sympathy for their region. And i yield back the balance of my time. The chair the gentlewoman yields back the balance of her time. The question is on the amendment offered by the gentleman from louisiana. Those in favor say aye. Those opposed, no. In the opinion of the chair, the ayes have it. He amendment is agreed to. For what purpose does the gentleman from massachusetts seek recognition . Mr. Chairman, lets try this again. I believe i have an amendment at the desk. The chair the clerk will report the amendment. The clerk amendment offered by mr. Lynch of massachusetts. At the end of the bill, before the short title, insert the following, section, the amounts otherwise provided by this act are revised by reducing the amount made available for department of energy, energy programs, fossil Energy Research and development, and increasing the amount made available mr. Lynch i ask unanimous consent that the amendment be considered as read. The chair without objection, so ordered. The gentleman is recognized for five minutes on his amendment. Mr. Lynch thank you, mr. Chairman. First of all, i want to thank the chairman, the distinguished gentleman from new jersey, and also ms. Kaptur from ohio, our Ranking Member, for the great work theyve done. In spite of the fact that many members are coming up with can up with refining amendments, i do want to acknowledge the great work theyve done, for example, on the manufacturing piece thats in this bill, as well as the Harbor Maintenance trust fund, which has been amply funded and is so important to a lot of the coastal communities. Myself representing the porlt of boston and port of boston and a large swath of the south shore of massachusetts, some beautiful cities and towns, i do appreciate the work that theyve done. However, there does appear to be a gap in funding with respect to the army corps of engineers and the purpose of my amendment would be to increase funding to the construction account for the army corps of engineers by 20 million. And this increase would of course be offset by decreasing the fossil fuel research account by a corresponding amount. I am fortunate to represent a district that relies heavily and benefits greatly from the proximity to the coast. And i have wonderful historic, that ful towns and cities , as i say, are benefiting greatly because theyre on the coast. They house commercial fishing fleets and host wonderful beaches and marinas and theyre vital components of our statewide economy and regional economy. But while these benefits are there, theyre also exposed to most recent violent coastal storms that have become increasingly devastating in recent years. Like many of my colleagues, ive seen firsthand the devastating effects that these much more intense storms have had on our communities. Beaches erode and roadways and bridges get washed away. In our case we havent been hit as hard as places like the district of the gentleman from louisiana or new jersey or new ork and the Superstorm Sandy effects. But much of our sea wall infrastructure and protection for our beaches has been damaged considerably. And weve benefited from prior congresses that have made sure that the funding and the to tenance has been there preserve that protection and we are at that point again. It seems like were having 100year storms every three or four years now in my district. And im sure its like that in a lot of places across the country. And i think its entirely appropriate that we balance this out, we rebalance the priorities here by putting 20 million into the construction account for the army corps of engineers while we are removing a corresponding amount from the fossil fuel research account. I think that most of us realize that the impacts of Climate Change are at least increasing the intensity of the storms that weve seen in recent years. And we need to provide the army corps of engineers in our communities with the resources they need to protect against these natural disasters and i believe my offset does that in a fitting way. Like president obama, i think we need an alloftheabove Energy Policy and im not here today to debate the cause of Global Warming or Climate Change, but temperatures and sea levels are rising and fossil fuel consumption is a contributing factor. So as long as we are forced to rely on fossil fuels we need to also deal with the fallout from our own energy policies. We need to protect our coastal communities from future devastation and for these reasons i urge my colleagues to support this amendment. I yield back the balance of my time. Thank you. The chair the gentleman from massachusetts yields back the balance of his time. For what purpose does the gentleman from new jersey seek recognition . Mr. Frelinghuysen i move to strike the last word, mr. Chairman. Mr. Chairman, i rise to oppose the gentlemans amendment. I share the gentlemans support for Smart Investments in our nations Water Resources infrastructure, though. In fact, the army corps of engineers has always been one of the Top Priorities in our energy and water bill. Total Program Level funding is 50 million above the budget request and almost 150 million above the postsequester level. Theres very strong member interest in the Harbor Maintenance activities, though most of these additional funds were included in the operation and maintenance account. Even so, Construction Funding is less than 1 below the president s budget. On the other hand, the bill already reduces funding for fossil energy by 84 million below the fiscal year 2013 level. Thats a 16 reduction. Ssil fuels such as coal, oil and natural gas provide for 82 of our Nations Energy needs and we will need to continue to use these valuable Energy Resources for generations to come. Research conducted within this program ensures we use our nations fossil fuel resources well and cleanly as possible. In fact, when we increase the efficiency of our fossil Energy Plants by just 1 , we could power an additional two million households without using a single additional pound of fuel from the ground. We simply cannot take a further reduction to this account and i urge my colleagues to oppose this amendment. And yield back. The chair the gentleman yields back the balance of his time. For what purpose does the gentlewoman from ohio seek recognition . Ms. Kaptur yes, i move to strike the last word. The chair the gentlewoman from ohio is recognized for five minutes. Ms. Kaptur i rise in support of the gentlemans amendment. Congressman lynch, i think has really thought through this proposal very well. His is a modest amendment and ctually the bill that we are considering is 29,425,000 above the budget request of the administration. So he is merely conforming his amendment to the initial request. For the record, we anticipate that the department will with this change spend approximately 420 million this year for fossil Energy Research and development. I agree with my esteemed colleague from new jersey about the importance of natural gas, for instance. Ohio is a state thats benefited deeply from that. A lot of that technology is going very well and the companies are making significant profits. They kin vest some of that in their own they can invest some of that in their own advanced development now. And with the additional drilling on public lands for oil and so forth, we are producing more than we have in modern history over the last several years. So i think its worthy to transfer some of these dollars to the corps. We have over 60 billion worth of corps projects that are backed up and in terms of job creation, that just rings home across this country because those corps dollars will be put to work in projects that have been backed up from coasttocoast. I would yield additional time to the gentleman. Mr. Lynch i thank the gentlelady for yielding and i appreciate her gracious remarks. I do want to point out, though, that since 2010, weve cut 688 million from this account. Now, we all we all have Great Respect and admiration for the army corps of engineers. But cutting 688 million since 2010 is reducing their ability to prioritize those probablies around the country that need to be worked on. Now, some of those are democratic districts and some of those are republican districts and thats not what this is about. This is about our infrastructure. And so a 688 million cut since 2010 is a serious obstruction for them to do their job. And thats all im asking here. Im asking that we recognize our responsibility and our stewardship, you know, of protecting sea walls and ports and marinas, where theyre on the great lakes or whether theyre on the atlantic or pacific coast. But just asking that we step up and meet our responsibility in a meaningful way. Thank you. Ms. Kaptur i thank the gentleman. I evidently very strongly support his amendment and i yield back the balance of my time. The chair the gentlewoman yields back the balance of her time. The question is on the amendment offered by the gentleman from massachusetts. Those in favor say aye. Those opposed, no. In the opinion of the chair, the noes have it. The amendment is not agreed to. Mr. Lynch i ask for a recorded vote. The chair pursuant to clause 6 of rule 18, further proceedings on the amendment offered by the gentleman from massachusetts will be postponed. For what purpose does the gentlewoman from tennessee seek recognition . Mrs. Blackburn i have an amendment at the desk. The clerk amendment offered by mrs. Blackburn of tennessee. At the end of the bill, before the short title, insert the following, section, none of the funds made available by this act may be used by the department of energy to finalize, implement or enforce the proposed rule entitled Energy Conservation standard ceiling fans and ceiling fan light kits and identified by regulation Identification Number 1904ac87. The chair the gentlewoman from tennessee is recognized for ive minutes. Mrs. Blackburn thank you, mr. Chairman. As i talk about this amendment, i want to pause for just a moment and commend the appropriators and the chairman. Hes accustomed of me coming down trying to cut 1 , 3 , but the appropriators have done that work for us. This is 30. 426 billion is below, is 2. 9 billion below last years levels. 700 million below the sequester level and 4 billion below the president s request. Indeed, its before the prepelosi budget which was 31. 5 billion. So as my former colleague in the Tennessee State senate used to say, the now mayor of knoxville, hed quote a tennessee author, if you find good, praise it. I praise the cuts on the front end and i focus my issue on ceiling fans and this administrations interest on overregulating ceiling fans. As many of my colleagues know, ceiling fans and ceiling fans light kits already face regulation set by the act of 2005. These burden ceiling fan manufacturers with ineffective mandates. However, despite the current mandates, the department of energy is looking to require additional mandates that will impact everything from the angle of the blade shape, airflow, light kit. They are determined to redesign the american fan and have issued a 101page rulemaking framework document which evalue waits the potential Energy Savings that new regulations would supposedly provide. Weve already seen the federal government stretch their regulatory tentacles into our homes in determining what kind of light bulbs we have to use. Now theyre coming after our ceiling fans. Its a sad state of affairs with even our ceiling fans arent safe from this administration. Enough is enough. These new regulations being considered by d. O. E. Will significantly impair the ability of ceiling fan manufacturers like hunter fans in memphis to produce reasonably priced highly decorative fans. They will force our constituents to use Less Energy Efficient mechanisms to cool their homes using more energy and it is imperative that we join together and prohibit any funding in this bill from being used by d. O. E. To finalize, implement or enforce new regulations on ceiling fans. And i yield the balance of my time. The chair the gentlewoman from tennessee yields back the balance of time. For what purpose does the gentleman from new york seek recognition . I have an amendment at the desk. The chair another amendment is currently pending. For what purpose does the gentleman from tennessee seek recognition . Thank you, mr. Chair. I move to strike the last word. The chair the gentleman from indiana is recognized for five minutes. Mr. Rokita i rise in strong support of the amendment offered by my friend, the gentlelady from tennessee, and like her i also want to thank the appropriators. As a member of the budget committee, our responsibility is to issue top line numbers that we stay within in order to bring down the deficit and ultimately address the towering debt that were facing as a country, not only today but even the worse debt well be facing given the current trend were on in the future. Mr. Chairman, remember when we were told to get our tires properly inflated and people snickered saying, is this an Energy Policy . Well, at least those ideas actually saved energy and actually saved cost. Albeit a drop in the bucket. But now in one of its latest efforts, along comes the department of energy and proposes a regulation to impose destructive and unnecessary Energy Efficiency standards for ceiling fans. And like much of their agenda, it is completely counterproductive. Its Big Government run amuck, another example. Its an example of the complete disregard bureaucrats have for the Practical Implications of the regulations that they issue. The department of energy contends that a certain amount of energy would be saved by requiring greater efficiency from ceiling fans, as the gentlelady mentioned and explained. Now, of course, that ignores the fact that ceiling fans are already far more Energy Efficient than other cooling devices like airconditioners. Recently General Electric published an article stating that a central air conditioning consumes 5,000 watts of electricity. A ceiling fan consumes 30 watts when operating under similar conditions. Thats over 165 times less electricity thats consumed by your typical central air conditioning system. Proposed regulations would increase the costs of ceiling fans and reduce the manufactures ability to roduce asthetically pleasi