Environment

We can stop this madness and prevent another crisis in the future, but it’s going to take the House Republican leadership to once and for all stop catering to what the Wall Street Journal has labeled the Kamikaze Caucus. It means they’ll have to fear the lasting damage they’re doing to our economy more than they fear radical Members and outside groups. It means they’ll have to start listening to the vast majority of Republicans who don’t want to careen from crisis to crisis.

A government shutdown is deeply harmful for our country, seriously disrupting essential government services and knocking our economy down at a time when we should be building it up. Instead of listening to Republican Senators and Governors, conservative newspapers, and business groups, House House Republican Leadership has thus far decided to listen to the Tea Party faction in Congress, which is dedicated to and even celebrating a government shutdown.

Garamendi led a group of Northern California Members of Congress in sending a letter to the U.S. Department of the Interior requesting specific information on past and future federal funding for the proposed Peripheral Tunnel project in the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta. The letter’s signatories also expressed strong concerns about the plan’s impact on Northern California’s economy.

Attendees included local, state, and federal maritime transportation officials, representatives from the Coast Guard and Army Corps of Engineers, along with prominent business leaders, labor leaders, and transportation stakeholders. The conversation boiled down to a lack of federal funding for maritime and transportation infrastructure and unwillingness among many in Congress to make the connection between economic growth and a well-functioning national freight system.

“Since the first day I entered Congress, I have been a leading advocate for Make It In America policies that can help grow America’s manufacturing capacity. This wastewater collection system upgrade is exactly the type of project we need to create jobs and make our economy more resilient,” Congressman Garamendi said.

The National Center for Sustainable Transportation will assert national leadership in reducing carbon emissions from transportation systems while supporting climate adaptation activities and continued mitigation of air pollution and other threats to public health.

"I met with local officials, educators, health officials, tribal leaders, and land managers on the many federal issues that impact the local community. Clean and reliable water, good schools, safe public lands, health access for the sick, job opportunities, and honoring our historical commitment to the Native American community: that was the agenda today, and the only ‘D’ and ‘R’ I was concerned about was District and Representative.”

Today ARPA-E announced a new $1.5 million grant for UC Davis for advanced energy research.