mr. rahall: mr. chairman, i yield myself such time as i may consume. the chair: without objection. the gentleman is recognized. mr. rahall: i rise in support of h.r. 2018. for far too many years now my state and others throughout the appalachian region that produce coal to power our nation have been struggling under the weight of an uncertain federal permitting process. that uncertainty has left coal miners and mining communities living in an untenable limbo. the result has been the creation of a atmosphere of worry, distrust, and of bitterness. i had hoped that under this administration we would finally find our way to some fair -- clarity and common ground, unfortunately that has not been the case. rather than bringing sides together and fostering balance, the e.p.a.'s actions in recent months have widened the division. they have spurred the tension of divided opinion over service coal mining to fracture what should be a cooperative relationship among the federal and state agencies with permitting

mr. rahall, has said we worked closely together. we've done everything we can do in order to work with mr. mica and mr. petri in order to get a bill. but i've read reports and i just heard mr. mica say on the floor again today that we could wrap this conference up in 20 minutes and he said today we could wrap it up within an hour, that there's only one issue that's remaining. just for the record, let me say if that's the case we have not been consulted on that one issue. there are several issues, and just for the record i would say one major issue that had not been resolved on other side, on the house side between the majority and minority, let alone on the -- wet other body is, one, funding levels, two, essential air service, three, repeal of the national mediation board, fourth is the d.c. issue, and the occupational health and safety issue for flight attendants, the lithium battery issue and the aircraft activity disclosure to the product, the bar program, and we have a list of other things to my knowledge have not been resolved.

mr. rahall: i yield my time. mr. shuster: i yield to the chairman of the transportation and infrastructure committee, mr. mica. the chair: the gentleman is recognized for four minutes. mr. mica: madam speaker and my colleagues, i rise in strong support of the proposal by the gentleman from nebraska, mr. terry. we should all be thanking mr. terry for this initiative. not only are people in this country hit by incredible unemployment economic challenges, a dysfunctional congress, but as they go to the local service station to fill up with gasoline, they're paying record prices. i woke up this morning and i heard one of the commentators said -- was interviewing an expert on, again, energy and he predicted that one year from now we'll be paying between $4.50 and $5.50 for a gallon of gasoline. now, you had the ranking member for me fast tracking this legislation. i guess i beat a record of not -- i'm telling you, i will waive this and anything else we need to do to get this country in energy -- get this country energy in

mr. rahall: this amendment is not about the clean water act. this amendment is about a bureaucratic guidance on an issue, on an issue that this congress attempted to take up last time that simply among other things said that the jurisdiction of the clean water act would not be navigatable waters. mr. hastings: now, that causes a whole lot of us in the west a lot of problems. coming from an irrigation area, it bothers me because that means that the federal government would now be in charge of anything not navigatable which could be irrigation streams. mr. dicks: reclaiming my time. i'd just say to the gentleman, why don't you as chairman -- do you have jurisdiction over this or is this the commerce committee? mr. hastings: this is transportation. mr. dicks: which one? mr. hastings: transportation. diction dks you guys are in the majority now. -- mr. dicks: you guys are in the majority now. you are chairman of the committee. why don't you have the committee hold a hearing? we don't -- the fact is what you're trying to do in this appropriations bi