Today, U.S. Senator Markwayne Mullin (R-OK) participated in an Environment and Public Works (EPW) Committee hearing on drinking water systems and the implementation of the Drinking Water and Wastewater Infrastructure Act. In his remarks, Mullin, the Ranking Member of the Chemical Safety, Waste Management, Environmental Justice, and Regulatory Oversight Subcommittee, stressed the importance of giving states and municipalities the flexibility to innovate and direct dollars without being burdened by restrictive regulatory conditions.

Watch Mullin’s full EPW remarks here.

“We all face unique challenges being from the Midwest and rural states, like Oklahoma and North Dakota, and even major metropolitan areas such as Boston, New York City, San Francisco, Los Angeles…

“We all have issues facing us when it comes to clean water. Sometimes its policy related, sometimes its neglect, sometimes it’s a lack of funding. What we do know is one size does not fit all. We need to give municipalities, states flexibility to allow them to make decisions for their unique areas….

“When we throw a tremendous amount of funding – $55 billion is a lot of money…and then we put restrictions on it, I think what we hear from all of our witnesses is, ‘We know where it needs to go, we need the flexibility to do so.’

“If we are going to be funding these projects, we need to make sure we get those dollars as close to the state, as close to the individuals providing the service as possible and give them the tools to do it without the restrictions which happens so often with federal funding. Every dollar has so many strings on it that they can’t even access it…”

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