Rob Bishop

Mr. BISHOP of Utah

Mr. BISHOP of Utah. Mr. Speaker, for the purposes of debate only, I yield the customary 30 minutes to the gentlelady from New York (Ms. Slaughter), pending which I yield myself such time as I may consume. During consideration of this resolution, all time yielded is for the purpose of debate only. General Leave

Mr. BISHOP of Utah. No, thank you.

Mr. BISHOP of Utah. I appreciate the honor. Will the gentlewoman from Wisconsin let me finish the statement?

Mr. BISHOP of Utah. I appreciate the interruption, but let me finish here. And probably not. Let's get on with the issue at hand here. The point of order basically, Mr. Speaker, is still specious. It is in order to allow the House to continue its scheduled business for the day because the issue of the point of order is the unfunded mandate, not the other merits towards the legislation. So I do urge Members to vote ``yes'' on the question of consideration. We will have an additional hour to discuss anything you wish to on the rule debate, as well as a whole lot of time on the merits of the bill when we debate the bill itself. With that, I yield back the balance of my time.

Mr. BISHOP of Utah. Mr. Speaker, by direction of the Committee on Rules, I call up House Resolution 788 and ask for its immediate consideration.

Mr. BISHOP of Utah. Mr. Speaker, I rise to claim the time in opposition to the point of order and in favor of the consideration of the resolution.

Mr. BISHOP of Utah. I ask unanimous consent that all Members have 5 legislative days during which they may revise and extend their remarks.

Mr. BISHOP of Utah

Mr. BISHOP of Utah. Mr. Speaker, Weber State University is honoring people, and I wish to mention four individuals who are being honored by the university. State Representative Gage Froerer and State Senator Scott Jenkins will be receiving the Shurtliff Award for contributions to education. Both of them have done much for their particular communities, as well as Weber State and their outreach campus in Davis County. Receiving the prestigious President's Award will be Nolan Karras, a cum laude graduate from Weber State who also served as speaker of the house in Utah and was instrumental in Weber State attaining the status of university level. In addition to that, he has benefited the community as well as the education system in Utah ever since by being on the board of regents in Utah. The second nominee will also be one who has been called one of the brightest minds in Utah politics, Spencer Stokes, a 1995 graduate from Weber State who has done much in his community as the commissioner as well as an advocate, and who's also, I have to admit, gone over to the dark side and is a staffer for the Senate right now as the chief of staff for a Utah Senator, but we will forgive him for that. These four individuals have done much for the community, done much for their common county, Weber County, and the State of Utah, and are really deserving, very deserving of these honors they are being given by Weber State University today, and I wish to honor them as well.

Mr. BISHOP of Utah

Mr. BISHOP of Utah. Mr. Speaker, I am pleased to yield such time as he may consume to the author of this particular bill, who does a great job in representing his constituents--and this is one of those examples--the gentleman from New Mexico (Mr. Pearce).

Mr. BISHOP of Utah. I ask unanimous consent that all Members may have 5 legislative days to revise and extend their remarks and include extraneous materials on the bill under consideration.

Mr. BISHOP of Utah. Mr. Speaker, this is one of those bills where the minority and the majority have worked with the tribe to clarify. This applies to off-reservation water, their leasing authority. If the tribe still stays in place, it's intact. It's a technical amendment that has been cleared by all interested parties and moves us forward. I urge its adoption, and I yield back the balance of our time.

Mr. BISHOP of Utah. Mr. Speaker, I move to suspend the rules and pass the bill (H.R. 1461) to authorize the Mescalero Apache Tribe to lease adjudicated water rights, as amended.

Mr. BISHOP of Utah. Could I inquire if my colleague has any other speakers?

Mr. BISHOP of Utah

Mr. BISHOP of Utah. I think some of my staff thought I should be a little bit more expansive in my remarks. So this is a really good bill with a really good sponsor. Actually, this is one of those things where the nice part is, for this mitigation plan that will allow these projects to go forward, taxpayers are paying no money. It's paid by the utility ratepayers of this particular area. If this is not reauthorized, it may put that part in jeopardy. And we did put some guidelines in there to protect so that the overhead that can be charged to the utility ratepayers has a potential limit on it. It's a good bill. With that, I urge its adoption, and I yield back the balance of my time.

Mr. BISHOP of Utah. Mr. Speaker, I move to suspend the rules and pass the bill (H.R. 6060) to amend Public Law 106-392 to maintain annual base funding for the Upper Colorado and San Juan fish recovery programs through fiscal year 2019.

Mr. BISHOP of Utah. Mr. Speaker, I ask unanimous consent that all Members may have 5 legislative days to revise and extend their remarks and include extraneous material on the bill under consideration.

Mr. BISHOP of Utah. I am pleased to yield 2 minutes to my colleague who shares a border with me in our districts, the gentleman from Colorado (Mr. Tipton).

Mr. BISHOP of Utah. Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume. This is a good bill. It's got a great sponsor. Everyone should vote for it. I reserve the balance of my time.

Mr. BISHOP of Utah

Mr. BISHOP of Utah. Mr. Speaker, I move to suspend the rules and pass the bill (H.R. 3319) to allow the Pascua Yaqui Tribe to determine the requirements for membership in that tribe, as amended.

Mr. BISHOP of Utah. Mr. Speaker, since I doubt very seriously if I can get through any kind of statement and say ``Pascua Yaqui'' Tribe accurately, it would be my intent, if I could, to yield 10 minutes to the gentleman from Arizona to explain his bill. It's a good bill, we support it, and he can say it properly. I reserve the balance of my time.

Mr. BISHOP of Utah. Mr. Speaker, I ask unanimous consent that all Members have 5 legislative days to revise and extend their remarks and include extraneous material on the bill under consideration.

Mr. BISHOP of Utah. Mr. Speaker, the House actually passed a bill similar to this on tribal membership that recognized a tribe in Texas last year, so there is precedent for this event. I would therefore have no objection to the passing of this resolution today and urge Members' support of it. With that, I yield back all the remainder of the time.

Mr. BISHOP of Utah

Mr. BISHOP of Utah. Mr. Chairman, you know, we do processes here in government, and hopefully we do them for a reason. But when the process we have harms kids, we should ask ourselves why do we have this slavish devotion to the process. The problem before the State of Minnesota today is simply Federal action that took place 34 years ago that took lands guaranteed and devoted to the kids of Minnesota and took them away by Federal action. I live in a State that does have a State trust lands policy where the use of that school makes a significant contribution to the education of our kids. It wasn't always that way. We took it seriously. The State of Minnesota now wants to take this process seriously and develop resources that would be beneficial for their kids in a significant way and equalize the process, as we do in my home State, to benefit all the kids that are in public education. This is one of those situations in which we have had plenty of time to solve this problem but obviously the Federal Government has not moved forward to give to the State of Minnesota what will benefit their kids. In the hearing we had on this particular bill, the Forest Service said, Yeah, we can do this process. Give us about 4 years to evaluate all of these lands. Our Constitution gives us a right to a speedy trial. I wish it gave us a right to speedy decisions by bureaucrats. In 4 years an entire class of kids can start and finish high school without having any benefit from these lands that were theirs in the first place. I do not know why those who constantly breathe the air of the Potomac River are the ones who are always wringing their hands and dragging their feet, but it seems to be the same way. Mr. Chairman, you and I worked in the State legislature, where we had time limits. I had 45 days to get something accomplished or you didn't do it. I taught school on trimesters. I had 90 days to cover the material, or I didn't get to do it. Can you imagine what would happen if the principal came to me and said, We're going to do our final test on Tuesday. And I said, I'm sorry. I couldn't possibly cover all of that material by Tuesday. Maybe in 4 years from Tuesday I might be able, if you're lucky, to get through the material and actually be ready for that particular test. One of the issues in this campaign is indeed dealing with permits. What takes my State 45 days on average or less to permit takes the Federal government 307 days on average to do it. That's the process we're talking about here. The State of Minnesota has a State process in place. It covers tribal issues. It covers all of the issues that are there, and this would take precedence. The State of Minnesota is just as smart as the Federal Forest Service in solving these problems, except the State of Minnesota wants to do it quickly and the Federal Forest Service is not. This will also eliminate potential delaying litigation using Federal laws to actually do that. Look. It is simply time for us to realize that if this bill passes, it helps the Forest Service because it takes away inholding problems. It also helps kids of Minnesota because it guarantees a funding source for their education in the future. We should be doing our job and moving us forward and taking this process away from an agency that moves at glacial speed to help kids. It is time. It's time we do something to help kids instead of harming kids. This bill helps kids, and I am proud to vote for it.

Mr. BISHOP of Utah

Mr. BISHOP of Utah. Mr. Speaker, I move that the House do now adjourn.

Mr. BISHOP of Utah

Mr. BISHOP of Utah. I'm just grateful to the gentleman from Texas for actually broaching this issue. Jobs are important, but it's not just jobs for the sake of creating a job. This is a job that is essential for the defense of this country. This is our constitutional responsibility, and we need to take that seriously. Sequestration is basically, as you said I think at the very beginning, it's not what was planned here; it just kind of happened. It was a failed policy that happened. Now is the time to actually become adults about this and recognize that sequestration will not only destroy jobs, but it will destroy the defense of this country; and our responsibility is to make sure we defend this country and give every capability that when we send somebody into harm's way they have the equipment that is necessary to make sure they come back successfully. We don't want a fair fight. We want America to have the best equipment, and that flat out won't happen if we go through this big cut number three that we call ``sequestration.'' I thank the gentleman for allowing me to say something about this important issue, and I thank you for bringing it to the attention of the American people, sir.