Mike Collins

Mr. COLLINS

Mr. COLLINS. Mr. Speaker, I rise today to honor Dean Dale Greene of the University of Georgia's Warnell School of Forestry and Natural Resources, a role in which he has served since 2015. After decades of service to UGA and our great State, Dean Greene will retire at the end of this year. Dale is an accomplished man. He is a graduate of Louisiana State University, holds a master's degree from Virginia Tech and a Ph.D. from Auburn University. He joined the UGA faculty in 1986 and has served our school and this State in so many ways since. Dale currently sits on the board of trustees for the American Forestry Association and has been on the board of directors for the Georgia Forestry Association since 1992. He was appointed by two Georgia Governors to the State Board of Registration of Foresters, first in 2004 and then again in 2010. In 2007, Dean Greene received an Outstanding Research Award from the Society of American Foresters, the Herrick Award for Superior Teaching, and was later inducted into the Georgia Forester's Hall of Fame. His accomplishments don't end there. In 2008, Dale became a UGA senior teaching fellow and, in 2011, received the Georgia Forestry Association's Wise Owl award. These are just a few ways that Dale Greene has been recognized for his outstanding service to the State of Georgia, countless students, and the field of forestry. Mr. Speaker, as my friend embarks on his next chapter of life, he must know that his leadership has built a strong legacy. The Warnell School has grown and become so successful with him at the helm. I thank him for all he has done, and I wish him continued success in his retirement. Go Dawgs.

Mr. COLLINS

Mr. COLLINS. Mr. Speaker, merry Christmas. I thank Chairman Graves for yielding and for his leadership this year as we have worked to address many challenging issues that are facing our aviation industry. Hopefully, soon we will be celebrating enactment of the FAA reauthorization bill that was shepherded through the House in July rather than debating additional short-term extensions. However, Mr. Speaker, here we are, and I rise in support of the Airport and Airway Extension Act. This legislation will continue the current authorization of the Airport Improvement Program, Essential Air Service, and other key programs through March while we wait for the Senate to act on H.R. 3935. As we know, our Nation's airports--including Hartsfield-Jackson, which serves my home State of Georgia and, by the way, is the busiest in the world--are constantly working to build new infrastructure in response to rising demand for passenger and cargo services. They depend on AIP to keep those projects rolling and people and goods flying. That is why I support the Airport and Airway Extension Act, but I also call on the Senate to act quickly on our long-term FAA reauthorization bill, which will modernize FAA operations, grow the aviation workforce, strengthen the general aviation sector, improve the passenger experience, and so much more. Mr. Speaker, I urge my colleagues in the House to support the bill before us today and look forward to continuing our work to keep America's skies the safest and most efficient in the world.

Mr. COLLINS

Mr. COLLINS. Mr. Speaker, I thank the chairman for yielding and for his leadership on the Science Committee. It is great serving with him on the committee of the future. I rise in support of the TRANQ Research Act, which I introduced in March. It passed the Science Committee and the House unanimously. It then passed the Senate unanimously after it had been amended to include some technical changes and a reporting requirement on America's ability to address the growing threat of new psychoactive drugs. I support these changes, and I ask all Members to join me in sending this commonsense bill to the President for his signature. As you will recall, the TRANQ Research Act directs the National Institute of Standards and Technology to study dangerous fentanyl additives like xylazine that are putting the public and law enforcement at risk. Xylazine, which is also known as the zombie drug, is a dangerous substance containing a veterinary tranquilizer which makes fentanyl even more dangerous than it already is. The zombie drug has been popping up in nearly every State, and the DEA is reporting a substantial increase in the amount of fentanyl seized that contains this deadly additive. Exposure--and that is right, just exposure--to these drugs, whether you are taking them or not, can be deadly, and that means that law enforcement officers who are finding these drugs are in danger. This research is going to help them identify ways to detect fentanyl and its additives in the field and therefore take appropriate measures to protect themselves while keeping our communities safe. Mr. Speaker, this bill is one piece of a much larger fight against fentanyl and the other drugs plaguing our communities and ending so many lives prematurely. By understanding what these additives are, how to test for them, and how to safely handle them, we can better protect our first responders and our Border Patrol agents. I thank everyone who has made this moment possible: Representative Caraveo, Chairman Lucas, Ranking Member Lofgren, members of the Science Committee. I thank them for helping get this bill across the finish line.

Mr. COLLINS

Mr. COLLINS. Madam Speaker, one of our colleagues recently asked what our House majority has been doing that we can campaign on, things we can take back to the American people. In addition to James Comer and Jim Jordan exposing Biden's corruption, all committees have exposed Federal agencies, keeping them in check. It is not just here in D.C. We have been taking our hearings all over the country to learn what needs fixing from the American people. We have passed bills to unleash our energy sector, secure our border, and cut spending. We have sent bills over to the Senate to modernize Federal agencies and reduce regulations. We have passed 7 of 12 appropriations bills that cut spending and rein in unelected bureaucracies. We would have had all 12 of our appropriations done by now if Members would not stop making perfect the enemy of the good by taking down rules and bills that cut spending. To those who want to make more cuts, I do, too, and we can work on that. Let's at least start by getting off the Pelosi budget and cutting something. That is something we could campaign on, but only if we do it.

Mr. COLLINS

Mr. COLLINS. Mr. Chairman, you would think by just listening to this debate that we were sitting here debating funding and we were debating guns, and that is actually not the case. You see, Mr. Chair, what the Biden administration is trying to do is just another glaring example in a long list of glaring examples of what they have done to destroy the American fabric as we know it. Mr. Chair, you can look at inflation, and you can look at the wokeness in the military, but this is actually about an invasion, and now they are wanting to take a national park and turn it into a migrant camp. I want to tell you something, Mr. Chair: If you give this administration an inch, they will take a mile. That is just the beginning of this. People want to go see their national parks. They want to go see the Grand Canyon. They don't want to see a grand caravan. Instead of punishing Americans for its failures, the Biden administration should look to actual long-lasting solutions to the border crisis. House Republicans, Mr. Chairman, knew exactly right. We have already acted by passing H.R. 2, the Secure the Border Act. Mr. Chair, I want to urge all of my colleagues to support this bill and protect our national parks.

Mr. COLLINS

Mr. COLLINS. Mr. Chair, I have an amendment at the desk.

Mr. COLLINS. Mr. Chairman, my amendment prohibits any funding from being used by the Office of the Vice President for salaries and other expenses. Kamala Harris has been a failure as Vice President, from her inability to manage her team effectively, leading to high turnover, to her disastrous job as border czar, where she has failed to secure anything. Let's look at the numbers. Since the Biden-Harris administration took office, there have been over 6.2 million illegal crossings of our southern border. In September alone, there were 269,735 illegal immigrants encountered at the southern border. That is an increase of over 300 percent since September of 2020. Customs and Border Protection has seized over 27,000 pounds of fentanyl just in FY23. There have been 169 people whose names were on the terrorist list stopped while trying to cross the border. Cartels are making more than $13 billion a year from smuggling people across our border. The Biden-Harris far-left border policies are to blame for this crisis. What has this border czar done about it? Nothing. The only thing our Vice President has succeeded at is failing us. Mr. Chairman, I reserve the balance of my time.

Mr. COLLINS. Mr. Chairman, I think that the facts speak for themselves on our border czar, and I reserve the balance of my time.

Mr. COLLINS. Mr. Chairman, I am prepared to close. I am going to tell you something. I am a businessman. The one problem in this country is that southern border down there is wide open. We have folks flooding across that place. We have hot spots all over the world. We have already announced how many terrorists from the watch list we have caught down there. As a businessman, I look at that and I say, who is in charge of that? That is Vice President Kamala Harris. If you can't change out who is in charge of it, then it is our duty as Representatives to make sure that she doesn't get paid for not doing her job. The American people should no longer be on the hook for Vice President Harris' failures. Mr. Chair, I urge all my colleagues to adopt this amendment, and I yield back the balance of my time.

Mr. COLLINS

Mr. COLLINS. Mr. Chair, I have an amendment at the desk.

Mr. COLLINS. Mr. Chair, the job description of a Member of Congress is real short. It is to take care of your constituents and have oversight of the Federal Government. This amendment deals with the oversight portion. It is oversight of an unauthorized Federal agency, of which we have over 1,200 unauthorized agencies. An unauthorized agency is one that was simply not approved by Congress. In this case, the agency was approved through the executive branch to help with overseeing the implementation of NEPA back during the Nixon administration. Since then, it has become one of the rogue, woke, climate control warriors for the Biden administration, pushing rules and regulations. As a matter of fact, the budget for this unauthorized agency was around $3.75 million. It happened to grow during the Democrats' Inflation Reduction Act to over $62 million. Now, the Council on Environmental Quality is just one of a long list of unauthorized agencies in this Federal Government. During recent oversight hearings, on four occasions, Director Brenda Mallory was requested to come and testify. Now, she only showed up one time. During that time, she decided that she would refuse to answer questions. She didn't have to answer our questions on any subject. Let me make that even clearer. She wasn't refusing to answer my questions or the committee's questions. She was refusing to answer to the American people, the very taxpayers that foot the bill for that agency. You see, they have gotten to where, like other agencies, like the one that was just mentioned, they feel they don't have to answer to us. They don't have to answer to the American people. They are beyond that. It is beneath them to have to explain what they do. This amendment does one simple thing. $3.75 million is their annual budget. It simply takes that from this woke, climate-change-warrior- style agency, and it moves it over to the national parks to their construction fund, and what that does is that is going to help, Mr. Chairman, with the backlog of deferred maintenance that is in the national parks. The national parks are running a deferred maintenance because of Members from the other side of the aisle using their funds on the national parks for pet projects. Mr. Chair, I urge the passage of this amendment, and I reserve the balance of my time.

Mr. COLLINS. Mr. Chairman, this is a prime example of another rogue, unauthorized agency out there that is implementing rules and regulations for which they were not set up. It also is an agency that was issued $62 million through the Democrats' Inflation Reduction Act. Therefore, they have plenty of cash over there. This simply takes $3.75 million and moves it over to help with the deferred maintenance in the national parks. Mr. Chair, I yield back the balance of my time.

Mr. COLLINS. I ask unanimous consent to reclaim my time.

Mr. COLLINS. Mr. Chairman, I believe that $62.5 million was given to this agency in the Inflation Reduction Act, which was passed into law. Any bill that is out there that rescinds that money has not been signed. Therefore, it is still there. I am simply saying, take the $3.75 million, which is our duty as Members of Congress to have oversight, especially over an agency that was never authorized by Congress. I don't care which administration it is. Wrong is wrong. This agency is not authorized by this body. Therefore, I am asking for the funds to be moved over to the national parks for their deferred maintenance. I yield back the balance of my time.

Mr. COLLINS

Mr. COLLINS. Mr. Chair, I have an amendment at the desk.

Mr. COLLINS. Mr. Chair, my amendment prohibits any funding from being used by the EPA to finalize, implement, administer, or enforce NOAA's vessel speed limiter rule. This is a misguided rule that would require any vessel over 35 feet to go 10 knots or less all along the Eastern seaboard from Maine all the way down through Florida. They claim they are doing this in order to protect the North Atlantic right whale. Well, let's review some of the facts. Approximately 15 whales have been killed by boats in the last 18 years. You have got better odds of hitting the lottery than this. The right whale population has been consistent since 1980. The right whales used to calve every 3 to 5 years, but now they are only calving every 7 to 9 years. What is this rule going to do for the economic impact? It has a $84 billion economic impact on the East Coast. It will jeopardize 340,000 East Coast jobs, and there are 63,000 registered boats that will be impacted with this new rule. There is a better way to track these whales, but NOAA just refuses to do it. We tag horses, cows, pets, many other animals. Why can't we tag these whales as well? There is no reason that we can't use some commonsense solutions such as this. Tagging the whales would allow the boats to avoid any whales that are in the area without the need to put some burdensome speed restrictions all along the East Coast. Mr. Chairman, I reserve the balance of my time.

Mr. COLLINS. Mr. Chairman, I urge all my colleagues to adopt this commonsense amendment and prevent the EPA from enforcing this job- killing rule, and I yield back the balance of my time.

Mr. COLLINS

Mr. COLLINS. Mr. Chair, as a Member of Congress, our job description up here is really short: Just take care of your constituency and just have oversight of the Federal Government, and we do that through things called appropriations and hearings. Appropriations are what we are working on right now. Well, I want to tell you: The past 9 months, I have been out here crossing this country attending field hearings. I have also been speaking with and listening to members of our industries about the overreach and the out-of-control government agencies that we have up here, and that is why I rise today. I rise today to speak about an important issue that, sadly, this bill is going to fail to address. You see, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration's boat speed limiter proposed rule, which, by the way, NOAA is an unauthorized Federal agency, never authorized by Congress, but NOAA's rule limits the speed now of all boats 35 feet and longer to 10 knots, and this is up and down almost the entire eastern seaboard. Now, they are doing this by claiming that this rule is necessary to save the North Atlantic whale, which, by what I have been able to find, they have been able to maintain roughly the same population since the 1980s, so I just wanted to go over a few quick facts. Now, approximately 15 of these whales have been killed by boats in the last 18 years. Now, there are approximately 63,000 registered boats in this 35- to 65-foot length. That is a one in a million--in a million--chances that you are going to hit one of these whales. If you do, you are going to come out on the short end of the stick, and they are going to know it. This is what is going to happen. This is going to have an $84 billion economic impact just on the East Coast. Also on the East Coast, 340,000 jobs will be impacted. This rule is not just going to cripple the boating and sport fishing industry. It is going to crush it, and it is also going to crush and kill the communities that support them. Now, I offered an amendment to prohibit the Coast Guard from enforcing this rule, because I think our Coast Guard has a whole lot more important things to be out there doing, but, sadly, my amendment was not made in order. Therefore, Mr. Chair, I stand today and I urge my colleagues to fight for language that is going to prevent the Coast Guard from enforcing this misguided rule during our conference committee.

Mr. COLLINS

Mr. COLLINS. Madam Speaker, I move to suspend the rules and pass the bill (H.R. 3371) to direct the Secretary of the Interior to complete all actions necessary for certain land to be held in restricted fee status by the Oglala Sioux Tribe and Cheyenne River Sioux Tribe, and for other purposes.

Mr. COLLINS. Mr. Speaker, I yield 5 minutes to the gentleman from South Dakota (Mr. Johnson), the lead sponsor of this bill.

Mr. COLLINS. Mr. Speaker, I have no further requests for time. I am prepared to close, and I reserve the balance of my time.

Mr. COLLINS. Madam Speaker, I ask unanimous consent that all Members may have 5 legislative days in which to revise and extend their remarks and include extraneous material on H.R. 3371, the bill now under consideration.

Mr. COLLINS. Madam Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume. Madam Speaker, H.R. 3371, the Wounded Knee Memorial and Sacred Site Act, introduced by Congressman Johnson from South Dakota, would place approximately 40 acres of fee land within the Pine Ridge Reservation into restricted fee status for the Oglala Sioux Tribe and the Cheyenne River Sioux Tribe. The land would be held as a memorial and a sacred site in remembrance of the Indian people killed in the Wounded Knee Massacre in 1890. In the mid- and late-1800s, there were many armed conflicts between Tribes, settlers, and U.S. military on the Great Plains and in the Western United States. This contributed to distrust, fear, and misconceptions between groups, and the Wounded Knee Massacre was a result of that atmosphere. On December 29, 1890, a group of Lakota Indians, led by Chief Spotted Elk, had made camp near Wounded Knee Creek on the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation in South Dakota. U.S. Army 7th Cavalry troops were sent there to disarm the Lakota. A struggle occurred between the U.S. Army and some of Chief Spotted Elk's band, a majority of which consisted of women and children. A shot rang out, and the U.S. Army opened fire on the largely unarmed group. At that time, it was estimated that approximately 300 Indian people were killed. In September 2022, the Oglala Sioux Tribe and the Cheyenne River Sioux Tribe jointly purchased 40 acres of land where an old trading post was located. The piece of land also contains a portion of the area where the Wounded Knee Massacre took place. On October 21, 2022, both Tribes signed a covenant stating that this property shall be held and maintained as a memorial and sacred site without any economic development and prohibited any gaming on the land. I applaud Mr. Johnson for working collaboratively with both Tribes to develop H.R. 3371, which would place the 40 acres into restricted fee status held jointly by both Tribes and memorializes the covenant between them. Restricted fee land contains the same restrictions against alienation and taxation as land held in trust, but title is not held by the Federal Government. It is held by the Oglala Sioux and the Cheyenne River Sioux Tribes. This legislation and the land it sets aside will memorialize and honor the Indian men, women, and children who were killed in 1890. Mr. Speaker, I thank the gentleman from South Dakota (Mr. Johnson) and the Oglala Sioux and Cheyenne River Sioux Tribes for their work on this important legislation. I urge my colleagues to support this bill. Mr. Speaker, I reserve the balance of my time.

Mr. COLLINS. Mr. Speaker, this legislation will further allow the Lakota people to memorialize and honor their relatives and ancestors killed in the Wounded Knee Massacre. It gives title of the land to both the Oglala Sioux Tribe and the Cheyenne River Sioux Tribe while ensuring that the land has the protections that restrictions against alienation and taxation provide. Mr. Speaker, I urge the adoption of this bill and yield back the balance of my time.

Mr. COLLINS

Mr. COLLINS. Mr. Speaker, I ask unanimous consent that all Members have 5 legislative days to revise and extend their remarks and to include extraneous material on H.R. 663, as amended, the bill now under consideration.