Doug LaMalfa

Mr. LaMALFA

Mr. LaMALFA. Mr. Chair, I appreciate the time from my great colleague from Tennessee who works a lot on the important energy field, and it is great to work with him. Mr. Chair, I do rise today in support of the Energy and Water Development Appropriations Act. This funding bill cuts billions of needless spending from the Democrats' budget-busting spending bills of the last Congress and continues prioritizing funding toward our Nation's water infrastructure so desperately needed, especially in my home State of California. Stored water means water for people and for agriculture. It means hydroelectricity can be generated, which is green power. It means flood control. It means recreation, yes, even environmental water, which is already getting the lion's share of the water we have in my home State. Additionally, I am pleased to see H.R. 215, the WATER for California Act is included in this legislation, which my colleague Representative Valadao and I worked on with the entire Republican delegation from California. The WATER for California Act restores the basic principle of fairness for water users in California by requiring the Bureau of Reclamation to follow the terms of their water contracts and use the best available science to operate the Central Valley project. This would also eliminate the environmental blockade against using water storage funds to move forward with the enlargement of Shasta Dam in my district, an opportunity to store 630,000 new acre-feet at an existing structure. That should be easy. Lastly, this measure prohibits the administration from completely changing all the rules, regulations, and procedures of the California water system on a whim simply to satisfy the radical environmentalists, much to the detriment of our farms and agriculture, and forcing urban water users to have to ration water to the tune of 42 gallons of water per day. Imagine, you have got a wading pool for your kids or your pets or whatever. It might take 3 days of your water ration to fill a wading pool under what they have coming down the pike on rationing water and limiting. We have so much water flowing out to the Pacific through the Delta that is being wasted. We have water right now being let out of the dams in order to meet their conservation level for flood control later, that should be put someplace that can be helpful such as the San Luis Reservoir. Mr. Chair, I urge my colleagues to vote in favor of this bill and get some common sense back into our water supply.

Mr. LaMALFA

Mr. LaMALFA. Mr. Speaker, we are in perilous times as a Nation due to the weakness we have been projecting in the last 2\1/2\ years from our leadership. What do we see? When you have a vacuum like that--we know the terminology ``nature abhors a vacuum''--China is all too eager to step in and move in and replace us in that regard. We are seeing that with the undermining of our currency around the world. We see it with the BRICS group trying to go on its own where the American currency for many, many years has been the standard. Now, we don't have a birthright to that. We don't have a birthright as the United States for being number one in anything, but I think we can agree that we would be stronger as a country, as well as with our good intentions as a people, that the United States is well positioned to continue to be the light of the world that it is capable of being. With bad leadership, with poor leadership, we allow others to come in and replace us in that role. China is seeking to do so on so many things, like manufacturing and food. That is what I would like to talk about today: food production. At the same time as western countries are saying we need to blame agriculture for climate change, which basically means CO2 production, I would remind you once again, carbon dioxide is only .04 percent of our atmosphere. All the hysteria over that is that it is somehow going to be the end of us as a people, the end of the Earth; it has only grown a minute amount. They would have us cut one-third of agriculture in this country. John Kerry, the so-called czar, as he flies in his private jet to yet another fancy event in Davos to talk about climate change, along with hundreds of other private jets, would have us cut one-third of our agriculture in this country. You see that happening in Europe. You see the Dutch farmers valiantly fighting back against their oppressive government where they are wanting to put a bunch of their land out of business. Holland reclaimed a bunch of land from the ocean via those polders, via those levees they used to push back the ocean and made prime farmland out of that. You have extremists trying to push them out. You see Ireland a while back deciding they need to cull about 30 percent, maybe a third of their dairy herd because dairies make CO2 and methane gas and such. There was a time in this country where we had way, way more buffalo on the plains than we do have currently with beef and dairy cattle. That is an interesting stat. It isn't about the animals burping or whatever. As we see the U.S., due to bad policy, to poor leadership, being displaced in that area, do we really want to become dependent even more so on China and a cartel they might be in with Russia and other alliances they have with Iran, to be more and more dependent on them? We are already dependent on them for 90 percent of our pharmaceuticals, and so much of our manufactured products. Do you want to do that to agriculture, too? It makes no sense. You see what is happening in my home State of California, where California produces so many of these great crops here. Ninety-plus percent that Americans rely on comes from California. We saw just last year, in 2022, that due to the decisions made by the Bureau of Reclamation and others, and the environmental groups, the water got cut off from Shasta Dam and other Federal project water to much of agriculture. We saw just an example of rice, for example. Normally, about half a million acres of rice are grown in California. They cut that number in half to 250,000. Do you know how devastating that is to communities when you have that and other crops just wiped away because of mismanagement of our water supply during a drought period? There is still plenty of water that hits California, plenty of snowpack. We were certainly blessed with a lot this year that made things good for the 2023 crops. We are still having a decent carryover, it looks like. As we watch, they are going to fritter the water away at this time of year, as they have to lower the lakes to have a flood control level, conservation level. Indeed, the water that could be used for other things is just now going out to the ocean as so much of it is. It is a water-management issue. It is a leadership issue. Where is this food going to come from? They want to continue to take dams out. I heard a colleague here yesterday say, well, these dams haven't been maintained over the years. Well, that is purposeful. If the government doesn't put forward the dollars and the effort and the permitting process to maintain and keep dams upgraded, yeah, after 40 years they can deteriorate. Then someone decides, well, it is going to be too expensive to revamp the dam, to bring it up to spec, so let's go ahead and tear it out. That is what they want to begin with. Where is our food going to come from if we don't have the dams, the water storage, our hydroelectric power, all of those things? It makes no sense what we are doing.

Mr. LaMALFA

Mr. LaMALFA. Mr. Speaker, National Clean Energy week just passed by. It should be a time to recognize the various forms of clean energy available to all of us. Unfortunately, one form continues to be taken not as seriously and, in many cases, undermined, and that would be hydroelectric power, which has so many benefits. Yet hydroelectric dams across this country, including one in the Klamath area of my district, are being torn out because of an environmental agenda that isn't even true. Others are on the hit list, like up in the State of Washington, by their environmental extremists. As policy leaders and consumers push for a more green future, hydropower should be part of that solution as a lot of the needed infrastructure already exists, as well as nuclear power. Why are we seeing dams that supply low-cost renewable energy that have already existed for over a century being decommissioned? Because here is the trick: You make it where it is almost impossible to do the maintenance and upgrades to that infrastructure so that over time it becomes too expensive now to continue to have those dams and they are old relics that need to be taken out. That is the trick. Indeed, had we maintained them and kept them in place, we wouldn't have this economic crossroads to deal with. We need to preserve our dams and keep hydroelectric power as a cornerstone of our power grid.

Mr. LaMALFA

Mr. LaMALFA. Mr. Speaker, Saturday, we cobbled together a 45-day continuing resolution. That is not my preferred way of doing business around here. Indeed, what I talk about to my constituents at home is the process that the House Republicans with our majority have attempted to put in place and are putting into place, a successful Appropriations Committee process. Now, this isn't just jargon, and it is inside baseball for a lot of people, but when people understand what it is they are trying to accomplish, the Appropriations Committee is going to be the transparency, the light of day, the sunshine on the spending process that D.C. has, and of which we need much more. We didn't quite get there this year. We got 70 percent of our spending--I hate to use that term, but that is the jargon here-- accomplished in four bills already. We still need to do eight bills as our budget is divided into about 12 pieces in the appropriations process. We have a little ways to grind out here. So what happened? We weren't able to come to agreement, even amongst all Republicans on getting all these bills done. We had a good start in getting a few things done last week, but we have much more to do. We want to get through the whole process because we want transparency so the public can see what it is we are doing in this process, the Appropriations Committee, in the light of day, line-by-line, et cetera, so that we can then send documents over to the Senate and have them contemplate those bills. They are not going to like exactly what we do, but we will bring those bills back and hopefully achieve a consensus we can all live with in this era. I have to remind you, what we have laid out as our goals as House Republicans aren't necessarily shared by the Senate or the White House. It is a hostile environment to try and cut back to pre-COVID levels of spending, as well as secure our border, from the Senate Democrat majority and the Biden White House. These are our goals. We want to have a secure border. We had a document early last week that we thought was going to take a giant leap there, but we couldn't get all the votes we needed even in our own Conference to get it done. That is pretty frustrating. Now, we have this 45-day ability to buy time with what we passed the other day. I am not happy with continuing resolutions, especially long- term ones. This is fairly short-term. It will enable us to do our work and get these appropriations done. That is what we are doing. Yes, it continues spending pretty much as it was, but we were up against a deadline. Now, what are the bad things? A government shutdown is what we were up against. That is a terrible way of doing business. I have been around a couple of them and so have my colleagues that have been here longer than me. One of my friends who has been through five of them has said nobody ever wins politically or policywise on a shutdown. What happens? Our troops stop getting paid. Our loyal soldiers out there on the front lines stop getting paid, and they are already underwaged, so to speak. The contracts that we would have with Defense come to a grinding halt. Other Federal projects like construction, roads, infrastructure, what have you, come to a grinding halt. Now, what happens on that? When you demobilize construction crews or assembly lines like that, they don't just turn right back on and off like a light switch. People go home. They move their equipment to other projects. It is much more expensive to turn something back on that was already in momentum. Try shutting off a nuclear power plant. That is not the same as what we are talking about here, but you don't just turn these things on and off. That is what happens. Permitting. When folks have been waiting so long for EPA or Army Corps of Engineers or somebody else to get their freaking job done on getting permits out, and then they have an excuse to shut down--oh, this week-long shutdown, this 2-week shutdown, it is going to set us back 3 months. We have heard that sort of thing around here. Even though it might feel good to say, yeah, let's shut the mother down--because a lot of people don't like what government does, including me, in my real life as a farmer in northern California I see a lot of dumb stuff the government does--shutting things down in the middle of the stream here doesn't really work for anybody, unfortunately. The Federal employees will still get paid even if they are not at work, so it is a paid vacation. They will get their backpay. Congress will still get paid by the month. It doesn't really shut anything off that way. We don't gain a lot with a shutdown. We held our nose, and we are going to do this for 45 days to do a good process in the Appropriations Committee. I want to have faith in that, and I want the American public to have faith in an open process and doing it correctly because process is something that has been lacking a lot in Congress and in government in recent years. We have to cling to the process as something that is important so we can have things laid out constitutionally.

Mr. LaMALFA

Mr. LaMALFA. Mr. Speaker, on Roll Call No. 503, I mistakenly voted yea when I intended to vote NO.

Mr. LaMALFA

Mr. LaMALFA. Mr. Speaker, securing our border should be a bipartisan goal, and indeed House Republicans are dedicated to that. We had most of the elements of H.R. 2 in a bill last week that we just fell short on mustering, unfortunately. We did pass H.R. 2 separately earlier on to achieve that goal for the border. It is a comprehensive security package that would end the invasion at the southern border, halt the abuse of the asylum process, and strengthen border security. Unfortunately, Senate Leader Schumer won't even bring it up for a vote over in the Senate. Why not? His own New York Governor, Democrat Kathy Hochul, called on Congress this weekend demanding a limit on who can come across and for more agents to catch illegal immigrants. While Schumer should be listening to her, at least, every single New York Democrat who voted for these right-to-shelter laws and soft-on- crime open border policies needs to realize their policies have now had detrimental consequences. It is not extreme to want law and order or to track who is coming into our country. If New York City doesn't have the resources to deal with these waves of illegals coming on to their streets, neither do the small border towns in Texas, New Mexico, Arizona, and California. The Senate must take up H.R. 2, and the Biden administration must actually take action on our border.

Mr. LaMALFA

Mr. LaMALFA. Mr. Speaker, I rise today to recognize a dear friend, an aviator, a northern California agriculture community leader, and an American, Nick Macy. Tragically, Nick received his heavenly wings recently at the final Reno Air Races, where my son and I were in attendance. This loss will be felt deeply throughout my district, the Klamath Basin, Siskiyou and Modoc Counties, and most especially in Tulelake. I feel his pain deeply myself. Nick was a friend to myself and my office, as we worked closely with him for over a decade to try to resolve a silly bureaucratic issue in his airport. A soft-spoken leader, Nick was a preeminent figure in his community. He valued his hometown, his family's history in aviation and the agricultural industries, and the rural roots that brought him up. Nick is the son of a World War II B-24 instructor. He grew to become an expert in many areas of farming, water, crop dusting, fighting fires throughout the basin, and aviation as a six-time national champion in the T-6 Gold Class in the Six-Cat Air Racing Team. Nick and Macy's Flying Service were incredibly important to the people in both Siskiyou and Modoc Counties. He truly loved his community, family, and friends, and he would do everything within his ability to ensure their prosperity. Nick was a cornerstone of the agriculture community up there. Nick was devoted to his family and neighbors. One could always count on Nick. My prayers are for his lovely wife, Beth, and his children and grandchildren. To all of his family and friends--so many who were gathered at the air race--may they feel God's presence in this moment of terrible loss. Nick, Godspeed to you. Thank you for all you were to us. Your legacy will live on in Tulelake and our hearts. We won't forget you.

Mr. LaMALFA

Mr. LaMALFA. Mr. Speaker, America's energy is critical toward our economy, toward people of all income levels. Energy is the cornerstone of either a strong economy or a hyperinflation one like we are seeing now. Either government spending or the cost of energy or both are the reasons why we are where we are these days. Important things we could be doing are building more nuclear power plants and offering more hydroelectric power as well as natural gas, which we have so abundantly in this country. Now, there are a lot of people worried about CO2, which is only 0.04 percent of our atmosphere, but let's play along for a moment: nuclear energy, zero CO2; hydroelectric power, zero CO2. What do we have happening? They are trying to, and successfully in my district, get rid of hydroelectric dams that are already built and make low-cost, 24/7 power. They are after nuclear power plants until recently. California just got a 5-year extension on its nuclear power plant. Otherwise, it was slated to close in 2024 and 2025 its two reactors. We can't afford to lose energy that is 24/7 available power for our economy, for our sustenance. We need to build more.

Mr. LaMALFA

Mr. LaMALFA. Mr. Speaker, I rise today to honor the life and service of Colusa County resident Gene Wesley Beauchamp who tragically passed away earlier this year at the age of 75 years old. Gene was an exceptional member of our community; he was deeply devoted and loyal to our nation. He could always be found helping others. Gene was a truly selfless servant and will be missed by all. Gene was born August 14, 1948, to Leonard and Lona Beauchamp. He attended local schools, graduating from Colusa High School. On October 3, 1967, he enlisted in the U.S. Army, where he would serve 3 years of active duty and 3 years in the reserves. From 1968 to 1969, Gene served in Vietnam as a Helicopter Aircraft Mechanic. He was trained on several army helicopters and even acted as crew chief. Gene was one of our nation's most highly decorated servicemen, being awarded the Silver Star, two Bronze Stars for valor, a Purple Heart and fourteen Air Medals. After his military service, Gene came back to Northern California and attended Chico State University. After which he would return to his family's rice farm in Colusa County. In 1975 he married his wife. Lana, and they raised a family on the rice farm in the very same home he grew up in. After retiring from farming, Gene could be found volunteering with his local Veterans of Foreign Wars (VFW) Post 2441 and the American Legion Post 218. During his time with these organizations, Gene could be found serving at fellow veterans' funerals, carrying the American flag in parades or local football games, and participating in ceremonies honoring the U.S. military and our treasured veterans. Gene is survived by his loving wife of 47 years, Lana Beauchamp; his children Lance and Kimi, and his many grandchildren and great grandchildren. In honor of his outstanding military career, Gene will be laid to rest at Arlington National Cemetery. His presence will be greatly missed in our community.

Mr. LaMALFA

Mr. LaMALFA. Mr. Chair, the machine glitched. Had I been present, I would have voted ``aye'' on rollcall No. 477. Amendment No. 47 Offered by Mrs. Boebert

Mr. LaMALFA

Mr. LaMALFA. Mr. Speaker, had I been present, I would have voted ``yea'' on rollcall No. 405.

Mr. LaMALFA

Mr. LaMALFA. Mr. Speaker, I missed this vote due to an office meeting exceeding the time. Had I been present, I would have voted ``yea'' on rollcall No. 402. Stated against:

Mr. LaMALFA

Mr. LaMALFA. Mr. Speaker, I thank my colleague from Louisiana (Mr. Johnson), for yielding. So here we are, after nearly 9 months of investigations into the Biden family's influence-peddling schemes, this body has uncovered mounting credible evidence of corruption, evidence that has come to light through numerous committee meetings, whistleblower testimony and interviews, document discovery, and rigorous Congressional oversight. Despite the false claims of leftwing media outlets such as CNN and MSNBC, there is, in fact, evidence of peddling and corruption. Under the IRS whistleblower testimony, two IRS agents testified under oath that Joe Biden was present at at least one meeting with Hunter Biden's foreign clients. Agent Joseph Zeigler, formerly known as ``Whistleblower X,'' testified that he was handcuffed and hamstrung throughout the IRS's 5- year investigation of Hunter Biden and was ultimately stopped from moving forward in the manner that he believed to be appropriate for the offenses committed. Over $17 million were sent to Hunter Biden from companies operating in authoritarian, oppressive nations. The Internal Revenue Service whistleblowers also alleged that the DOJ would not let them pursue Joe Biden or any connections that would lead to him. They allege a campaign of delay, divulge, deny surrounded their requests to pursue leads that led to Joe Biden. This allegation has been confirmed by a former FBI SSA. The Special Counsel was appointed to obstruct Congressional investigations and inquiries behind the curtain of an ongoing investigation. The testimony of these IRS whistleblowers have been corroborated by the testimony of the FBI SSA and two additional colleagues that claimed that they were fired from the investigation by order of Attorney Weiss. Devon Archer's testimony to the Oversight Committee is that Joe Biden is a brand. Archer alleges members of the Biden family used Joe Biden's position as Vice President to sell power and access to interested parties. VP Biden would protect oligarchs from competent legal probes and investigations into foreign countries, such as Ukraine. Hunter or another family member would be paid money, and then Joe would meet with the interested party in Washington, D.C. A quick summary: An oligarch pays money to Hunter Biden's company or associate, which then is paid to Hunter, and a portion of that goes to the big guy, his father. The Shokin investigation: In 2015, Hunter was pressured by Burisma to call D.C. to get help in removing a Ukrainian prosecutor, Viktor Shokin. Shokin was indeed later fired, and video evidence has surfaced of Joe Biden bragging about getting him fired in order for foreign aid dollars to flow to the Government of Ukraine, right on tape. Joe Biden's family received $17 million from contacts from foreign nations, according to IRS documents. What was being done in exchange for this money? The National Archives have confirmed that Joe Biden used pseudonyms when communicating with Hunter and his business associates from official government emails, including the Office of the Vice President. So you have DOJ misconduct, confirmed by the FBI SSA and leadership, that DOJ--specifically, Merrick Garland--prevented investigators from doing their jobs as best as he could. The FBI D.C. office tipped off the Secret Service of an interview with Hunter Biden that was being planned. The FBI headquarters also tipped them off of a planned search of Hunter's residence which gave time and forewarning for any incriminating evidence to be removed. No ordinary American would ever expect to receive such preferential treatment if they were accused of the crimes that Hunter and Joe have been. What they can normally expect is a 4 a.m. knock on the door with a battering ram for even lesser crimes. Investigators are not allowed to ask about the big guy. The bank records show over 170 Suspicious Activity Reports filed by banks on the Biden family financial transactions. This means banks believe that over 170 separate financial transactions in Biden's family bank accounts were linked to bribery, money laundering, or other serious financial crimes. An FBI informant documented conversations that indicated to them that Joe pressured foreign companies to send millions to the family business. The claims from Democrats and their media allies that the impeachment inquiry was opened without evidence are not only false but also illogical. Inquiries exist for the purpose of uncovering evidence. An impeachment inquiry is an investigation into whether an impeachable offense has been committed. It is not the whole scope of impeachment. It gives the ability to do further investigation. Where there is smoke, you will probably find fire. There is evidence from whistleblowers and former associates that Joe Biden was intimately involved in Hunter's corrupt business dealings. This is an impeachable offense. The allegations that since this conduct allegedly only happened when Joe was VP and not while President thus means that an impeachment is not possible, that is false. Impeachable conduct includes high crimes, bribery, or other misdemeanors that occurred while the accused was in a previous Federal office. Joe Biden has lied about his connection to his son's corrupt business dealings for years. Now, we are not supposed to take impeachment lightly around here. Indeed, it has been abused the last few years a couple of times, but House Republicans are going to go through a process, due process, and find real evidence. The conclusion is that despite the disparate claims of the partisan media and their Democrat allies, there is indeed mounting evidence that President Joe Biden was involved in his family's influence-selling scheme and intimately involved in Hunter Biden's corruption. An impeachment inquiry will help House Republicans get to the bottom of this, and I hope Democrats will be interested as well, and then determine whether or not there is proof of these crimes. If there indeed is, then President Biden has committed impeachable offenses. Again, impeachment is not to be taken lightly, not to be just thrown around for political purpose but utilized. This impeachment inquiry is a very important ability for Congress to answer the questions that many, many American people are asking about the obvious corruption that is coming forward, thanks to whistleblowers, and others, that are bringing this evidence to the front. With that, let's proceed, and let's do this properly.

Mr. LaMALFA

Mr. LaMALFA. Mr. Speaker, the Holman rule is a rule in the House of Representatives that allows amendments to appropriations bills that reduce the salary of Federal employees. It is a great mechanism for punishing Federal employees and public servants who fail the American people. I can think of no greater failure than this administration allowing millions of illegal immigrants to pour over our southern and even northern borders. This mass illegal immigration, sometimes aided and abetted by the Biden administration, is an insult and a farce. From the language some of its proponents use, it seems as though it is being done out of pure spite. It is supposed to be the job of the Department of Homeland Security to prevent illegal immigration in this country and deport those who violate this Nation's sovereignty. Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas has utterly failed his duty and stubbornly insists to Congress and Senate Republicans he has done nothing wrong. I disagree. Secretary Mayorkas has done much wrong. What is worse is that, in fact, he could argue the border situation would be better if he had simply done nothing. When you see welded-open gates, when you see even the city of New York saying, Please make it stop, and they start shoving people into the border States, you know you have got a giant problem. Maybe Secretary Mayorkas' salary would be better off under the Holman rule adjusted down to $1 per year because that is even too much.

Mr. LaMALFA

Mr. LaMALFA. Mr. Speaker, during the month of August, we had several wildfires break out in my district up in Siskiyou County at the top of California. As you know, our Federal wildland firefighters are on the front lines battling the blazes and preventing them from spreading to populated areas and burning down all of our forests and the habitat that is in them. They are doing their jobs, working 16-hour days often, grueling heat, remote rugged terrain, and what happens? The new food vendor for the Forest Service tried serving them beans and rice on bread on the far side there and then moldy cheese sandwiches for our firefighters that we ask to be out there in risky conditions and tough, hot conditions as well. What an insult. What a slap in the face as they have a national food vendor trying to provide meals like that that actually would cause harm to their health as well as just the sustenance they need to work hard. In light of all this, we also find that the Klamath National Forest supervisor who fired this food service vendor was later investigated by the Forest Service higher-ups, and they only backed off because a scandal was made public. Since then, it has been corrected, thanks to that Klamath Forest supervisor, and these unacceptable conditions are not going to continue. The American people expect accountability for our firefighters and for our workers.

Mr. LaMALFA

Mr. LaMALFA. Madam Speaker, today, I rise to speak about the passing of a very good friend and an American hero, Lieutenant Commander Jim Gibson of Redding, California. Pictured here at an Honor Flight here in Washington, D.C., I got to accompany him that day. It was a lot of fun and very gratifying. Jim was a career Navy officer for 26 years. He joined the Navy as an engine man right out of high school and rose to the rank of ensign before becoming a commissioned officer. After working his way through the ranks to captain, he was assigned command of a submarine rescue ship in the 7th Fleet. This vessel, the USS Coucal, had the worst reputation in the entire U.S. 7th Fleet. When Jim took command, he turned things around and made it the premier submarine rescue vessel in the entire U.S. 7th Fleet. After retiring from active service, Jim remained devoted to the ideal of duty. He was very active in veterans' affairs, founding a submarine veterans group in northern California and serving as its president. He was instrumental in raising money for the Veterans Memorial in Anderson River Park. I was proud to have him as a member of my congressional advisory committee on academy appointments, where he did a great job of helping us screen the best new and brightest. Jim was faithful to his fellow veterans to the last, working faithfully out of the Igo Veterans Cemetery. He was always there to ring the bell for the last watch when a Navy veteran was laid to rest. He is survived by his wife, Mary Lou. My heart goes out to her and their family at this time of grief. They will be in our prayers. We will miss him dearly. Fair winds and following seas, Jim.

Mr. LaMALFA

Mr. LaMALFA. Mr. Speaker, I thank the gentlewoman for yielding. Mr. Speaker, I hear a lot of complaints about what it is going to do for California. Well, don't cry for California. We do a lot of bad ideas that affect the whole country. Indeed, we have one-eighth of the country's population and a little over one-eighth of the country's auto sales. So what does that mean? Well, we are not going to get a whole lot of help from the manufacturers or the CEOs because they want to get along with Washington, D.C., but we are here about preserving choice for all Americans on automobiles. The California Air Resources Board is an unelected board appointed by Governor Gavin Newsom, who is not the guy that is on your side for freedom. As well, recently, after this mandate in California came out by 2035, a few days later he said, oh, people, will you please not charge your electric vehicles right now because it is going to affect our grid because we don't have enough power in our grid--rolling blackouts, bans on hydroelectric dams. They almost took down our last nuclear power plant. So California is not the place a lot of solutions are going to come from. You said Republicans put these in place. Well, these have been weaponized in the 50 years since then with the Air Resources Board and all the other entities that have been put in place. Mr. Speaker, H.R. 1435 will preserve choices for people. I have actually lived it myself as I have had a real job on a farm. Mr. Speaker, in closing, I urge my colleagues to vote ``no'' on the motion to recommit and ``yes'' on H.R. 1435.

Mr. LaMALFA

Mr. LaMALFA. Mr. Speaker, I thank the gentleman for yielding. I just happen to be speaking about the subject of California. Now, California is a beautiful place, beautiful climate and terrain and territory. It is just that its politics have gotten so upside down in the last--pick a number of years--40 years, 50 years. I am not really there to serve the people anymore but to serve climate agendas and other crazy agendas I will not go into here tonight. I live in the rural part of California. I like to say, I live in the normal part still in the far north where we farm and we ranch--we still attempt to do mining--in order to produce the products that city people need. If they didn't have us around to do those things then, I don't know--they want to, I guess, import all of it, which seems to be the direction here. Let's import it all from China. One of the interesting things--I won't say funny, although the people watching might think it is funny because we do this to ourselves--but our California Air Resources Board released a rule requiring all new cars in California that will be sold new to be zero-emission vehicles by 2035. Now, this was tried back in the eighties where they said, well, we want--I believe maybe it was 1990--10 percent of all cars sold by the year 2000, if my memory is correct, to be zero-emission vehicles. So what did we end up with? Car companies are trying to make battery- powered vehicles that look like glorified golf carts or maybe those little rigs you saw on ``Fantasy Island'' that Tattoo was driving around in to be legitimate vehicles you would have out on the roadway. You saw basically oversized golf carts with license plates on them trying to somehow meet this mandate. Well, CARB figured out at the time it wasn't going to get there so they relented on it, but now they are not relenting. So we have this mandate--not actually passed by legislature, signed by the governor but made by the California Air Resources Board, which is famous around the country for being heavy-handed on truckers and off-road vehicles and everything else. Here is the funny part: Just a few days after this mandate came out, our esteemed Governor Newsom had to publicly beg electric vehicle owners to not charge their cars due to concerns about the power grid and blackouts. He told them, hey, please don't charge your cars right now because our grid is overstretched during that particular time. You have also a few months later when the winter came in residents in Sierra Nevada lost power for many days due to heavy snowstorms knocking the power out, so they couldn't heat their homes and do normal things there. But if they had also had an electric vehicle they couldn't even have gotten out of there to go someplace where it was warm or for other needs, maybe emergency medical care or what have you. We also have rolling blackouts that are common in the State due to overuse and not enough power on the grid to keep things going. Industries in California, many of them have agreements with the utilities that they will voluntarily shut down if they are called upon if the grid looks like it is going to be overtaxed at a particular point. So you have manufacturers that have to lay off their workers for the rest of the day, stop production in order to pull off-line and not use power because we don't have enough of a power grid in California. Then up in my area because we have a forest issue--which our forests aren't managed as well as they should be, especially Federal land by the U.S. Forest Service--where the power lines have been run through for many decades, where there is hydrogeneration, et cetera, power may be coming in from another State, we don't get to maintain around the power lines like we used to because it might be an environmental concern. We can't take the trees down that you need to to make sure that they can't swing if they are falling; they might fall within the path of those power lines if the tree, you know, is taller than what the clearance is, right? So I had to pass a bill a couple years ago to make the process just a little bit easier to get a permit from the Forest Service to do that on Federal land. It is still not easy, and it is not very timely, but it got a little bit better. So we have that to deal with. They call it a public safety power shutoff. It especially affects part of my district. It seems like when I drive through Tehama County sometimes during that time of year--now, they have improved it a little bit--the whole county would be shut off because the wind blew, and it might cause branches to blow into the power lines, therefore, bad things happen such as the Camp fire, which 85 people died in Paradise, California, due to a power line problem a few miles east of there with the wind blowing through. Then other fires like the Carr fire near Redding, the Zogg fire, and many others. Then we saw, of course, the effects, tragically, in Hawaii that we just mourned this week--and that is what this red ribbon represents-- because we are not managing the lands around power lines. This is happening right in California at the same time they are mandating more and more electricity use, forcing us into vehicles we can't afford or don't want. Also, they want to ban gas stoves and gas water heaters and make them be on the grid, as well. I mean, you couldn't get any dumber with the stuff we are doing in my home State, my beautiful home State of California. Rolling blackouts. By a miracle last year they decided we have to keep the Diablo Canyon nuclear power plant going for another 5 years instead of maybe a 40- year permit--it was put in in about 1982 when I was going to school down there in San Luis Obispo. It had a much longer life than what they were allowing because, oh, we don't like nukes, nukes are scary, even though they make zero CO2, as does hydropower. Right now they are in the process of tearing dams out to make hydroelectric power in my district, and they have their eyes on more up in Washington and other areas because, oh, it might be an environmental issue. It is really absurd what we are doing to ourselves. We are putting ourselves into the Stone Age so we can go live in caves and eat insects that these guys are prescribing for us, you know. It is disgusting. Now, they want to apply this toward our vehicles. We have got the cleanest burning, most efficient vehicles ever being put out by the car manufacturers, but they don't look at it that way. They don't give credit for how much better and cleaner it is. The Los Angeles Basin's air is cleaner than it has been. You remember the 1950s and 1960s and all that. It is so much cleaner now. We have made so much progress on this, yet they want to because they have the power to or arbitrarily think it is a feel-good policy to take these vehicles away, to take car choice away from people. I remember the EPA under Andy Wheeler, just a few years ago, was trying to make it where people could have more affordable cars and not have this 54.5-mile-per-gallon mandate. What does a 54.5-mile-per- gallon vehicle look like to you? Is that a car choice to you when that mandate was going to be fully fleshed out? I mean, most cars that get pretty good gas mileage get 30, 35, somewhere around there. A lot of others get 20, 25, depending on what you want, but it isn't about your choice. It is about government deciding what you need or what you should have; what is your neighborhood going to look like; how much do you get to travel anymore, all of these massive control issues. We have public safety power shutoffs. We have them tearing down the hydroelectric dams. The dams they still do have, they are requiring more and more of the water to go out in such a way that they don't even turn the turbines. Instead, we want the cold water to go out to lower the temperature of the river maybe by 1 degree and it will be a little bit better for the fish in the river or we want the water to come off the top of the lake that can't go through the turbines because we want to save that colder water for later in the season so it can be 1 degree colder down the river for the fish. I mean, it is crazy. When this first was announced by CARB, the Governor of California, we sent him a letter and his CARB chair, Liane Randolph, asking them to consider alternate policies to reduce emissions that do not add additional strain to the State's energy grid or restrictions on consumer choice. Choice, we all like that around here, don't we? I thank my California Republican colleagues for joining me on sending a unified message, and I believe that this letter has helped us get a bill on the floor this week, which is known as H.R. 1435. The bill would prevent the U.S. EPA from issuing a waiver to California Air Resources Board in order to enact that rule the State is trying to do, without, again, legislation by the elected legislators. This is what they have been using for a lot of years to put California even under a tighter scrutiny than a lot of the rest of the country, and it makes us uncompetitive in many aspects. Though 95 percent of the vehicles on America roads are run on internal combustion engines--they are using the acronym ICE these days--States like California are trying to pass these egregiously unrealistic emissions mandates to force American car manufacturers, and foreign ones, too, to prioritize EV manufacturing. Where are we going to mine the materials to make these? Are we going to have the power on the grid to run them? You are going to change the power grid in neighborhoods to have the massive amounts of transformers and the wires and the poles and insulators and all of that in order to have these charging units inside people's homes and in their garages. They aren't taking that into account. It is just that la-di-da, pie-in- the-sky deal. We will just mandate it, and it will be great by 2035. The idea that people just can't afford these vehicles, as many of them are sometimes $17,000 to $20,000 more for the equivalent, same size, same usage type vehicle, they don't care. A whole bunch of the country's economy would be affected by this because probably a bunch of other States would follow California's ideas on this, with this waiver that they are seeking. It is a real market manipulation that nobody has asked for other than the do-gooders in Congress, at the State level, and others that are forcing us in many ways in our lives. They want to force what kind of home we live in, what we eat, what we drive, and how we power our stoves and our water heaters. Now, I mentioned a little bit ago how the grid got knocked out in some of the mountainous areas after the storm there. You think, well, at least people can go turn on their generator in order to provide some electricity and some heat in their home perhaps. No, no, they want to ban gas-powered or fuel-powered generators, too. I am wondering: What are you supposed to run a generator on if you can't run it on gas or diesel or natural gas or a propane tank or something you might have nearby? What are you supposed to run it on when the power goes out? If you live in a rural area where there are frequent public safety power shutoffs or fire or other things happen that knock out the grid, what are you supposed to do? They just make up the mandates. Governor Newsom, who is maybe inspiring to be President--I warn people across the country who are watching, don't fall for this stuff. I like to joke around a little bit. I am from California. People, don't do what we do, okay? It is going to affect your privacy. It is going to affect your freedom. It will affect basic choices. It will affect your economy of your household and of your State. We don't even nearly have the EV charging systems that it would take to have them close enough or enough of them onsite. You ought to see the lines there. There is one place down in San Luis Obispo where you can see the cars all lined up, all the Teslas and all these other folks lined up waiting for the opportunity to plug onto one of these things for 2 hours and then go on about their way, about their business as they travel. Mr. Speaker, you probably heard the story about the guy from, I think, Michigan who bought the new Ford electric truck and was going to go camping with it. He made it about one or two States away and finally had to give up on it. I think he went and bought a Dodge Cummins diesel in order to complete his family camping trip, because it was way oversold as to what it could do versus what it could actually do. Getting back to the bill. We don't want to empower California, and perhaps up to 17 other States, with this EPA waiver, that they can force this stuff upon the people and take away their choices, their mobility to do what they need to do. Ask a guy who is a contractor or a roofing company or a farmer or a rancher or a miner or a logger if they need their F-250 or if they want to get a fleet of five Priuses to go do the same job. They need to have choices. This is at a time when we have got, as I said, the cleanest running, most efficient vehicles we have ever made. Oh, we have got to cut down on the CO2. Climate change. Climate change, give me a break. CO2 is only 0.04 percent of our atmosphere. They act like it is the end of the world. CO2 is an important building block for plant life. Everything is made out of carbon. They act like, because they have been able to dream this up as a killer, that we have to stop all things that make CO2. I tell you what, if we are too good at this and we go below 0.2 percent, plant life starts dying off. Now, we will never be that good getting rid of CO2, but we are going to spend trillions doing it, and we are going to make ourselves a Third World country here while China and others keep going ahead. Our Governor Newsom is running over to China for a visit to talk about climate change. Meanwhile, we have one of the worst homeless problems in the State of California, and our economy and our water isn't that greater either. Even though we were blessed with so much rain this year, we need to build water storage for people. We need to build that for our agriculture so we can supply this Nation with the food it needs from California, with so many of our crops, 90-plus percent, coming from California. You wouldn't have your almonds. You wouldn't have your tomatoes. You wouldn't have your pistachios. You wouldn't have many things that come from California, but we are prioritizing this nonsense of taking away people's vehicles. Climate change gets preached on half the time around here, and every policy in this place has to be run through a climate change filter, even though it is nonsense that CO2, once again, is only .04 percent of our atmosphere and it is not a killer, because carbon is a building block of everything we live off of. Please, call your Congress Member and tell them to support H.R. 1435. Don't empower California to control your State and your economy by mandating what kind of vehicles you can drive because it is going to affect you and it will ripple out from our whacked-out State to your State what vehicles you are going to drive and how you are going to do your business. Please check that out and support the bill.

Mr. LaMALFA

Mr. LaMALFA. Mr. Speaker, our Federal wildland firefighters have been performing much of the heavy lifting not only this year with fires raging in my district, but every year, especially in the Western States. What is their reward? If we don't get legislation done promptly, they could see a 40 to 50 percent pay cut. How did this happen? Well, a temporary measure was inserted into the infrastructure bill that was supposed to last for 5 years and keep funding a bonus system up for the firefighters. Instead, it ran out after only 2 years, and time is up this September. How can we have a situation where firefighters are going to receive a pay cut of 40 to 50 percent mid-season, where they might be forced to walk off the job because they have to go somewhere else in order to make a living in September, as fire season could well rage on, as indeed that is the peak of the year in the West? We have legislation known as the Fair Pay for Federal Firefighters Act, which will repurpose funds that are sitting otherwise unused, and probably justifiably so in other bills, and repurpose that in order to boost firefighter pay to at least keep them at a level playing field for the rest of this year until we can do a proper job of legislating this correctly to keep their pay up.

Mr. LaMALFA

Mr. LaMALFA. Mr. Speaker, I ask unanimous consent that when the House adjourns today, it adjourn to meet at 10 a.m. tomorrow.

Mr. LaMALFA

Mr. LaMALFA. Mr. Speaker, soon the House Committee on Rules will begin its consideration of this year's farm bill. This is a bill to include some of the top priorities for not only northern California, but the whole country, as my own district is home to some of the most productive agricultural regions in the world. We are the second largest rice-growing region in the Nation, and we grow over half of all the dried plums, also known as prunes, produced in the world. Our farmers are international leaders in almond and walnut production, among other crops. The farm bill gives farmers the tools they need to manage their risks during a difficult economic year or a natural disaster with the insurance that has been so successful over the recent years. It strengthens incentives for our next generation of farmers, as our farmers' average age is well into the sixties now. Beyond agriculture, it allocates resources to programs that are vital to the economic well-being of our area, and all rural areas that have agriculture, by funding rural health projects that help our communities address a growing opioid addiction issue and other substance abuse disorders. It provides funding to close the rural and urban digital divide by improving broadband connectivity in rural areas. It is really important that we get onboard with the farm bill this fall and pass it on time.

Mr. LaMALFA

Mr. LaMALFA. Mr. Speaker, as we know, the Chinese Communist Party poses one of the greatest existential challenges of our time. Under President Xi Jinping, the CCP has made its intentions perfectly clear: supplant the post-World War II international order created by the U.S. and forge a new world order led by China. Clearly, the Biden administration is distracted from that. Time and again, this administration has projected weakness on the world stage and gotten bogged down by policies that only serve to divide our people and other silliness. We can't afford to drop the ball on this critical matter. We must get tough on China and restore American greatness on the world stage by projecting strength, not weakness. The CCP is only becoming more and more aggressive. Here are a few examples. First is the issue of exit bans placed by the CCP on American citizens, including some of my own constituents. This behavior by the CCP needs to stop. We must find solutions for this dire issue facing American citizens. Second, I was pleased to support prohibiting the CCP from acquiring American farmland, frequently near important military installations. Third, we must deter any threat to Taiwan as well as Japan.

Mr. LaMALFA

Mr. LaMALFA. Mr. Speaker, I thank my colleague, Mr. Johnson, and I appreciate his leading this, once again, as we communicate with the American folks about the good things we are getting done around here. That is important. The communication and the openness of the House to the people is a critical element and something we were missing for about 2\1/2\ years around here. The COVID disaster that hit this country was exacerbated by government action. Indeed, overreaction has cost us so much economically and so much to the goodwill and the mental state of many of our people. Look at the damage that was done to our schoolchildren as they lost basically 2 years out of their lives. I think that will be damage that was done to a generation, and I don't know how quickly they are going to recover. Nevertheless, we here, the Republicans in the majority of the U.S. House, have worked toward restoring peoples' faith in the government by allowing them to participate and opening the House gallery once again. I can have people from my district here tonight. That right would not have been seen just not that many months ago. Our committee process is open to the people instead of being done by Zoom or some other effect. Indeed, that is very important because there is nothing like being in the room with people to have our witnesses there and have Members be able to look at each other and have a dialogue across the way instead of on the internet with the distractions there. So we opened the House and are bringing it back to the people and open to the people. Through tours people are able to see their Capitol and just be amazed by what the Founders had in mind when we feel the history here and what it is about. We have worked on important policy this year, the Lower Energy Costs Act. Now, I can't even describe how important energy is to our economy, our way of life, and for our culture. All of our forms of energy have made us competitive and strong around the world. It has helped us win World War II, and it has helped us become the most competitive and strongest economy ever until we see the damage being done currently by the Biden administration stopping pipelines and stopping traditional forms of energy driven by oil and gas. Yes, there is always going to be a place for oil and gas. When we look at energy projections around the world, it is only going to go up in all the other countries except for the ones that are hamstringing themselves with this Paris accord business. So energy is the cornerstone of a strong economy, our way of life, and our culture. Oil and gas are part of that. We need to continue cultivating nuclear energy and the new technologies coming with that. It doesn't have to be a scary thing: Oh, nuclear waste, oh, it is going to have a meltdown. No. Nonsense. These are things that can continue to be improved on if we have the will to do it. Congress needs to move in helping to fund this type of research, and also the permitting process needs to be streamlined so that these projects can move forward. As we know, windmills and the solar panels don't work all the time. We have to wait for the wind to blow, the sun to come up, or the clouds to go away in order to have those forms of energy. As far as nuclear power and hydroelectric, right now they are trying to tear down dams because of dubious environmental regulations in my district. Oil and natural gas are cornerstones that we can rely on 24/7 as base-load power. So what we are seeing is forced conversion to electric vehicles and electric stoves. They are taking away our gas stove. Look how mad people are going to be at home when they have to cook in ways that don't fit how they like or what they are used to or what is efficient. The latest crazy thing is banning gas generators. It seems the Biden administration is just copying the craziest in my home State of California. Now, Mr. Speaker, what is a generator for? It is for making electricity and generating electricity. Mr. Speaker, how do you generate electricity? Mr. Speaker, you don't use other electricity to generate electricity. It has to come from a different source, whether it is going to be hydropower--again, what I listed--or a personal generator. It is going to be either gas, diesel, or hooked up to your propane tank. It is absurd what is going on. We need to continue to have an energy policy that helps Americans and helps us thrive. House Republicans are going to keep fighting for that because it makes sense and makes us stronger. I appreciate the time to help remind people this is where things really come from, where our economy comes from, our freedom, and our basic lifestyle.

Mr. LaMALFA

Mr. LaMALFA. Mr. Speaker, it used to be California was the land of really good ideas and innovation, but the last 30 or so years it has been a place where a lot of really bad ideas come from and impact the rest of the country. This morning I am talking about pork production in this country and California deciding that it should dictate to the rest of the country how it is done. There is not even that much pork produced in my home State, yet they want to dictate how it works. A proposition passed that says you cannot use gestation crates for pork production. Gestation crates help piglets to not be squashed by their mother, but it has been interpreted to be something completely different. We need H.R. 4417, the EATS Act, in order to have pork production in this country that isn't dictated by some crazies at Berkeley in California that say we can't have you produce like that. We have already went through this with eggs. What this will produce is shortages of eggs, shortages of pork, higher prices, and even possibly lead to the importation of it because one State trying to dictate and reach across State lines to all of the others with its tentacles of its crazy ideas on how things should be done business- wise. What will stop them from banning oil and gas being used to produce things in other States? It will keep going and going until we stop it.

Mr. LaMALFA

Mr. LaMALFA. Mr. Chairman, I have an amendment that I think is going to be loved by both sides of the room here today since it makes so much sense. The situation we have is, it will fix an issue under the FAA regulations that currently prevents a privately owned, restricted category aircraft that is already performing a wildfire suppression operation from transporting firefighters to a scene. Now, if this exact same aircraft were owned by a public entity such as the Forest Service, BLM, et cetera, that aircraft would be allowed to transport firefighters while performing a wildfire suppression operation. Even more egregious is the fact that if this government agency were to decide to lease this private aircraft for 90 days or more, that would magically transform it into the type of aircraft that would be allowed to transport firefighters on the way to a suppression action. Under the current guidelines, however, they are not allowed to do so. This would either force contractors to have to get 90 days or longer leases with entities that may not want the aircraft for 90 days or be able to afford that. This may be a small local entity, local government. What we are doing is allowing some flexibility here to not be locked into 90-day aircraft contracts that aren't needed and, at the same time, prevent unneeded ferrying back and forth, one for fire suppression activities and then another one to transport the personnel when it would be perfectly logical to transport them on the same trip, saving fuel, saving wear and tear on the aircraft and the people, and even a little extra unneeded pollution in the air from running the aircraft, right? My amendment requires the FAA to move forward with allowing private aircraft to also transport firefighters when they are fighting wildfires. The current policy is an unnecessary barrier to being able to deploy and fully utilize the capabilities of existing wildfire contractors for wildfire suppression. Mr. Chairman, I reserve the balance of my time.