Rick Renzi

Mr. RENZI

Mr. RENZI. Mr. Speaker, I move to suspend the rules and pass the bill (H.R. 485) to provide that the royalty rate on the output from Federal lands of potassium and potassium compounds from the mineral sylvite in the 5-year period beginning on the date of the enactment of this Act shall be reduced to 1.0 percent, and for other purposes, as amended.

Mr. RENZI. Mr. Speaker, I ask unanimous consent that all Members may have 5 legislative days within which to revise and extend their remarks and include extraneous material on H.R. 485.

Mr. RENZI. Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume. Mr. Speaker, H.R. 485 is a bill that actually contains the language from bills introduced by two of my colleagues from the western United States. Title I of this bill contains language by my friend, the gentleman from New Mexico (Mr. Pearce). This language provides for a 5-year period the royalty rate on potash produced from Federal lands shall be 1 percent. Potash is used primarily as an agriculture fertilizer because it is a source of soluble potassium, one of the three primary plant nutrients; the others are fixed nitrogen and soluble phosphorus. The 5-year reduction in royalty rates provides the industry the ability to employ new and more efficient production methods in potash mining, sustain and create new jobs, extend the life of existing deposits and make technological advances that will expand the availability of the Nation's potash resources. Title II of this bill contains language introduced by my colleague, the gentlewoman from Wyoming (Mrs. Cubin), which will reduce for 5 years the royalties paid on trona to help balance the unfair playing field in the world market that U.S. trona producers face from countries like China. The U.S. soda ash industry, which until recently was the largest in the world, has operations in Wyoming, Colorado, and California, with the bulk of total production through four plants in the State of Wyoming. The total estimated value of the industry is around $800 million. The current Federal royalty on soda ash produced in the United States ranges from 4 percent to 6 percent. Mines in the Rocky Mountain region, Colorado and Wyoming, pay 6 percent. Mines in California pay only 4 percent. Until 2003, the United States was the world's largest exporter of soda ash. In 2003, China passed the United States as the world's number one exporter. Producers in China manufacture a synthetic product while the United States exports natural soda ash. This bill will reduce the Federal royalty to the statutory minimum of 2 percent for a period of 5 years. This will make the U.S. soda ash more attractive to foreign purchases and provide a window of opportunity to tackle the global barriers that limit market access for U.S. soda ash. Mr. Speaker, H.R. 485 is supported by the majority and minority of the committee. I urge adoption of the bill. Mr. Speaker, I reserve the balance of my time.

Mr. RENZI. Mr. Speaker, I want to thank the gentleman from New Mexico (Mr. Udall), who is the champion of American potash and the sodium industry here in America and I appreciate his advocacy. Mr. Speaker, I have no further requests for time, and I yield back the balance of my time.

Mr. RENZI

Mr. RENZI. Mr. Speaker, I move to suspend the rules and pass the bill (H.R. 2107) to amend Public Law 104-329 to modify authorities for the use of the National Law Enforcement Officers Memorial Maintenance Fund, and for other purposes.

Mr. RENZI. Mr. Speaker, on that I demand the yeas and nays.

Mr. RENZI. Mr. Speaker, I ask unanimous consent that all Members may have 5 legislative days within which to revise and extend their remarks and include extraneous material on H.R. 2107.

Mr. RENZI. Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume. Mr. Speaker, H.R. 2107, introduced by my colleague on the Committee on Resources, the gentleman from New Jersey (Mr. Saxton), would transfer funds of the 1996 sale of a commemorative coin from the National Park Service to the Law Enforcement Officers Memorial Fund for the purpose of maintaining the National Law Enforcement Officers Memorial. The Memorial Fund, a non-profit organization incorporated in Washington, DC, that raised the original $12 million to build the Memorial, wishes to have access to the $1.4 million raised from the coin sales to maintain the memorial in an effective and timely manner. Today, more than 16,500 fallen law enforcement officers' names are inscribed on the Memorial, dating back to the first recorded police fatality in 1792. Mr. Speaker, H.R. 2107 is supported by the majority and minority of the committee and the administration. Mr. Speaker, I urge adoption of the bill. Mr. Speaker, I reserve the balance of my time.

Mr. RENZI. Mr. Speaker, I yield such time as he may consume to the gentleman from New Jersey (Mr. Saxton), the author of this bill. (Mr. SAXTON asked and was given permission to revise and extend his remarks.)

Mr. RENZI. Mr. Speaker, I have no further requests for time, and I yield back the balance of my time.

Mr. RENZI

Mr. RENZI. Mr. Speaker, I move to suspend the rules and pass the bill (H.R. 540) to authorize the Secretary of the Interior to convey the Newlands Project Headquarters and Maintenance Yard Facility to the Truckee-Carson Irrigation District, as amended.

Mr. RENZI. Mr. Speaker, I ask unanimous consent that all Members may have 5 legislative days within which to revise and extend their remarks and include extraneous material on H.R. 540.

Mr. RENZI. Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume. H.R. 540 directs the Secretary of the Interior to transfer 35 acres of the Truckee-Carson Irrigation District as soon as practicable. Before the transfer takes place, all environmental analyses will be completed in accordance with Federal, State and local laws. As amended, this important bill also includes a number of other bipartisan water measures either favorably reported by the Committee on Resources in the waning days of the 108th Congress or those which were passed in the last Congress but were not considered by the Senate. Today's effort is an attempt to make it easier for Senate to pass these measures. These bipartisan bills include H.R. 386, legislation offered by the gentleman from Texas (Mr. Hinojosa) and some of his lower Rio Grande, Texas colleagues, to help local irrigation districts and communities preserve their water supplies; H.R. 802, a bill authored by the gentleman from California (Mr. Dreier) and the gentlewoman from California (Mrs. Napolitano), to authorize Federal assistance for a water recycling project in California's Inland Empire; H.R. 855, legislation introduced by the gentleman from Texas (Mr. Ortiz), to provide Federal dollars to the City of Brownsville's desalinization project; H.R. 863, a bill sponsored by the gentleman from Texas (Mr. Reyes), to provide Federal assistance to the City of El Paso's alternative water supply project; H.R. 1008, legislation authored by the gentleman from California (Mr. Calvert) and the gentleman from California (Mr. Lewis), to allow Federal assistance for water projects in southern California; H.R. 1197, a bill sponsored by the gentleman from Nebraska (Mr. Osborne), to extend irrigation contracts in Nebraska; and finally, H.R. 1327, legislation offered by the gentleman from Kansas (Mr. Tiahrt), to provide Federal assistance to the City of Wichita's aquifer recharge project. Mr. Speaker, these are bipartisan bills and deserve unanimous support. Once again, I urge my colleagues to pass H.R. 540 and the measures included therewith.

Mr. RENZI. Mr. Speaker, I yield such time as he may consume to the gentleman from Nevada (Mr. Gibbons).

Mr. RENZI. Mr. Speaker, I yield back the balance of my time.

Mr. RENZI

Mr. RENZI. Mr. Speaker, I move to suspend the rules and pass the bill (H.R. 1046) to authorize the Secretary of the Interior to contract with the City of Cheyenne, Wyoming, for the storage of the city's water in the Kendrick Project, Wyoming.

Mr. RENZI. Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume. H.R. 1046 provides long-term water supplies to the City of Cheyenne, Wyoming. This important bill authorizes the Bureau of Reclamation to enter into a long-term water contract with Cheyenne. Due to uncertainty in the law, the Federal Government cannot enter into long-term, non- project water contracts with municipal entities without the express consent of Congress. This bill simply provides that authority. I urge my colleagues to support this non-controversial bill that seeks to provide much needed long-term water use certainty. Mr. Speaker, I reserve the balance of my time.

Mr. RENZI. Mr. Speaker, I have no further requests for time, and I yield back the balance of my time.

Mr. RENZI

Mr. RENZI. Mr. Speaker, I move to suspend the rules and pass the bill (H.R. 938) to establish the Upper Housatonic Valley National Heritage Area in the State of Connecticut and the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, and for other purposes, as amended.

Mr. RENZI. Mr. Speaker, I ask unanimous consent that all Members may have 5 legislative days within which to revise and extend their remarks and include extraneous material on H.R. 938, the bill under consideration.

Mr. RENZI. Mr. Speaker, I yield back the balance of my time.

Mr. RENZI. Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume. Mr. Speaker, H.R. 938, introduced by the gentlewoman from Connecticut (Mrs. Johnson), and amended by the Committee on Resources, contains four titles. However, all four titles passed this House in the 108th Congress. Title I would establish the Upper Housatonic National Heritage Area in the State of Connecticut and the Commonwealth of Massachusetts. It would preserve the area's contributions in literature, art, music, architecture, iron and paper, and its electrical equipment industries. Title II amends the Illinois and Michigan Canal National Heritage Corridor Act in order to transition their management authority from a Federal commission to a nonprofit organization, which is in line with more recent Heritage Area management. Title III would authorize the Secretary of the Interior to conduct a suitability and feasibility study of establishing the St. Croix National Heritage Area in St. Croix, U.S. Virgin Islands. Title IV would establish the Northern Rio Grande National Heritage Area across three counties within the State of New Mexico to commemorate the unique combination of cultures, languages, folk arts, customs, and architecture associated with the Spanish colonization of New Mexico, beginning as far back as 1598. I urge adoption of this bill. Mr. Speaker, I reserve the balance of my time.

Mr. RENZI. Mr. Speaker, I continue to reserve my time.

Mr. RENZI

Mr. RENZI. Mr. Speaker, I thank Chairman Lewis for including in the supplemental the provision which is our wounded warrior bill. As our enemies adapt their war-fighting strategies, they change not just to kill our men and women overseas, but to maim and wound. Roadside incendiary devices, rocket grenades, car bombs mean the loss of several arms and legs and eyes, blindness and paralysis. Our men and woman coming home at Walter Reed Army Hospital and their families coming up to be with them so they can heal faster are incurring great debt. Never mind that they try to transition back into society, those great wage earners, trying to find self-worth in the work. This bill includes the wounded warrior project. It says to our troops, we are going to provide you with supplemental disability insurance to help you transition back to being American citizens and thank you for your patriotism. I urge my colleagues to vote for this supplemental. Do not allow these traumatic injuries to be the economic death sentence after our troops have survived the death bed overseas. Vote for our wounded warriors.

Mr. RENZI

Mr. RENZI. Mr. Speaker, I rise today to introduce the Navajo Nation Higher Education Act of 2005. In 1868, the United States of America signed a treaty with the Navajo Tribe of Indians to provide for the education of the citizens of the Navajo Nation. At this time, the United States government recognized the trust responsibility to serve the educational needs of the Navajo people. In 1968, the Navajo Nation created and chartered the Navajo Community College as a wholly-owned educational entity of the Navajo Nation. In 1971, Congress affirmed this effort by the Navajo Nation and enacted the Navajo Community College Act. In 1997, the Navajo Nation officially changed the name of the Navajo Community College to Dine College. Mr. Speaker, the Navajo Nation Higher Education Act reauthorizes the 1971 Navajo Community College Act and modernizes the statute by including the mission statement and Navajo education philosophy of Dine College. Dine College educates students by applying the principles of Dine philosophy to advance quality student learning through training of the heart and the mind. Over the years, facilities at Dine College have deteriorated, creating serious health safety risks to students, employees and the public. This legislation provides funding to address Dine College's facility needs such as modernization, repair and rehabilitation. In addition, this important legislation requires a survey and study of Dine College's facility needs. Finally, to ensure equitable funding for Dine College, the Navajo Nation Higher Education Act provides funding for Dine College separate from the other tribal colleges and universities. Mr. Speaker, I urge my colleagues to support the Navajo Nation Higher Education Act of 2005. It is our government's responsibility to provide educational opportunities to the Navajo people in a safe and healthy environment.