Pete Stauber

Mr. STAUBER

Mr. STAUBER. Every day, these men and women put on their uniform, kiss their families good-bye, and head to work without certainty they will return home that night. If you ask the spouse of any law enforcement officer, what is the greatest sound in the world? They will tell you when their loved one takes the bullet-resistant vest off in the morning after duty and it scratches like Velcro and it wakes them up. They know their loved one is home from a night of hard work. They know their loved one arrived home safe. Unfortunately, many never have heard that sound. As of this April, 99 officers have been shot in the line of duty this year and 10 have given their life. It is clear the dangers of the job are huge, but they are an accepted part of this profession. What disgusts me, however, is the 27 ambush-style attacks. Law enforcement officers are intentionally being targeted and attacked in the streets simply because they wear the uniform and serve their communities. This is unacceptable and must stop. In this Chamber, we must lead by example. We must respect the rule of law. We must thank and stand with our law enforcement officers. We must call on others to do so, as well. Only then will we truly honor the memory of those we have lost. As a police officer for 23 years, it is my privilege to speak about the law enforcement profession and the men and women who wear the blue and the brown. They are some of the greatest people I have ever known. I will use my time in Congress to honor them the best I can. We must not forget the family members of the men and women who serve, the Luke Delanos that are out there, the children of the family members that worry about mom or dad or brother and sister. We must also know that they are concerned that their loved one comes home alive at the end of their shift. My time in uniform may be over, but my watch will never end. God bless the men and women in the blue and brown and their families.

Mr. STAUBER

Mr. STAUBER. Mr. Speaker, I rise today to honor the life and service of Sergeant Neil Horn, who dedicated 8 years of his life to service of his country in the United States Marine Corps. Sergeant Horn spent most of his career in the U.S. Marines traveling the world as a security guard to defend the U.S. embassies where he was stationed. In 2002, Neil served in antiterrorism capacities in North Africa, and part of his job was to train marines in door-to-door combat and enhanced marksmanship. He was also an instructor for combat water survival. Sergeant Horn spent 14 years working in diplomatic security for the State Department, where he was engaged in a wide array of investigations, including human trafficking, terrorism, counterintelligence, the location and return of U.S. fugitives, large scale visa fraud, and passport and identity fraud. Most notably, Sergeant Horn played an integral part in reestablishing the United States Embassy in Cuba. His country is forever grateful for the sacrifice that he and his family have made for this great Nation. May he rest in eternal peace. Congratulating Ava Lowman

Mr. STAUBER. Mr. Speaker, I rise today to recognize and congratulate Ava Lowman of Cambridge-Isanti High School for being selected as a 2023 Triple A Award State scholarship recipient. This prestigious award, established in 1988, highlights high school seniors across the State of Minnesota for their hard work and dedication to their academics, art programs, and athletic endeavors. Ava has earned an impressive GPA of 4.36 while participating in the band and choir, being the speech team captain, and a member of the tennis and track and field teams. Additionally, Ava is considered a leader in her school's Link Crew program, where she and other students assist ninth graders with the transition into high school. Ava plans on going to college while continuing to participate in tennis, speech, and music. It is with great honor that I recognize Ava's achievements thus far, and it makes me proud to have such a distinguished young lady represent the great Eighth District of Minnesota. I congratulate her and wish her good luck in her future endeavors. Recognizing the Life of Carol Alstrom

Mr. STAUBER. Mr. Speaker, I rise today to recognize the life of Carol Alstrom, who dedicated 34 years of her life to teaching our youth. Carol received her teaching degree in physical education and health from Bemidji State University where she competed in track, volleyball, softball, and hockey and was inducted into BSU's Athletic Hall of Fame. She was known for her larger-than-life personality and her generous and caring demeanor. Her style of teaching was ahead of her time. Carol understood the importance of teaching her students valuable skills that could be transferred into the real world. She wanted to help her students become model citizens and would monitor their progress throughout their life. Carol was an athletics enthusiast and true pioneer in women's sports, starting Tower-Soudan's girls' volleyball, basketball, swimming, and track programs. She introduced countless students to cross-country skiing, Rollerblading, and pickleball. Carol went above and beyond to make sure her student athletes always had the equipment they needed. From buying new Adidas sneakers for the volleyball team to collecting golf clubs for the golf team, no one was underequipped. It takes a special kind of person to draw over 200 attendees to honor their life. Carol was that kind of special person. Former students, the children of former students, coworkers, and friends gathered to celebrate the life of Carol Alstrom and to exchange lasting memories that she imprinted on each one of them. The Tower-Soudan School gym was decorated in purple and gold to commemorate Carol's love for the Minnesota Vikings and her Tower-Soudan Golden Eagles. A permanent memorial will be installed outside of the Tower-Soudan School in her honor. Mr. Speaker, I thank Carol for her lifetime of service, and may she rest in peace.

Mr. STAUBER

Mr. STAUBER. Mr. Chairman, I rise today in support of the Protection of Women and Girls in Sports Act. Last year, we celebrated the 50th anniversary of Title IX, which has made incredible progress for women in this country, opening doors for countless women and girls. Thanks to Title IX, women have been afforded incredible opportunities in sports. I have seen this firsthand in my daughter who is an aspiring college volleyball player, as well as through the growth of women's professional sports across this country, including women's hockey. It is outrageous that we even have to consider legislation like this today, but, unfortunately, Democrats are seeking to weaken Title IX. President Biden and Democrats across this Nation are pushing for radical policies that will jeopardize the progress that has been made over 50 years. These policies ignore the biological differences between men and women. They will force female athletes to compete against biological males in high school and collegiate sports. They will jeopardize years of hard work put in by female athletes like my daughter and disincentivize their future participation. In short, they will erase women from athletics. The Protection of Women and Girls in Sports Act will protect and strengthen Title IX and will ensure that women and girls have the level playing field they deserve.

Mr. STAUBER

Mr. STAUBER. Madam Chair, I rise today in opposition to the amendment. Madam Chair, the whole purpose of passing H.R. 1 is to make it easier to build and move America forward. Lease awardees, under current law, are subject to extensive delays if the lease sale is protested. These delays could take weeks, months, or even years. Meanwhile, the prices at the gas pump continue to skyrocket while we have acres of land ready to be put into production. The current situation makes very little sense. Allowing for practically unfettered protests to lease sales with no timeline is a de facto ban on development--except this way, the administration doesn't have to admit that they actually are trying to ban American energy. It just takes a wink and a nod to the radical, wealthy, activist lawyer class that exists only to ``keep it in the ground.'' Working together, Interior and their friends in the protest class just drag it out, protest after protest, while American workers and families struggle to afford their daily commute. Section 20103 of H.R. 1 resolves this problem by putting in place a commonsense timeframe that concludes 60 days after the awardee makes the payment. Striking this section, as my colleague's amendment does, is just another attempt at slowing down any sort of oil and gas development. I urge opposition to the amendment.

Mr. STAUBER. Madam Chair, I rise today in support of the amendment. Madam Chair, in recent years, there has been a concerning trend of the Chinese Communist Party purchasing farmland right here in America, including land used for farming, forestry, and other energy production. In fact, the CCP just tried to purchase almost 400 acres of land right outside of Grand Forks Air Force Base in North Dakota, creating a clear and present danger to our national security. Not only does this jeopardize our national security, but takes valuable land away from our American farmers who toil day in and day out to grow crops used to feed America and provide liquid fuel options for transportation. As a proud recipient of the Friends of the Farm Bureau award and a member of the Congressional Biofuels Caucus, I hear firsthand from our farming communities of the very real fears about the Chinese-purchased land. If COVID taught us anything, it is that we cannot depend on adversarial nations for our supply chains, much less let them increase their hold and influence over our land. Madam Chair, I thank my colleague for offering his amendment, and I urge its support.

Mr. STAUBER. Madam Chair, I rise in strong support of this amendment, which creates a national strategy for America to reshore our mineral supply chains. Madam Chair, I want to just reiterate what the chairman of the Natural Resources Committee just said. Yesterday, the Secretary of the Interior of this Nation, who is in charge of millions of acres of Federal land, when asked on a mineral withdrawal in the biggest cooper- nickel find in the world, in northeastern Minnesota, called the Duluth Complex--which has 95 percent of this Nation's nickel reserve, almost 90 percent of the cobalt reserve, 75 percent of the platinum root metals, and a third of our copper--when the Secretary of the Interior yesterday was asked if there is critical minerals in that find, this is her answer: I don't know what kind of minerals were there. I don't think there were critical minerals. The Secretary of the Interior has no idea that cobalt and nickel are part of the critical minerals, of the 37 critical minerals identified by the Department of Energy. This is her response. We need a national strategy to reshore these minerals. I want to reiterate: This is offensive to my constituents who are ready and able to mine these critical minerals to secure our supply chain for this Nation. We have to secure our supply chain. We have to hold the dependency of this great Nation in the palm of our own hand, doing it with the best environmental standards and the best labor standards. We can't allow China to dominate in our critical minerals with zero environmental standards and zero labor standards. The Communist country of China owns 15 of the 19 industrial mines in the Congo that use child slave labor, and this administration just entered into a memorandum of understanding to allow child slaves to mine the minerals that we need. We can't do this anymore as the United States of America. We should never allow or purchase minerals mined by child slave labor. Again, this is the Secretary of the Interior of the United States of America. She has no idea what is happening with the withdrawal.

Mr. STAUBER. Madam Chair, I rise today in opposition to the amendment of the gentleman from California (Mr. Levin), my good friend. The so-called Inflation Reduction Act actually inflated royalty rates to continue punishing energy developers and all downstream consumers, whether it be diesel used by farmers or gas at the pump for a family going on vacation or even just the daily commute. Therefore, Republicans in Congress again did the right thing by returning the royalty rate to the reasonable place prior to the Inflation Reduction Act. By striking this provision, the Democrats once again want to increase the cost of energy on American families. This doesn't make sense. For one, it simply makes oil and gas more expensive and, therefore, all uses of oil and gas more expensive. We think of gasoline and diesel, of course, but how about plastic for everyday use, ranging from eyeglasses to medical instruments or rubber tires for electric vehicles? How about lubricants for wind turbines? How about fertilizer? Should we continue to drive the cost of all of these items through the roof? It also doesn't make sense because it only punishes producers on Federal lands and waters. I have had the good fortune of being welcomed to southeast New Mexico and west Texas a handful of times to discuss these issues, and what I have learned is that it is significantly easier and cheaper to develop on private lands. Producers will produce. Do we want those returns from production to be realized by communities impacted by Federal land ownership at all? This amendment was soundly defeated in committee. Let's keep energy and oil and gas applications cheap, and let's keep revenues flowing to areas impacted by Federal lands.

Mr. STAUBER. Madam Chair, I, too, appreciate Mr. Levin's intent, but I rise today in opposition to his amendment. Democrats tout the ``historic investments'' in our agencies by the so-called Inflation Reduction Act and other deficit-ballooning bills passed when they were in complete control. Madam Chair, I don't understand. How can the agencies be so chronically understaffed after passing all those ``historic investments''? In fact, Democrats during committee markup touted these funding levels. In a nice little graphic, they had $1 billion from the so- called IRA alone, which includes $30 million for CEQ, $350 million for the Steering Council, and a whopping $625 million for other various agencies. Madam Chair, have we completed the Cardinal-Hickory Creek transmission line that is going on 7 years of permitting? The answer is no. Have we brought any new mines on line? The answer is no. Have we finished any water projects in California? No. Look at this chart behind me. This broken permitting system is the issue. It takes decades to get anything done. A mining project in my district alone is on year 20, going on year 21 of permitting and litigation. The need here isn't to turbocharge more Federal bureaucrats in our agencies. H.R. 1 solves this problem. Let's modernize the permitting process. Let's put time limits on litigation, limit review page numbers, and shorten timelines for America to remain competitive and lead in energy production. H.R. 1 also allows project sponsors to conduct the review and then submit to the agency, who must give final sign-off. I repeat this. The agency must sign off. This isn't just a Republican provision. Many Democrats who still serve in this Chamber or in the Senate have voted for that. Fixing permitting requires real policy solutions, not just throwing money into endless pits of bureaucracy. I urge opposition to this amendment.

Mr. STAUBER

Mr. STAUBER. Madam Chair, before I begin my speech, I just want to tell the American people, you are not hearing all the truth on this. Sometimes my colleagues on the other side of the aisle will try to repeat things, mislead the American people. It is rinse, lather, repeat. The American people are smarter than that. H.R. 1 is a priority for this Conference. It helps to modernize the permitting process. Madam Chair, I rise today in strong support of H.R. 1, Majority Leader Scalise's Lower Energy Costs Act, a bill I am an original cosponsor of, helped to write, and a bill America needs now more than ever. I am also pleased that the House Natural Resources Committee received primary jurisdiction. I thank the Committees on Energy and Commerce and Transportation and Infrastructure for their important contributions as well. Americans put Republicans in control of the House, in part, because we campaigned on making life more affordable and making it easier to build. We want to let miners mine, farmers farm, builders build, and let small businesses succeed. However, under today's permitting scheme, that is all but impossible. In the district I represent, we have a proposed mine that would provide a huge resource of copper, nickel, cobalt, a huge resource of those critical minerals that we need, and it is on year 20 of permitting and litigation. It has a signed project labor agreement, committed to domestic union labor for the mine's construction. My colleagues on the other side of the aisle at every turn reject that mine as well as this administration does. This mine has won every lawsuit thrown its way, but further frivolous litigation and endless bureaucracy continue to mire the project year after year. We can help to build the energy transition with domestic minerals mined by Minnesotans, but the permitting bureaucracy stands in the way. That is why I am proud that my own legislation, which has 33 cosponsors, the Permitting for Mining Needs Act, is included in the base text. PERMIT-MN creates what miners want. They want certainty. It limits frivolous litigation, puts in place commonsense review timelines, and just puts American miners to work, whether they are in Minnesota, Alaska, Arizona, Nevada, California, or anywhere else. This is about so much more than mining. If you are at all serious about emissions reduction, you will vote to support H.R. 1. Why? Because right now, for example, it takes years to decades to permit transmission projects that will add wind and solar to the grid. At our February 9 oversight hearing on permitting, American Clean Power testified that failure to enact permitting reforms puts an estimated 100 gigawatts of clean energy projects at risk.

Mr. STAUBER. Madam Chair, that means risking $100 billion worth of investment and 150,000 potential jobs in the clean energy sector. In the Natural Resources Committee, we have a real tangible example. At our February 28 legislative hearing on my colleague Garret Graves' BUILDER Act, Dairyland Power testified about the Cardinal-Hickory Creek transmission line. This transmission line, which will put more wind power on the grid, is about 103 miles long, but it is locked in year 7 of permitting. We need to pass H.R. 1 for energy independence and critical mineral dominance.

Mr. STAUBER

Mr. STAUBER. It is the PolyMet project, NewRange. Twenty years in the permitting process.

Mr. STAUBER. And the Twin Metals one, correct.

Mr. STAUBER. Mr. Speaker, I rise today to discuss the urgent need for permitting reform to secure America's energy future. H.R. 1, the Lower Energy Costs Act, will modernize our outdated permitting process for projects and allow us to unlock the full potential of America's energy and mineral resources. I want to discuss the mining provisions of H.R. 1, which includes my Permitting for Mining Needs Act. The district that I represent in northern Minnesota, Minnesota's Eighth Congressional District, has 95 percent of America's nickel reserve, almost 90 percent of America's cobalt reserve, 75 percent of our platinum group metals, and more than a third of our copper--all of which are minerals needed for our energy security and mineral supply chains. It is unconscionable that a mining project in my district for these minerals is on year 20 of permitting and litigation. We have the resources and the workforce here in the United States, we just need the will, the political will, to mine here. Whether it be mining oil and gas, wind or solar energy, we support all of the above and all of the best energy, but you can't have all of the above and all of the best without permitting reform. We also need permitting reform to build transmission lines, roads, bridges, and more. Take Dairyland Power's Cardinal-Hickory Creek transmission line project in Wisconsin, for example. This 103-mile-long project is designed to put more wind power on the grid, but is currently locked in year 7 of permitting because just 1.3 miles of it is unlucky enough to touch Federal land. This is simply unacceptable, and we can and must do better. If we want to establish American mineral independence and dominance and end our current reliance on the Chinese Communist Party, we must pass H.R. 1. Mr. Speaker, I yield to the gentlewoman from West Virginia (Mrs. Miller).

Mr. STAUBER. Mr. Speaker, I thank the gentlewoman for those comments. She is spot on. Mr. Speaker, I yield to the gentleman from California (Mr. LaMalfa), the executive vice chair of the Western Caucus.

Mr. STAUBER. Mr. Speaker, I thank Mr. LaMalfa for his very spot-on comments, as well. Mr. Speaker, I yield to the gentleman from Indiana (Mr. Baird).

Mr. STAUBER. Mr. Speaker, I thank the gentleman for his comments that rural America matters. Their voice should be heard in our Nation's Capitol. Mr. Speaker, I yield to the gentleman from California (Mr. Kiley).

Mr. STAUBER. Mr. Speaker, I thank Mr. Kiley for those spot-on words. He demonstrated that H.R. 1 will save the American people money so they have more money in their pockets, so they can take care of their families. He is absolutely right. Higher energy costs for oil and gas equal the rising cost in food prices. The next speaker is my colleague and friend from the neighboring State of Wisconsin and one of the vice chairs of the Western Caucus. Mr. Speaker, I yield to the gentleman from Wisconsin (Mr. Tiffany) for the purpose of a colloquy.

Mr. STAUBER. Mr. Speaker, I am the father of 6 children and Mr. Tiffany is the father of 3. Nobody controls that term ``environmentalists.'' We are all environmentalists. He is right.

Mr. STAUBER. Absolutely.

Mr. STAUBER. I am.

Mr. STAUBER. Mr. Speaker, I thank Mr. Tiffany. Again, this is about modernizing our permitting process without reducing any environmental standards, as he so clearly stated. We appreciate those comments. Mr. Speaker, as you can see, my Western Caucus colleagues have made it very clear: we need permitting reform. I thank them for their comments tonight, and I yield back the balance of my time.

Mr. STAUBER

Mr. STAUBER. Mr. Speaker, I move that the House do now adjourn.

Mr. STAUBER

Mr. STAUBER. Mr. Speaker, for the sake of not belaboring the great points already made by my colleagues here today, I will keep this brief. The Biden administration's WOTUS rule creates a regulatory headache for economic drivers like farmers, ranchers, small business owners, manufacturers, miners, and more. Similar to the old Obama administration WOTUS rule, this new rule is a gift to lawyers and activists. All this rule does is give D.C. bureaucrats a chance to trade in their dress shoes for their never-worn cowboy boots, step over a few puddles and call them navigable waters, and upend the lives of rural Americans. Time and time again, the Biden administration creates hardships for the constituents I represent. Unfortunately, I expect no less from this activist administration. It is clear that they do not consider rural America a priority. Mr. Speaker, I support passage of this CRA to nullify the ``sumbumcheous,'' devastating Biden administration WOTUS rule.