Thomas Tiffany

Mr. TIFFANY

Mr. TIFFANY. Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume. Mr. Speaker, I rise in support of H.R. 7326. This bill was prepared for the Judiciary Committee by the Office of Law Revision Counsel. OLRC is a nonpartisan office of the House of Representatives charged with assisting us in keeping the U.S. Code organized and up to date. As part of that mandate, OLRC will submit bills for our consideration, as necessary. These bills do not change the substance of any law on the books. They are purely technical and ministerial in nature. H.R. 7326 amends chapters 4, 10, and 131 of title 5 to account for bills passed by Congress since we last addressed it 2 years ago. I thank my colleagues on the Judiciary Committee for the bipartisan way in which we handle these bills. I urge support for H.R. 7326, and I reserve the balance of my time.

Mr. TIFFANY. Mr. Speaker, I yield 3 minutes to the gentleman from Oregon (Mr. Bentz).

Mr. TIFFANY. Mr. Speaker, the gentleman from Georgia and I are pleased to be working expeditiously to get this done within 20 minutes. I urge support, and I yield back the balance of my time.

Mr. TIFFANY

Mr. TIFFANY. Mr. Chair, I rise today in support of Chairman Westerman's bipartisan Fix Our Forests Act. This bill is the culmination of the House Committee on Natural Resources' efforts this Congress to advance innovative solutions to increase the pace and scale of forest management, protect vulnerable communities from catastrophic wildfires, and restore health and resiliency to our Nation's ailing forests and Federal lands. Addressing the health of our forests and rangelands is not an issue that will be solved by simply throwing more dollars at it. We need substantive changes in our land management practices. Undermining active forest management has caused damage to our Nation's forests and Federal lands, and we have seen the consequences of this mismanagement out West, resulting in year after year of bad wildfire seasons. We can act right now to reverse this trend, and that starts with passing this bill. This bill contains streamlined tools to expedite bureaucratic environmental reviews, ending frivolous litigation that delays important projects, expanding Good Neighbor Authority, prioritizing high-risk forests, and a fix to the Cottonwood decision, which is responsible for doubling the cost of some projects. It also includes my bill, the ACRES Act, which requires land managers to produce yearly hazardous fuels reduction reports based on the actual number of acres that they treated, and I will note that this proposal already passed the House with robust bipartisan support. The provisions included in this bill will lead to better management, which in turn, will result in better outcomes for our land managers and our local communities with fewer wildfires and a cleaner environment. To one of the comments, Mr. Chair, that was shared previously about the firefighter problem we have and the danger they are being put in, the number one thing we can do to protect firefighters' health and life is to manage our forests. Take a look at this chart here to my right where you see forest management. The amount of wood that is being harvested, all from our Federal forests, steadily declined since the 1980s. What happened with wildfires? They increased significantly. There is a direct correlation. Manage our forests, take timber off from it, and we will not have these wildfires as we have seen since 1988. I thank the chairman, Mr. Westerman, for his tireless work on this in the Natural Resources Committee, which I sit on, and I urge passage of this bill.

Mr. TIFFANY

Mr. TIFFANY. Mr. Chair, I thank the gentleman from Ohio for his leadership. Mr. Chair, who do you want in charge of a pandemic policy in the United States? Do you want the corrupt globalists at the World Health Organization in charge of it, or do you want the United States of America to be at the wheel of our pandemic policy? The answer is simple. The World Health Organization has proven time and time again that they cannot be trusted to carry out an effective pandemic response. In 2019, they ignored Taiwan's early warning about the COVID-19 outbreak, then they parroted the lies of the Chinese Communist Party that there was no human-to-human transmission. Now, the Biden-Harris administration is seeking to reward them with our pandemic management. The pandemic treaty draft includes no accountability or improved transparency measures for the CCP in its role in covering up the origins of the COVID-19 pandemic. It focuses on mandated resource and technology transfers and shreds intellectual property rights. It also contains certain provisions that may police our First Amendment rights. Lastly, it does not protect the sovereignty of the United States of America. This legislation is a no-brainer for anyone who stands for transparency and America's sovereignty. It would require any convention or agreement resulting from the work of the World Health Organization's intergovernmental negotiating body to be deemed a treaty, thus requiring the advice and consent of two- thirds of the Senate. Given the vast reach of this so-called pandemic treaty, don't we want Congress to have oversight of it? I encourage all my colleagues to support this bill, but more importantly, I urge all my colleagues to choose American sovereignty because that is really what is at stake today. I would also say, Mr. Chair, I am hearing from the other side, from the gentleman from New York, it sounds like he has a draft of the treaty. If he does, we would like to see it because we have not received a final draft of the treaty, and that is part of the impetus for this bill. If we are going to have transparency and accountability for the American people, which we should certainly have, then we need to see the document. Produce the document, allow us to be able to review it, and have the United States Senate, a body of the people of the United States of America, be able to ratify this very important agreement that may have far-reaching impacts on the American people.

Mr. TIFFANY

Mr. TIFFANY. Mr. Speaker, I rise today to congratulate Kenny Bednarek of Rice Lake, Wisconsin, on qualifying for the Paris Summer Olympics in the 100- and 200-meter sprints. Kenny is from a small town in northwest Wisconsin where he has been representing the Seventh District since he was in high school. At Rice Lake High School, he captured seven individual State titles and led his team to the 4-by-400 relay championship. He then went on to set the fastest indoor 200-meter time in the United States and the second fastest in the world before becoming an Olympian in 2020. During the 2020 Tokyo Olympic Games, he won a silver medal in the 200-meter dash. I wish Kung Fu Kenny and all of the U.S. athletes the best of luck in Paris. Go for the gold.

Mr. TIFFANY

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

Mr. TIFFANY. Mr. Chair, my amendment strikes funding in the bill to close existing Forest Service roads. Maintaining and expanding access to our public lands has been a priority for me and many of my colleagues on the Natural Resources Committee this Congress. Another lesser-known but equally important threat to access is the closure and decommissioning of roads and trails. Since 1991, the Forest Service has decommissioned an average of 2,000 miles of roads per year. Public lands across the Nation are under threat from big-city environmental groups that are hellbent on restricting public access to our shared public lands. Shutting down these avenues for access doesn't just limit opportunities for recreational opportunities, like hunting, fishing, and ATVing, but it also makes responsible management efforts more difficult and expensive. That is exactly their goal. My subcommittee saw these road closures firsthand in the Chequamegon- Nicolet National Forest in my district during a field hearing in May. It is not a coincidence that many of these local road closures correlate with the decline in the local forest products industry, the same industry that helps keep our forests and the communities that depend on them healthy and vibrant. Forest Service roads can also act as an important firebreak for wildfires and allow quicker access for fighting them. The language of decommissioning roads that are no longer needed is quite vague. In my experience, the Forest Service has not been very good about coordinating with local communities before closing roads that many people use. Mr. Chair, why are we spending tax dollars to close roads we spent tax money to build? It makes no sense. Let's make a U-turn on the harmful policy and stop throwing up roadblocks that make it more difficult for Americans to visit these special places. I ask for a ``yes'' vote on the amendment. Mr. Chair, I reserve the balance of my time.

Mr. TIFFANY. Mr. Chair, I wish the gentlewoman would have been with us on our tour in May in northern Wisconsin. She would have heard from local people, local elected officials, State elected officials, and others who are harmed by these road closures that are happening. The waste of tax dollars is very significant. We saw perfectly fine roads that had been constructed to do logging projects and then they were removed. We heard from a couple of elderly ladies who are berry pickers, which is a favorite pastime of many people up in northern Wisconsin at this time of year. They used to go out there and be able to pick berries now and then. They can no longer do that. This is denying access to the very people who want to use our public lands that are taken care of with their tax dollars. There is no reason to close these roads. These roads have been active, oftentimes for decades, with no problems, and it is not rational to use the argument that this is going to harm the watershed. If you come to some of the areas that we toured on our trip in May, you will see some of the finest waters that you will find in northern Wisconsin, and they were that way when these roads were active. There is no reason that we should be closing and decommissioning these roads. Mr. Chair, I yield back the balance of my time.

Mr. TIFFANY

Mr. TIFFANY. Madam Chair, I rise in opposition to this amendment. Madam Chair, listen to the Orwellian language that we heard from the other side here in regard to irregular migration. This is laundering that is going on. This is laundering via the welcome court and the Safe Mobility Office. The other thing that we heard was civility. How could this possibly be civil? Is it civil to have human trafficking on an epic scale? Is it civil to have cartels that are brutalizing people, women especially, who are being raped and murdered coming through the southern border and the fentanyl crisis that is the number one killer of our young people in America?

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

Mr. TIFFANY. Mr. Chairman, my amendment would prevent the enforcement of arbitrary, self-imposed State Department rules that limit communication between U.S. officials and their counterparts in Taiwan. In essence, these guidelines are designed to prevent high-level coordination between our two countries. That isn't just bad policy, but it is in direct conflict with existing laws that call for expanding bilateral cooperation, such as the Taiwan Travel Act. These rules inhibit the ability of high-ranking U.S. Defense officials to work with military planners in Taipei. They impose degrading and embarrassing restrictions that serve no reasonable purpose, such as a ban on displaying Taiwan's flag and the playing of Taiwan's national anthem at functions held on U.S. Government property. They even police language, warning American officials not to refer to Taiwan as a country or its elected leaders as a government. These directives do not help the United States and they do not help Taiwan, but they do help the Chinese Communist Party. That is why former President Trump and Secretary of State Mike Pompeo got rid of them. Unfortunately, the Biden administration quietly reinstated them in 2021, and that is why I am offering this amendment today. Mr. Chair, it makes no sense that a State Department memo supersedes the laws we pass. America should not have to ask China for a permission slip to talk to our friends and allies in Taiwan or anywhere else. My amendment will make sure we don't by scrapping these so-called guidelines. I ask for a ``yes'' vote on the amendment, and I reserve the balance of my time.

Mr. TIFFANY. Mr. Chair, let's go back to 1979. The executive branch sometimes does not get it right, as we saw with President Jimmy Carter who adopted the One China policy here and Congress had to step in with the Taiwan Relations Act in order to make sure that Taiwan was identified as a country. That is what we have seen in the ensuing times since approximately 1980. It is appropriate for Congress to step in in a situation like this when we see an administration that shows weakness toward China, and we have seen the impacts of that weakness across the globe. Congress will stand with Taiwan, and I hope all of Congress will stand with Taiwan. Mr. Chair, I reserve the balance of my time.

Mr. TIFFANY. Mr. Chair, I urge a ``yes'' vote on this amendment, and I yield back the balance of my time.

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

Mr. TIFFANY. Mr. Chair, my amendment would withhold U.S. contributions from the corrupt and scandal-plagued United Nations. It is about time. Despite making up less than 5 percent of the world's population, Americans remain the largest single state contributor to the U.N., footing around one-quarter of its multibillion-dollar budget. In other words, we pick up the lion's share of the tab, while unaccountable, international bureaucrats make the rules. What have our donations financed? Decades of mismanagement, waste, fraud, and abuse; endless anti- Semitic Israel bashing; more than a dozen UNRWA employees participating directly in the October 7 terrorist attack on Israel, and potentially 1,000 more with links to Hamas; seats on the U.N.'s so-called Human Rights Council for the notorious rulers of countries like Communist China, Russia, Cuba, and Venezuela; incompetent U.N. agencies like the World Health Organization, which ignored Taiwan's early warnings about the dangerous Wuhan virus and chose instead to run interference for Beijing. Mr. Chair, the know-it-alls at the U.N. don't limit themselves to headline grabbing matters of international concern. The U.N. Food and Agriculture Organization recently cooked up a plan to take on backyard barbecues, burgers, and brats, demanding that Americans eat less beef, less pork, less poultry to reduce emissions. This meatheaded move is just the latest half-baked scheme on the U.N.'s menu of dumb ideas. Mr. Chair, it is time to put the U.N.'s bloated bureaucracy on a diet and stop outsourcing our sovereignty to this shady transnational organization. Mr. Chair, I ask for a ``yes'' vote on the amendment, and I reserve the balance of my time.

Mr. TIFFANY. Mr. Chair, I am being whipsawed here. We looked at the previous amendment that I offered with a chance to stand up against the PRC in reference to Taiwan, and we hear a ``no'' vote is urged. Now we are being told that the PRC is going to take over the United Nations. It is time to start looking out for America's interests. In particular, I have authored a resolution that I hope to see in July in regard to the World Health Organization, which stood with Beijing rather than the people of the world. We saw the devastation of what was done as a result of the virus that almost certainly came from a lab in Wuhan and devastated our world. Mr. Chair, I urge a ``yes'' vote on this. It is time to take care of America first, and I reserve the balance of my time.

Mr. TIFFANY. Mr. Chair, I say to my colleagues on the other side of the aisle, join us in making America first. I urge a ``yes'' vote, and I yield back the balance of my time.

Mr. TIFFANY

Mr. TIFFANY. Mr. Chair, I reserve the balance of my time.

Mr. TIFFANY. Mr. Chair, I yield 30 seconds to the gentleman from Nevada (Mr. Amodei).

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

Mr. TIFFANY. Mr. Chair, this amendment would prohibit the expenditure of funds to extend what is known as temporary protected status, or TPS, for nationals of El Salvador. TPS is a tool provided by Congress that allows for the President, acting through the Department of Homeland Security, to allow foreign nationals to remain temporarily in the United States if conditions in their home country are too dangerous to send them back. The intent was to authorize a short reprieve from removal, with the idea being that the beneficiaries would be repatriated when conditions improved. Unfortunately, however, like so many immigration laws, this narrow authority has been repeatedly abused. Nationals of El Salvador, for example, were granted TPS in the chaotic aftermath of an earthquake. Here is the problem: That earthquake was in 2001, more than two decades ago. Mr. Chair, times have changed. Since 2001, America has had four presidents and El Salvador has had five. El Salvador now boasts the lowest homicide rate of any country in our hemisphere, other than Canada, not to mention a robust tourism ministry that markets whale watching, surfing, gourmet coffee tours, scenic volcano hikes, and posh all-inclusive resorts. Mr. Chair, I am glad that El Salvador has recovered from the 2001 earthquake, and I applaud the progress their leader has made in combating crime and promoting economic reform. However, the ``T'' in TPS stands for ``temporary.'' TPS was never intended to operate as a permanent loophole to provide rolling amnesty to hundreds of thousands of foreign nationals, most of whom were here illegally to begin with. Mr. Chair, I ask for a ``yes'' vote on the amendment, and I reserve the balance of my time.

Mr. TIFFANY. Mr. Chair, I would just add, in response to the comments that we just heard from the other side of the aisle, they should tell the American people who have suffered through the fentanyl deaths that are the number one killer of young people in America. Tell that to the American people as they see terrorists come into this country. Tell this to the people of America as they see murders happen all over the country, including people dying in my district clear up in northern Wisconsin. We also heard about continuous natural disasters. There are always natural disasters in every country. Do we let people from every country come in just because they have natural disasters? This is TPS. It is temporary. Twenty years is plenty of temporary. It is time to stop the temporary protected status for El Salvador. Mr. Chair, I yield back the balance of my time.

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

Mr. TIFFANY. Mr. Chair, this amendment is very similar to the prior amendment. It prohibits the expenditure of funds to extend temporary protected status, in this case to nationals from Honduras. That ``T'' in TPS is important because it stands for ``temporary.'' In the case of Honduras, this temporary designation was issued in response to a hurricane. When did that hurricane make landfall, you might ask? It was in October of 1998. Bill Clinton was in the White House, gasoline was $1.05 per gallon, Microsoft had just replaced General Electric as America's most valuable company, and the first BlackBerry wouldn't hit store shelves for another year. Yet this temporary amnesty continues. Like El Salvador, conditions in Honduras have improved. The country elected a new President in 2022, completing a peaceful transfer of power. Honduras also has an active tourism industry, marketing ziplining, visits to U.N. World Heritage sites, world-class scuba diving, and some of the Caribbean's best beaches and all-inclusive resorts. If Honduras is safe enough to welcome millions of tourists each year, isn't it safe enough to welcome Hondurans back home? Mr. Chair, it is time to put the ``T'' back in TPS. TPS was never intended to be the ``Hotel California'' that says illegal aliens can check in anytime but they can never leave. Mr. Chair, I ask for a ``yes'' vote on the amendment, and I reserve the balance of my time.