[Congressional Record Volume 161, Number 156 (Friday, October 23, 2015)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Page E1521]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]





    NATIONAL STRATEGIC AND CRITICAL MINERALS PRODUCTION ACT OF 2015

                                 ______
                                 

                               speech of

                          HON. EARL BLUMENAUER

                               of oregon

                    in the house of representatives

                       Thursday, October 22, 2015

       The House in Committee of the Whole House on the state of 
     the Union had under consideration the bill (H.R. 1937) to 
     require the Secretary of the Interior and the Secretary of 
     Agriculture to more efficiently develop domestic sources of 
     the minerals and mineral materials of strategic and critical 
     importance to United States economic and national security 
     and manufacturing competitiveness:

  Mr. BLUMENAUER. Mr. Chair, I will vote against H.R. 1937, a bill that 
weakens environmental safeguards while bolstering the mining industry's 
special privileges on federal lands.
  The language in the bill is written in such a way to cover virtually 
all hardrock mining on federal lands. Instead of using a scientific 
definition of a critical mineral, a mineral for which there is no 
substitute, H.R. 1937 considers gravel and sand to be critical 
minerals, leading to fast-tracked permits for practically any hardrock 
mines, even when the materials are plentiful. In addition, the bill 
classifies hardrock mines as infrastructure projects in order to allow 
hardrock mines to access a streamlined permit process intended for 
actual infrastructure projects such as surface transportation and 
pipelines, which have far less of an environmental impact.
  The bill directs the Bureau of Land Management and the Forest Service 
to simplify the process for obtaining permits to extract minerals from 
federal lands, including eliminating adequate reviews under the 
National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA). It is widely known that the 
NEPA review process, through the formulation of alternative proposals 
and the consideration of public input, leads to improved federal 
decision-making and better projects. In the end, NEPA saves time, money 
and reduces negative impacts. Furthermore, NEPA is the primary 
balancing mechanism against the mining industry's privileged access to 
billions of dollars worth of minerals on federal lands. The mining 
industry already enjoys access to hardrock minerals on public lands 
without paying taxpayers anything.
  Finally, the bill limits the ability of aggrieved communities to use 
the court system to hold the government accountable when contamination 
from hardrock mining threatens their groundwater or drinking water. 
H.R. 1937 exempts legal cases brought against hardrock mines from the 
Equal Access to Justice Act, which means that winning plaintiffs cannot 
collect attorney fees from the government, ultimately ensuring that 
poor communities will never challenge these decisions in court.
  I support efforts to strengthen our mining regulations. H.R. 1937, 
however, is a step in the wrong direction. We should be looking to 
reform the antiquated General Mining Law of 1872. Nearly a century and 
a half later, a law signed by President Ulysses S. Grant remains the 
law of the land and carries with it a toxic legacy. The GAO estimates 
that there may be more than 160,000 abandoned hardrock mines and that 
20% of these sites (roughly 33,000) have degraded the environment by 
contaminating surface water and groundwater or leaving arsenic-
contaminated tailings piles.
  In its place, the Hardrock Mining Reform and Reclamation Act, H.R. 
963, is a meaningful attempt at comprehensive reform and yet it remains 
stuck in committee. Unlike the bill being considered on the floor 
today, H.R. 963 would protect communities and their surroundings by 
balancing mining with other uses of public land. This legislation would 
put in place environmental controls to protect water, create jobs and 
protect natural areas by funding the clean-up of abandoned mines, and 
compensate taxpayers for the extraction of natural resources.

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