[Congressional Record Volume 163, Number 112 (Thursday, June 29, 2017)]
[House]
[Pages H5370-H5372]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




DEVASTATING IMPACTS ILLEGAL MARIJUANA GROW OPERATIONS ARE HAVING ON OUR 
                         NATION'S PUBLIC LANDS

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under the Speaker's announced policy of 
January 3, 2017, the Chair recognizes the gentleman from California 
(Mr. LaMalfa) for 30 minutes.
  Mr. LaMALFA. Mr. Speaker, I have a presentation here, but, first, I 
yield to the gentleman from New Jersey (Mr. Smith), my friend, who has 
a very important topic to cover as well. I appreciate his friendship 
and his strong leadership on the things that really count around here.


                         Liu Xiaobo Resolution

  Mr. SMITH of New Jersey. Mr. Speaker, I want to thank my very good 
friend from California for his graciousness in yielding me this time 
and for his wonderful work as a Member of Congress on human rights and 
pro-life issues. I thank him for that leadership.
  Mr. Speaker, tonight, I rise and note to my colleagues that the news 
of Nobel Peace Prize winner Liu Xiaobo's diagnosis of terminal liver 
cancer was a jarring shock to everyone who admires this champion of 
freedom and democracy.
  Tonight, the House has under consideration an urgent resolution, a 
truly urgent resolution, H. Con. Res. 67, which I introduced, joined by 
Ms. Pelosi, and several of the members of the Foreign Affairs 
Committee, she and I together, some bipartisanship in a place where we 
have had little of it lately. But here we are joined, and we are joined 
very strongly on behalf of Liu Xiaobo and his dire, dire situation, and 
that of his wife.

  The legislation urges the Government of the People's Republic of 
China to unconditionally release Liu Xiaobo, together with his wife, 
Liu Xia, to allow them to freely meet with friends, family, and 
counsel, and seek medical treatment wherever they desire.
  The operative language of the resolution makes it very clear that it 
recognizes Liu Xiaobo for his decades of

[[Page H5371]]

peaceful struggle for basic human rights and democracy and, again, 
urges that he be able to seek medical care, including treatment in the 
United States or wherever else he would like to receive it.
  I want to thank Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy. This resolution was 
introduced yesterday. The majority leader made sure that this 
legislation came to the floor just a few hours ago to ensure that we 
went on the record as a Congress showing our solidarity of Liu Xiaobo 
and his wife and our deep, deep compassion and concern for the plight 
that he finds himself in.
  I want to thank Speaker Ryan, who also expressed strong concern for 
Liu Xiaobo, and, of course, Nancy Pelosi and Steny Hoyer because this 
required bipartisan support to bring it up on the UC; and also Ed 
Royce, the chairman of the full Committee on Foreign Affairs, the 
famous gentleman from California, and, of course, the ranking member, 
Eliot Engel.
  Mr. Speaker, in February of 2010, I led a bipartisan group of 
lawmakers nominating Liu Xiaobo for the Nobel Peace Prize and, at the 
same time, nominating two other persecuted Chinese human rights 
advocates, Chen Guangcheng and Gao Zhisheng, to be joint recipients of 
this most prestigious award. Others, including the great Vaclav Havel, 
also pushed for Liu to get this important recognition which we had 
hoped would help push the human rights agenda in China.
  The Nobel Peace Prize Committee agreed and awarded the Nobel Peace 
Prize to Liu Xiaobo for his ``long and nonviolent struggle for 
fundamental human rights in China.''
  I attended the Oslo ceremony, at the invitation of the family, along 
with Leader Pelosi. It was a moving ceremony, Mr. Speaker. The now 
famous empty chair spoke volumes about the Chinese Communist Party's 
abiding fear that human rights and democracy will undermine its power. 
There, on the stage, was this chair without the recipient of the Nobel 
Peace Prize.
  After that, I held several hearings both in the Subcommittee on 
Africa, Global Health, Global Human Rights, and International 
Organizations and also on the Congressional-Executive Commission on 
China, which I co-chair with Marco Rubio. And again, we always had a 
picture of the empty chair where Liu Xiaobo should have been rightly 
honored and hopefully freed to pursue the righteousness of his human 
rights work.
  He said, in absentia, that day: ``Freedom of expression is the 
foundation of human rights, the source of humanity, and the mother of 
truth. To strangle freedom of speech is to trample on human rights, 
stifle humanity, and suppress truth.''
  Chinese authorities have gone to great lengths to stifle Liu Xiaobo's 
ability to speak truth to power. In 2009, he was given an 11-year 
prison sentence for ``inciting subversion of state power.''
  His wife, Liu Xia, also was detained in de facto form ``house 
arrest'' since 2010. She is in urgent need of medical care, as well, 
having been hospitalized for a heart condition. Over the past year, 
authorities have allowed her to visit her husband only on a very few 
occasions.
  According to Chinese authorities, Liu's conviction was based on 
Charter 08, a treatise signed by over 300 intellectuals and activists. 
That document states that freedom, equality, and human rights are 
universal values of humankind, and that democracy and constitutional 
government are the fundamental framework for protecting these values.
  Sadly, Liu Xiaobo and Liu Xia, his wife, are not alone in facing 
unjust repression. As of September 2017, the Congressional-Executive 
Commission on China, which collects and maintains probably the most 
effective and comprehensive political database for any country--and 
this is on China--contains information on at least 1,400 cases of known 
political or religious prisoners.
  According to the annual report, the government of President Xi 
Jinping has engaged in an extraordinary assault on the rule of law, 
human rights, ethnic minority groups, and civil society in recent 
years.
  Under Xi's leadership, the Chinese Government has pushed through new 
laws and drafted legislation that would legitimize political, 
religious, and ethnic repression, further curtail civil liberties, and 
expand censorship of the internet. And the whole issue of the one 
child, now maybe two child per couple policy, coercion and population 
control, continues to harm women and children with extreme hurtfulness. 
It is just beyond the pale of what a government should be doing to its 
own people.
  It is tempting to be pessimistic about China's future and the future 
of U.S. relations. Frankly, I am not pessimistic, despite the 
circumstances, because I do believe Liu Xiaobo is the future, and 
people who have his belief in fundamental human rights.
  Mr. Speaker, let me conclude by just saying I believe that someday 
China will be free; someday the people of China will be able to enjoy 
all of their God-given rights, and a nation of free Chinese men and 
women will honor and celebrate Liu Xiaobo as a hero. He will be 
honored, along with all of the others like him, who have sacrificed so 
much for so long for freedom.
  Mr. LaMALFA. Mr. Speaker, I appreciate Mr. Smith for standing up for 
that important issue and making that known. So, I thank him, and I 
appreciate him joining with us tonight.
  Mr. Speaker, I rise tonight to discuss the devastating impacts that 
illegal marijuana grow operations are having on our public lands--even 
private lands, as well.

  As pictured here, this is not an uncommon scene in my district in 
northern California, in many of the Western States, or anywhere where 
people think they can get away with it, where someone may not be paying 
attention. We see that very often on our Federal lands because, 
honestly, regretfully, they are not managed very well and they are not 
managed very often.
  We hope to see that turn around under this new administration, this 
new leadership, that U.S. Forest Service lands have more attention to 
them, that they are managed more with timber harvest, thinning, things 
of that nature, to make the forests healthier.
  This certainly does not cause a healthier situation for our forests, 
as you see pictured here, the amount of damage that can come from that. 
I will tell you a little bit about it here.
  The devastating effects inflicted on the habitat and wildlife due to 
the nonpermitted water diversions, extensive grading of the terrain--
which, people in agriculture and construction have to get permits to do 
grading--and use of illegal toxicants and pesticides purchased outside 
of the United States--chemicals, products you can't even use here, that 
haven't been subjected to an EPA label process that ag chemicals and 
household chemicals have to do--this is what is coming in and being 
used on our public lands, poisoning them, poisoning the wildlife, and 
making it very dangerous for any people that might go in there.
  According to the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, many threatened and 
endangered species which we are bending over backwards to try to 
recover, to try to protect, have tested positive for these poisons and 
other contaminants used at these illegal grow sites.

                              {time}  1930

  Preliminary tests of game animals, including birds and deer, have 
also tested positive for these illegal pesticides, again, that are 
banned by the EPA, not allowed to be used in the United States, haven't 
been subject to the labeling requirements that are legal materials that 
we use in agriculture and other things that they have gone through.
  So it is difficult to understand how the Federal Government can spend 
extensive resources going after farmers, ranchers, miners, whoever for 
doing legal operations. In agriculture, it might be disking or plowing. 
In mining, it might be panning for gold or normal mining operations.
  So we have people cultivating their land for food. We have people 
extracting minerals that are needed for our daily lives, whether it is 
paving a road, driveway, concrete, whatever it might be. We have people 
legally doing these actions. They are the ones who have been--at least 
until recent months with the new administration--harassed with rules 
that hadn't even been subject to congressional attention.
  But at the same time, until recent months, this blatant criminal 
activity has been allowed to stand.
  Is it because law enforcement can't go into those--areas they are not 
authorized?

[[Page H5372]]

  I know local law enforcement is really interested in doing this. But 
it has been a hands-off approach by some of our Federal officials who 
have either not wanted to put the resources together or haven't had the 
wherewithal to put enough of the resources together to go out and 
enforce on these foreign nationals doing these devastating things to 
our lands and the danger they cause.
  What good are these Federal laws and statutes if we do not properly 
enforce the law to protect our public lands?
  We are protecting, on one hand, again, the wrong people by inaction; 
and we are criminalizing normal activity, people farming, ranching, 
mining, et cetera. The priorities have been backwards. I hope to see a 
big change in that with the new direction of the new administration.
  As if the environmental effects are not disturbing enough, the safety 
of the general public is at risk. Heavily armed drug cartels are using 
our National Forest to engage in large-scale illegal grow operations. 
You can see the haul on some of the weapons that have been taken from 
some of the raids that have been successfully done. This is pretty 
dangerous stuff.
  Somewhere in the picture are people who have grenade-launching 
devices, if I am not mistaken.
  So what kind of situation do we have going on where this kind of 
heavy armament is coming into our forests?
  And on the other hand, law-abiding, Second Amendment-loving Americans 
are subject to confiscation, threatening high cost of ammunition, 
multitudes of anti-gun rhetoric that, again, makes you ask the 
questions: Who are we protecting and who are we criminalizing?
  U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, for example, has been forced to 
temporarily close refuge units during hunting season to protect the 
public from stumbling on to an illegal grow that might be guarded 
heavily by these criminals with these weapons.
  In 2012, the DEA's Domestic Cannabis Eradication/Suppression Report 
indicated more than 10,000 or more illegal firearms seized nationwide 
in raids. This is the people's property. The public should be able to 
hunt, fish, camp, recreate with their families on it as they wish, safe 
from this criminal activity.
  Unfortunately, the number of illegal grow sites on Federal lands 
continues to rise at an alarming rate. Even in States that have 
legalized marijuana for recreational use, like California--
regrettably--and Colorado, they still are doing the illegal grows in 
lands that are in States that have so far legalized marijuana.
  According to the U.S. Forest Service, in 2016, the Pacific Southwest 
region saw a 52 percent increase in marijuana production on Forest 
Service lands compared to a previous year.
  So maybe the answer hasn't been in legalizing marijuana grows. The 
activity is still going on. It is still a sought-after market for those 
people who want to be using it.
  While the statistics seem staggering, it is believed that the true 
number of illegal grows on Federal lands is actually much higher than 
that 10,000 figure, much higher than what has been documented, much 
higher than the 52 percent increase that we are talking about.
  So with the heavy rainfall that the Western States saw this winter--
thankfully, we have gotten the rain--the regions are expecting an even 
higher surge of illegal marijuana production on the people's public 
lands.
  The law enforcement capabilities of the U.S. Forest Service, the Fish 
and Wildlife Service, and the Bureau of Land Management are not 
currently equipped to handle an issue of this high magnitude. These law 
enforcement officers are doing what they can with the resources 
allotted and the permission they are allowed by their higher-ups, but 
we need much more additional means and support to develop a coordinated 
approach to enforce against these foreign nationals and others that are 
doing these illegal grows, despite what the public might be wanting 
with legalized marijuana in their own grows.
  While confronting the challenges of illegal marijuana cultivation in 
our National Forests is a large undertaking, it is important that we 
face this head on. Strong enforcement needs to come from the Federal 
Government that is supposed to be overseeing these lands. So we are 
talking about scenes like this right here. This is what is allowed to 
happen.
  That is why criminalizing people doing legal activities, such as 
farming, ranching, mining, what have you, for tiny, very narrow 
occasional violations, this is what is being fostered out there. Look 
at this. The trash that is allowed to happen; empty chemical 
containers; everything else involved in the grow; people camping up 
there illegally, because the Federal Government, until recently, does 
not seem to have an interest in enforcing against these illegal grows.

  Protecting our public lands from these destructive environmental 
threats, making sure our National Forests are safe for the public's 
use, for the habitat, for the wildlife, these are of key importance. 
This is what the public demands that we do. It is our job to keep the 
public safe and the lands, as well, in good stewardship. Much more 
needs to be done.
  The Department of the Interior, the Department of Agriculture, they 
have immediate jurisdiction over these. They need to allow and partner 
with local law enforcement as well, who knows the lands better than 
anybody in Washington, D.C., ever would.
  And I don't need to remind you once again that marijuana is still 
classified, Federally, as an illegal drug. So these States--no matter 
how the voters have been duped, coerced, overwhelmed with dollars at 
the ballot box and on campaigns, this is still an illegal drug. It is 
an illegal activity that has been going on.
  So I hope what we are hearing from the Department of Justice--they 
will be looking really hard at whether this is even a legal activity in 
States that have been legalizing marijuana, and the harmful effects it 
is going to have on society as this stuff gets more powerful, more 
potent, and more available to kids.
  We have a job to do. It all starts right here: taking care of these 
lands, the habitat and environment for wildlife that we all care about, 
the habitat for people, and the water quality.
  What is going to come out of here as the water runs downstream 
through this stuff? What is that going to mean for our streams, rivers, 
lakes, to the water supplies that the people draw from here, that the 
animals draw from here?
  It is not good. So the Federal Government needs to take a stronger 
approach, whether it is DOJ, in concert with the Department of the 
Interior and the Department of Agriculture, and that input from local 
law enforcement in local communities. This could be a very good team 
operation if we are allowed to do it and we aggressively go after that.
  I am seeing the seeds of that in the conversations that are coming 
out of our agencies here in Washington, D.C. Let's push forward on that 
and let's hear from the American public on making this happen as well.
  Mr. Speaker, I yield back the balance of my time.

                          ____________________