[Congressional Record Volume 163, Number 155 (Wednesday, September 27, 2017)]
[Senate]
[Pages S6182-S6183]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]



                       Work of the Administration

  Mr. President, when I watch the news, I can't help but see that the 
media is showing a kind of picture of Washington that really doesn't 
exist. The news would have the public believe that there is a lot of 
dysfunction in the administration, and nothing is getting done. But I 
can share some examples of how the government has been working to get 
America back in business.
  In my former life, I participated for some 20 years or longer in a 
free enterprise business. I was making money. I was losing money. I was 
hiring people, doing what I thought Americans were supposed to be 
doing. All that time, the major problem I had was the obstruction of 
the Federal Government. One of the reasons I actually ran in the first 
place was to try to save the free enterprise system. I never dreamed 
that we would end up with an administration--as well-meaning as the 
Obama administration was--that would be putting people out of business.
  During the last administration, the Obama administration, new rules 
were created that had no purpose but to hinder economic growth. In 
fact, President Obama is the first President since Hoover not to hit a 
3-percent GDP growth in any year of his Presidency.
  With every industry coming under scrutiny from every regulatory 
agency, President Obama added more regulations to the Federal Register 
than any other President in history. Businesses are complying with 
regulations, costing in the neighborhood of $2 trillion. You have to 
keep in mind that when you hear the businesses and corporations are 
paying this, it is not the businesses that are paying it. It is the 
public--the people who are out there, and they, through increased costs 
of goods and services or through taxes, are paying it.
  I heard an alarming figure the other day that some 65 percent of the 
people in America--this is a poll that is about a week old--are opposed 
to any stopping of regulations in corporations. Yet they are the very 
ones who are paying for this fun they are having.
  This administration has tried to do something about all the 
overregulation, all the rules that the previous administration had put 
in place. There are two ways you can do this. One is through Executive 
orders. People know what those are; that is, the President coming along 
and giving an Executive order that will undo damage that was done by a 
previous Executive order imposing a new rule on America. That has been 
taking place.
  At the same time, the other way of doing it is through a CRA 
resolution. Not many people know what a CRA resolution is. A CRA 
resolution is a Congressional Review Act resolution. It started about 
20 years ago and has never been used until this administration. What it 
does is say that if you have up to 30 Members of the Senate, you can 
get a CRA resolution against a rule that some administration has put in 
place in a certain time period. It is the way people who are elected to 
office, accountable to the people, can get things done and be 
answerable to the people, as opposed to an unelected bureaucrat who is 
out there imposing hardships and rules on the public.
  Actually, this administration came in, and they passed 14 
Congressional Review Act resolutions; that is, 14 in the first few 
weeks, actually. The savings from repeal of these 14 regulations were 
estimated to be $3.7 billion in costs and 4.2 million hours of 
paperwork, the most expensive of which--this is kind of interesting 
because I introduced a CRA resolution. It happens to be that mine was 
the first one to pass. So I had the first signing ceremony with our new 
President Trump during the initial days of his administration.
  The rule was imposed by the Obama administration. It was one that 
would force domestic oil and gas companies to release all of the 
information they had in formulating their estimates and their bids in 
competition with maybe China or other countries, and it was putting our 
domestic oil and gas companies at a competitive disadvantage. This was 
all part of the Obama war on fossil fuels. Everyone knows that fossil 
fuels are oil, coal, and gas, and this was an effort to do that. We 
introduced a resolution repealing that. It was a CRA resolution, and it 
was successful. We

[[Page S6183]]

had our signing ceremony, and that was history.
  That is 1 of 45--some Executive orders--and 1 of 14 successful CRA 
resolutions. In addition to the CRA resolutions, President Trump has 
signed 45 Executive orders with the goal of reducing redtape and 
cutting back on harmful administrative redtape.
  Thanks to our colleagues on the other side of the aisle for changing 
the Senate rules because, with their help, President Trump and a 
Republican-led Senate have been able to confirm one of the most 
conservative Cabinets in history, and they have been working to 
implement the President's pro-business, pro-jobs, pro-economic growth 
policy.
  If you want to see the effect that this administration is having, you 
need only to look at the energy industry. Of course, that is to say 
nothing about the fact that we now have a great conservative judge. But 
when you look at the energy industry, it has been under attack for 8 
years.
  Within weeks after taking office, the Army Corps of Engineers under 
the Trump administration approved an easement for the Dakota Access 
Pipeline that had been withheld by the Obama administration because of 
nothing more than political pressure from the far left.
  The next month, the State Department issued a crossborder permit for 
the Keystone Pipeline. Again, the permit had been withheld purely for 
political far-left reasons.
  Later the same month, the Department of the Interior lifted the coal 
leasing ban that the Obama administration had placed on Federal land. 
Federal lands have about 40 percent of the coal production in the 
United States, so that was just devastating to that industry. It was a 
killer.
  Another notable win for energy came just last week out of the Federal 
Energy Regulatory Commission; that is, FERC. FERC was without a forum 
from February until mid-August, creating a backlog and delaying $50 
million of energy infrastructure projects from moving forward. The new 
forum has quickly gone to work to address that backlog, improving 
pipelines and power agreements.
  However, a decision made last week has clearly sent a message that 
America's energy sector is open for business again. For years, New York 
State had been delaying consideration of water certifications that are 
required for FERC approval to allow construction of several federally 
approved pipelines.
  The Millennium Pipeline, in particular, would take natural gas 9 
miles from one pipeline to a natural gas-fired electric plant, 
providing clean, cheap, natural gas power in New York State. It was 
delayed and denied certification simply because, again, the radical 
left doesn't want it.
  Last week, FERC took the authority granted to them under the Clean 
Water Act to override New York State's denial of certification because 
New York had waived their authority under the law.
  Section 401 of the Clean Water Act says that if a State ``refuses to 
act on a request for a certification within a reasonable time period 
(which shall not exceed 1 year) after the receipt of such request, the 
certification requirements . . . shall be waived with respect to such 
Federal application.''
  With environmentalists increasingly urging States like New York, New 
Jersey, and Virginia to block pipelines by delaying or withholding 
otherwise valid certifications, these States are interfering with 
interstate commerce, a role that is clearly within the purview of the 
Federal Government.
  I applaud the administration for the progress they have made and the 
independent agencies for taking a stand against the gamesmanship of the 
radical left, environmentalist groups, and those who do their bidding 
by using loopholes and their official authority to block valid, 
compliant energy projects from safely transporting cheaper and cleaner 
energy across State lines.
  When the government works with industry, not against it, we start to 
see companies unleash investments across the country. In fact, the 
economy has picked up since Trump and his administration have come into 
office with the economy growing 3 percent in just the second quarter, 
which is the first full quarter under the administration, and the 
fastest pace of growth in 2 years, according to the website called CNN 
Money.
  Each nomination, confirmation, or policy directive of President Trump 
and the Republican-led Congress signals to the business community and 
American workers that America is open for business again.
  I look forward to continuing to work with my colleagues to address 
our energy industry's needs so that private investors can be utilized 
to deliver American products to American consumers around the world. 
Just this week, I introduced a bill to address the known bottleneck 
issues that add unnecessary delays in the FERC permitting process by 
identifying participating agencies early in the process and providing 
contract reviews and providing transparency. This is something that is 
just common sense.
  I thank very much Senator King and his staff for working with me and 
my staff on this legislation, and I hope my colleagues will join us in 
getting these reforms into law.
  I bring this up only because you would never know that this is 
progress that is being made in the economy through the Trump 
administration. Somehow that report has yet to get through.