[Congressional Record Volume 168, Number 22 (Thursday, February 3, 2022)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Page E100]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




            BIOECONOMY RESEARCH AND DEVELOPMENT ACT OF 2021

                                 ______
                                 

                               speech of

                           HON. PAUL A. GOSAR

                               of arizona

                    in the house of representatives

                      Wednesday, February 2, 2022

  Mr. GOSAR. Madam Speaker, I rise today to speak on amendment number 
150 sponsored by Representative Mike Levin.
  This amendment is modeled off the Public Land Renewable Energy 
Development Act (PLREDA) which promotes wind, solar, and geothermal 
resources on public lands.
  You might ask me why I am speaking on a Democrat amendment, or why I 
seem to know so much about this amendment.
  It's strange because this amendment looks familiar to me. I wonder 
why that is?
  Oh that's right, that's because PLREDA is my bill, one which I have 
sponsored since the 112th Congress.
  When I introduced PLREDA in the previous Congresses, I solicited 
original cosponsors in a bipartisan manner.
  Mr. Levin was one such original cosponsor.
  After the 2020 election, we used Mr. Levin as the lead, yet with this 
current legislation I was prohibited from being part of its annual 
original sponsors.
  But that's fine, I am more interested in passing good governance for 
the American people than demanding the credit.
  I have done this in the past when we reformed the antitrust 
exemptions in the McCarran-Ferguson Act for the medical insurance 
industry and brought knowledge to the erroneous administrative 
exclusion in the Radiation Exposure Compensation Act jeopardizing 
constituents in Mohave County, Arizona and Clark County, Nevada.
  If this were a stand-alone provision, it would earn my support 
because we need to pass the remainder of PLREDA, the rest which I was 
unable to get passed in previous Congresses.
  However, used as an amendment to a very disingenuous bill, I cannot 
support it. Not because of the theft of my bill but the poor process 
used today in this bad bill.
  I've always said good process builds good policy which makes good 
politics.
  The amendments being considered inside en bloc packages is a tactic 
of the current majority which would make the founders roll in their 
graves.
  This is not a counter China bill. This bill promotes a role for the 
government in the economy which is un-American and deals more in 
abstract social and climate policies than anything else.
  It is not good process. Everyone on the other side has not read the 
full bill, just like they have not taken the time to make themselves 
fully aware of anything they have passed so far, regardless if it's a 
bill, amendment, or resolution.
  The American people should be concerned about how this bill actually 
makes us weaker in the face of China, and no matter how many of my good 
policy ideas you add to it in the form of an amendment, you cannot 
change its rotten core.

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