[Congressional Record Volume 168, Number 45 (Monday, March 14, 2022)]
[Senate]
[Pages S1144-S1148]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                             CLOTURE MOTION

  The PRESIDING OFFICER. Pursuant to rule XXII, the Chair lays before 
the Senate the pending cloture motion, which the clerk will state.
  The legislative clerk read as follows:

                             Cloture Motion

       We, the undersigned Senators, in accordance with the 
     provisions of rule XXII of the Standing Rules of the Senate, 
     do hereby move to bring to a close debate on the nomination 
     of Executive Calendar No. 726, Shalanda D. Young, of 
     Louisiana, to be Director of the Office of Management and 
     Budget.
         Charles E. Schumer, Alex Padilla, Christopher Murphy, 
           Edward J. Markey, Gary C. Peters, Brian Schatz, Jack 
           Reed, Tammy Duckworth, John W. Hickenlooper, Sheldon 
           Whitehouse, Tim Kaine, Richard Blumenthal, Christopher 
           A. Coons, Margaret Wood Hassan, Patrick J. Leahy, 
           Debbie Stabenow.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. By unanimous consent, the mandatory quorum 
call has been waived.
  The question is, Is it the sense of the Senate that debate on the 
nomination of Shalanda D. Young, of Louisiana, to be Director of the 
Office of Management and Budget, shall be brought to a close?
  The yeas and nays are mandatory under the rule.
  The clerk will call the roll.
  The legislative clerk called the roll.
  Mr. DURBIN. I announce that the Senator from Connecticut (Mr. 
Blumenthal), the Senator from Nevada (Ms. Cortez Masto), the Senator 
from Illinois (Ms. Duckworth), the Senator from California (Mrs. 
Feinstein), the Senator from Minnesota (Ms. Klobuchar), the Senator 
from Georgia (Mr. Ossoff), the Senator from Hawaii (Mr. Schatz), and 
the Senator from New Hampshire (Mrs. Shaheen) are necessarily absent.
  Mr. THUNE. The following Senators are necessarily absent: the Senator 
from North Carolina (Mr. Burr), the Senator from Tennessee (Mr. 
Hagerty), the Senator from Louisiana (Mr. Kennedy), the Senator from 
Kansas (Mr. Moran), the Senator from Ohio (Mr. Portman), the Senator 
from Utah (Mr. Romney), the Senator from Pennsylvania (Mr. Toomey), and 
the Senator from Mississippi (Mr. Wicker).
  The yeas and nays resulted--yeas 53, nays 31, as follows:

                       [Rollcall Vote No. 79 Ex.]

                                YEAS--53

     Baldwin
     Bennet
     Blunt
     Booker
     Brown
     Cantwell
     Cardin
     Carper
     Casey
     Cassidy
     Collins
     Coons
     Cramer
     Durbin
     Gillibrand
     Graham
     Grassley
     Hassan
     Heinrich
     Hickenlooper
     Hirono
     Hoeven
     Hyde-Smith
     Kaine
     Kelly
     King
     Leahy
     Lujan
     Manchin
     Markey
     Menendez
     Merkley
     Murkowski
     Murphy
     Murray
     Padilla
     Peters
     Reed
     Rosen
     Sanders
     Schumer
     Shelby
     Sinema
     Smith
     Stabenow
     Sullivan
     Tester
     Van Hollen
     Warner
     Warnock
     Warren
     Whitehouse
     Wyden

                                NAYS--31

     Barrasso
     Blackburn
     Boozman
     Braun
     Capito
     Cornyn
     Cotton
     Crapo
     Cruz
     Daines
     Ernst
     Fischer
     Hawley
     Inhofe
     Johnson

[[Page S1145]]


     Lankford
     Lee
     Lummis
     Marshall
     McConnell
     Paul
     Risch
     Rounds
     Rubio
     Sasse
     Scott (FL)
     Scott (SC)
     Thune
     Tillis
     Tuberville
     Young

                             NOT VOTING--16

     Blumenthal
     Burr
     Cortez Masto
     Duckworth
     Feinstein
     Hagerty
     Kennedy
     Klobuchar
     Moran
     Ossoff
     Portman
     Romney
     Schatz
     Shaheen
     Toomey
     Wicker
  The PRESIDING OFFICER (Mr. Heinrich). On this vote, the yeas are 53, 
the nays are 31.
  The motion is agreed to.
  The Senator from Indiana.


                         Remembering Mark Rapp

  Mr. YOUNG. Mr. President, at 5:30 p.m. on September 11, 2001, members 
of Indiana Task Force One left Indianapolis to head to New York City. 
Task Force One is our State's search and rescue squad, made up of our 
bravest and most selfless first responders who deploy around the 
country in times of emergency.
  In the caravan to Ground Zero that day was Mark Rapp. Mark was a 
founding member of Task Force One. He was a hero's hero, a rescuer's 
rescuer. On March 4, 2022, Chief Mark Rapp died after a courageous 
battle with lung cancer.
  Mark, who was known by the nickname ``Bum''--that is right, ``Bum 
Rapp''--served the city of Indianapolis as a firefighter for 37 years. 
He retired as a battalion chief of training in 2017.
  In 1993, Mark received the Medal of Bravery for the risky rescue of a 
small child from a dangerous apartment fire. He is also a recipient of 
the American Red Cross Heroism Award, the Operations Firefighter of the 
Year Award, and the Peer Leadership Award for his work as a role model 
for the force.
  For 10 years, he led the Indianapolis Fire Department's Clothe-A-
Child Program, wherein young people in need shop for clothing alongside 
a firefighter; and Mark was a deeply involved father. He built a log 
cabin in the Outdoor Lab at Indian Creek Elementary School. For over 20 
years, he worked on the ``chain gang'' at Lawrence North High School 
football games. His sons, Mark, Jr., and Greg, eventually worked 
alongside him as firefighters.
  As a member of Task Force One, Mark was deployed to assist in the 
aftermath of several natural disasters, including Hurricanes Gustav and 
Ike in 2008. He was also a certified rescue diver.
  In September 2001, Mark spent 10 days at Ground Zero, leading Indiana 
Task Force One through the night shift during nonstop search and rescue 
efforts. It is believed that the lung cancer that ultimately claimed 
Mark's life could be traced to the toxins he inhaled in 2001. Nearly 
half of the 65 Task Force One members who were deployed to the World 
Trade Center in 2001 have reported illnesses related to their work. 
Mark was the fifth to have died from those illnesses.
  On behalf of the people of Indianapolis, the Hoosiers, and the 
American people, we thank Mark Rapp, Sr., for his courage, bravery, and 
leadership; and our prayers are with Nancy, his wife, his three 
children, and all of those who love him.
  I yield the floor.
  I suggest the absence of a quorum.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The clerk will call the roll.
  The legislative clerk proceeded to call the roll.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from Alaska.
  Mr. SULLIVAN. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the order 
for the quorum call be rescinded.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. Without objection, it is so ordered.


                                 Energy

  Mr. SULLIVAN. Mr. President, the American people--the world--is 
watching a really horrendous, barbaric, horrible situation in Ukraine; 
and we are all praying for the people there, trying to do as much as we 
can to support them. And this barbarism we are seeing from Vladimir 
Putin is something I don't think anyone is ever going to forget.
  We can't let it stand. We need to use all instruments of American 
power--with our allies--to work to address this long term because this 
is a long-term problem--the new era of authoritarian aggression led by 
Putin, led by Xi Jinping--and we need to be able to address it.
  One of these instruments of American power that we have had until 
recently, in a bipartisan way--every President has supported being an 
energy producer, being an energy superpower, being a country that is 
energy independent.
  And I don't have to tell the Presiding Officer, but this has been 
highlighted by the current crisis. What has happened is the American 
people--really, the world--have awoken to the fact that the Biden 
administration came into office and, instead of building on what they 
inherited from the Trump administration, which, again, was a bipartisan 
goal of American foreign policy, American energy policy, American 
domestic policy--for decades, every President--every President--wanted 
America to be energy independent.
  President Obama used to talk about this, all-of-the-above energy: 
oil, gas, renewables; Jimmy Carter, of course; Donald Trump; George W. 
Bush. I mean, it dates back for decades, until the Biden 
administration.
  And, of course, they came in and on day one said: We are going to 
start shutting down the production of American energy. That is a fact. 
I am going to go through a lot of the facts. I am going to go through 
some detailed memos that are still in existence that show that this is 
exactly their policy.
  Now, what has happened in the last 2 weeks? The American people have 
started to realize: Oh, my gosh, my own government is trying to make it 
harder for us to produce American energy. How does that make sense? In 
what world does that make sense?
  And the average American--always very smart, by the way, much smarter 
than the people in DC--is raising the alarm bells, saying: Wait a 
minute. Why would we do that? It hurts us at home. It drives up energy 
prices.
  The President is calling it Putin's energy increases. That is 
ridiculous. Energy prices have been going up since this administration 
got into office because of this administration's policies.
  Good try, Mr. President. That is not going to work.
  So the American people are saying: It is hurting us at home. It is 
raising costs on my family.
  But they are now realizing: Whoa, this is really bad for our foreign 
policy and national security too, when you have a war like what is 
going on in Ukraine.
  So all of a sudden, you see the Biden administration--from the 
President on down and his whole team--starting to scramble. They are 
starting to hide their policy that has been driven by a far-left 
radical agenda and is really hurtful to everybody. By the way, it 
doesn't help the environment one bit, not one bit. I will come down 
here in another speech and talk about how it hurts the environment.
  And it is almost funny to watch this happen if this weren't such a 
serious topic. It is almost funny. As a matter of fact, to one Cabinet 
official, it was funny. Go Google the Secretary Granholm interview--
I forget which news station--when she was asked, ``Hey, are you going 
to help produce more oil for America?'' She literally starts cracking 
up, laughing. She is laughing.

  It is not funny, Madam Secretary. So now, the White House is 
scrambling with made-up stories, made-up rationales. You see the Press 
Secretary kind of trying to talk about this issue. No offense to her. 
She is pretty talented, but she doesn't know anything about energy.
  But they are scrambling because no one is laughing. No one is 
laughing. The Secretary of Energy might be laughing about this topic, 
but no one is laughing. Working families in America aren't laughing. 
The energy workers that this administration has moved to hand pink 
slips to aren't laughing. Our allies in Europe aren't laughing. 
Ukrainians aren't laughing.
  The only ones who might be laughing are the Venezuelans and the 
Iranians who this administration is now going and begging for oil from. 
They might be laughing.
  So it is a really serious topic. And, as I mentioned, the energy 
price rise that we have seen across the last year--gas prices were 
almost up 50 percent prior to the invasion of Ukraine by Putin. So we 
know what is going on because it is no secret.
  When the President was campaigning--again, I don't think these

[[Page S1146]]

were really his views but driven by the far-left that he had to get 
their vote on--he vowed that he would do exactly what he did on day 
one. Here is the President in a debate in 2019: I have argued against 
any more drilling. No more drilling--oil or gas drilling on Federal 
lands. I will not allow it anymore.
  That is the President of the United States.
  Now, on day one, he did just that. He did just that. He started out 
to keep these campaign promises. We know he canceled the Keystone 
Pipeline. They put a ``pause''--I am going to talk about that--on 
Federal leasing and permitting, something that really impacted my 
State. He signed an Executive order to crack down on oil and gas 
production. He canceled the legally acquired leases that my State has 
in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge because this body voted for it, 
signed it into law. The President, in a blatantly illegal move, said: I 
am not going to allow these leases, even though the Congress of the 
United States and the President of the United States previously passed 
a law saying they had to be executed.
  And just 2 weeks ago, the administration froze new drilling permits 
and stopped issuing new leases on Federal lands because they continue 
to be driven by a far-left agenda that nobody in the United States is 
supporting right now.
  (Ms. SMITH assumed the Chair.)
  Well, Madam President, I want to dig a little deeper into what 
happened on day one.
  So what happened here--I have an order. This is an order--order No. 
3395 from the Acting Secretary of the Interior, a guy by the name of 
Scott de la Vega. I have never heard of him. Never heard of him. Who in 
the heck is that?
  It was dated January 20, 2021, so that is day one. That is day one. 
Some guy named Scott de la Vega--I don't know who he is, but I guess he 
was Acting Secretary of the Interior--and he lays out in this memo 
everything that should be suspended, everything in America, to stop 
producing any natural resources for 60 days. OK?
  That is your government at work, America, right here: Scott de la 
Vega hereby temporarily suspends--and then they have a whole list of 
things that deal with oil, gas, minerals, rights of way--anything on 
Federal lands--all stopped. If that is not a far-left radical agenda, I 
don't know what is.
  It says that people above him--the Secretary, Deputy Secretary--they 
can rescind that after 60 days. But there is no one above him. This is 
day one. There is nobody even confirmed. That is why Scott de la Vega 
was Acting Secretary of the Interior. Don't be fooled. This is an order 
on day one from the Biden administration to shut down the production of 
American energy. Your government at work, America.
  What happened across the country? I can tell you what happened in my 
State. This set up a mad scramble in Alaska. I was getting phone calls, 
literally, from this memo. I didn't know anything about it.
  Why?
  What was happening here?
  In my State, because we have the highest environmental standards in 
the world on oil and gas development, on mineral development, we do our 
exploration only in the winter--only in the winter. About a 3-month 
period--January, February, March, April--4 months, because we create 
ice roads and ice paths. These are giant roads of ice and giant paths 
of ice that can take out giant drill rigs on the tundra. We do our 
exploration then, and then we bring it off in 4 months. The ice roads 
melt, and there is zero impact. It is called zero impact exploration. 
OK? It is expensive, but we do that in Alaska because we really care 
about our environment. We know how to do both: protect our environment 
and develop our resources. We only have about 3 to 4 months to even do 
this work every winter.
  So I had a bunch of Alaskans--hundreds, thousands--out doing the work 
of America--oil and gas development. Old Mr. de la Vega comes out day 
one of the Biden administration and says, We are going to suspend any 
lease or permit.
  When you are in the oil and gas industry, you are constantly having 
to get additional permits--what they call ATDs, applications to drill--
to build an ice road, to do other things that are way beyond leases--
Jen Psaki--way beyond leases. You have to get these permits reviewed 
and updated very frequently.
  They said: No issuing of anything.
  I get a call--I will give you one example--from a company that almost 
300 people do an exploration for. They were just told: You are not 
going to get anything else for 60 days. They couldn't do anything. They 
are going to fire all 300 people.
  We scrambled. We made phone calls. We tried to get this order 
lifted--tried to get an exception. This was happening all across 
America. The Federal Government came in--the Biden administration. That 
was day one, and Mr. de la Vega--again, don't know who he is--issued 
this order: 60 days and stopped everything.
  Joe Biden is out there saying: Oh, no, we really care about energy 
production.
  No, you don't. You are trying to kill it. That was the mad scramble. 
Many people were laid off. This is way beyond Keystone--10,000 laid 
off.
  Let me go into a little more detail. After 60 days, what happened? 
This is really important. I really want our friends in the media to dig 
into this. Again, you have these things called applications to drill on 
Federal leases. OK? All of that was stalled for 60 days. You couldn't 
do a thing. This is just a year ago, right--just a year ago from this 
administration that is now telling the American people: Oh, no, we are 
fully for energy development.
  They were trying to kill it.
  OK. Normally, when you have a lease on a Federal land, you have 
Federal managers. I will give you the example in Alaska. In the Bureau 
of Land Management, they will have a field manager, right? So let's say 
there is a field manager for BLM in Fairbanks, AL. That man or woman 
has a fair amount of authority. They can issue these applications to 
drill, to move forward. This is a government that is not centralized, 
right? You want the decision-makers--who, by the way, are almost all 
professional career staff--to make science-based decisions--not 
political decisions--on these applications to drill. That is the way it 
works. That is the way it has always worked.
  So you have a field manager, say, in Fairbanks. You will have a 
district level manager in the interior part of Alaska. Then you will 
have one State director, the BLM State director, OK? So they usually--
not even the State director. The lower-level Federal officials can 
issue these permits to keep the country moving, producing oil, gas.
  What happened after 60 days? After 60 days in 2021--so you have the 
Biden administration--Mr. de la Vega shutting down all energy 
production for 60 days in America. That is this order. So after 60 
days, what happened? Well, there was another order issued. This was 
issued by a woman, an official named Laura Daniel-Davis. She is the 
Acting Assistant Secretary for the Office of Land and Mineral 
Management. OK. Sounds kind of important. Actually, it is really 
important. That is the Assistant Secretary of the Interior in charge of 
all oil and gas and mineral development for America. It is a pretty 
important job.
  In the Trump administration, we had a really great Alaskan, Joe 
Balash. He had that job. Did a great job, by the way. So after 60 days, 
Acting Assistant Secretary for the Land and Mineral Management--oil and 
gas, mining--she issues a memo. I have it right here. I will quote from 
some of it. She issues a memo. What her memo says was: Hey, you have 
that Executive order--60-day delay by Mr. de la Vega. OK, that is 
running out in 2 days. This is March 19, 2021. It is not even a year 
old.
  What she says in her order is that: You know how you guys in the 
Federal agencies--a field manager, the district level manager, the 
State director, all across America--I am giving you one example in 
Alaska. You know how you all have authority to issue permits to drill, 
things like that? That is the way it has been going on for decades and 
decades. Well, I, Acting Assistant Secretary Laura Daniel-Davis, I am 
taking that away from you. I am taking that away.
  Her memo says every decision--she lists a bunch--a bunch--OK? Every 
decision--now, remember, nobody was able to do anything for 60 days. 
Now, we are saying the 60-day delay is over,

[[Page S1147]]

but any decision you lower-level people--BLM and others--had to make on 
applications to drill and permits like that--hundreds and hundreds 
across the country--she says--I am going to quote from her:

       For those matters that have been submitted in accordance 
     with S.O. 3395--

  She is referencing the Executive order that says stop everything. She 
now says: If you haven't received any kind of approval for that stuff--
``If you have not received the final ASLM''--that is her decision--
``you may not proceed [on any of these permits] without approval from 
ASLM,'' meaning her.
  Think about that. This is an administration saying they really care 
about moving oil and gas on Federal lands forward. In the first 60 
days, they say everything stopped. Then they say: All right. You are 
going to move forward the way it used to work--field managers, district 
level managers, State directors, in every State in America--no, no, no, 
you don't have that authority. Me, Assistant Secretary Acting--by the 
way, she is still not confirmed by the Senate--every one of those has 
to come to me for my approval--every one. Every one in Alaska, every 
one in New Mexico, every one in North Dakota--anywhere--by the way, all 
on the offshore, Gulf of Mexico--anywhere that at the lower levels in 
the Federal Government you had professional staff who had the authority 
to grant these applications to drill and other Federal permits, this 
memo says: No. That will be centralized under me--for America--for 
America--every darn decision for oil and gas production and mineral 
production in the country has to be approved by this Acting Assistant 
Secretary.

  Guess what? This memo is still in operation right now--right now. 
When the President of the United States looks at the American people 
and Jen Psaki: Oh, we are doing everything.
  No, you are not. You have one person and this order. I am not going 
to go into her background much, but let's just face it. If you look at 
it, she spent her whole career trying to take out the oil and gas 
industry. Now, she is in charge of every decision for every permit on 
every Federal lease for the production of American energy in the 
country, and she is still in charge. You have one person.
  By the way, this is a political appointee. I don't think she is going 
to get confirmed because I am going to block her; that is for sure. But 
even some of my Democratic colleagues are like, this is going on right 
now, OK? My friends in the media, I hope you take a look at this.
  What is really interesting here is you have someone who is a 
political appointee--a career trying to take out the oil and gas 
industry--and none of this is based on science. This is all political. 
They are removing the career staff, the scientists, saying: Hey, it has 
to be up to me. One political appointee is in charge of issuing all 
permits in the United States in the energy sector. It is still going 
on.
  This would be like if you wanted to get a loan--right--and you went 
to your local bank in your hometown. Let's say it was Bank of America. 
There was a local bank, Bank of America in your hometown. This would be 
like having to go to headquarters on Wall Street to get approval for 
your loan. Think about it. That is going on right now.
  And the President has the audacity to look the American people in the 
eye saying: Oh, we are trying to do all we can.
  No, you are not. Why don't you rescind this order? This is part of 
the Biden administration's obsession from day one with stopping the 
production of American energy and politicizing it with a political 
appointee--who, by the way, doesn't know much about the industry 
either.
  But there is more to this memo. It gets quite interesting because 
there is this kind of doublespeak in it. I am going to read from a 
little bit of it. She says that for matters that have been submitted in 
accordance with the shutdown--60-day shutdown--but for which you have 
not received approval from me, you are still not allowed to move 
forward. You have to come through me, the one political appointee who 
doesn't like the energy sector.
  But here is the interesting thing. She says: ``Please [also] provide 
early notification.'' So flag it if it is an item coming up to me that 
is part of the administration's priorities. I am quoting right now: 
``For example, renewable energy projects [those will go to the front of 
the line] or other climate related milestones, `30 by 30' 
initiatives''--that is shutting down 30 percent of all Federal lands.
  That is not a law by the way; just another radical thing they are 
doing--``or actions related to racial equity, environmental justice.''
  OK. This is in her memo. She is saying: Hey, I get to approve 
everything--all applications, drill, any permits on any Federal land, 
anything--one person. But if it is part of a far-left radical agenda, 
by the way, that has nothing to do with energy production, give me a 
heads-up.
  Then she says:

       As well as early notification on items that are of high 
     local, state, or regional interest.

  What does that mean, ``early notification''? Make sure she knows 
items that are of ``high local, state, or regional interest.'' What 
does that mean? I don't know. It is kind of code for something.
  Let me give you one example of what I think it is code for. Remember, 
she is in charge of issuing all these permits, and there have been a 
flood of oil and gas production permits. Guess which State in America 
in the first year of the Biden administration has had close to half of 
all oil and gas drilling permits issued by the Department of Interior 
approved? Remember, she is approving them all. She doesn't really like 
oil and gas, but if she has to approve some, it might be related to 
items that are of ``high local, state, or regional interest.'' I wonder 
who that is.
  Who is it? Is it Alaska? No, I don't think so. Trust me. They are 
delaying us as much as they can. They don't like us. Twenty-two 
Executive orders and Executive actions solely focused on Alaska by this 
administration, they really don't like us.
  Is it Texas, North Dakota? The State that has got close to half of 
all oil and gas drilling permits that this Acting Assistant Secretary, 
who is in charge of granting--because, remember, she centralized 
everything--is New Mexico. New Mexico. Whoa. New Mexico? New Mexico.
  Do you think New Mexico would be a high State or regional interest if 
you are her and your boss is from New Mexico? Probably. How about if 
you have a Senator from New Mexico calling all the time? Probably.
  All right. So I really wish the media would look into this, right? 
Because right now you have the President of the United States, Jen 
Psaki, and others, saying: Oh, we are trying to do everything we can 
here. You have got this memo that is still in effect by an Acting 
Assistant Secretary, saying: I am going to control every permit issued 
in America on Federal lands. It is right here. Read it. And you can't 
move, you regional directors in BLM, you know, in Fairbanks, AK, you 
State directors--no, no, no. I am in charge, and I am going to approve 
them. You can't move without me. But give me a heads-up. If it is 
regional interest, Deb Haaland might care about the New Mexico ones or 
climate change or racial equity or whatever else she listed.
  So if this administration really wanted to do all it could to produce 
energy--which is what every American knows we need to do and what our 
allies know we need to do and what Putin hopes we don't do--I think one 
thing they could do is to get Acting Assistant Secretary Laura Daniel-
Davis's boot off the neck of the American energy sector because, right 
now, she is in charge.
  Every permit on Federal lands listed in her memo of March 21--I am 
sorry, March 19, 2021, she is in charge of: final resource management 
plans, records of decisions, coal leasing, mining operations, R.S. 
2477, land sales, exchanges--what else do we have here--applications 
for permits to drill, oil and gas leases, applications for royalty 
relief. She is in charge of all of that right now.
  In this administration, the President, Jen Psaki, and others have the 
audacity to look the American people in the eye and say: We are trying 
to do everything we can in our power to produce more. If you were, you 
would rescind this memo--rescind this memo.

[[Page S1148]]

  So the next time the President or some of his staff or Secretary of 
Energy or Secretary of Interior try to spin the American people and 
tell them they are trying to help, I hope my friends in the media go, 
well, what about this memo? Come on, that is like basic Federal 
Government 101. If you are telling everybody, stop, halt, and 
everything in the country has to be approved by her, that is not the 
way it works normally. But because of their anti-energy agenda, she is 
making the calls--but make sure that you give her a heads-up, if it is 
related to some of the far-left agenda that she literally lays out in 
the memo.
  I hope my friends in the media ask some questions. I hope they ask 
the question: Is it related to this memo that New Mexico is getting all 
the drilling permits? It would be a good question to ask, I think. 
Don't you think? I think so. Alaska's not getting a lot, but New Mexico 
is. I wonder why. Maybe that is related to making sure she gets, 
``early notification of items that are of high local, State or regional 
interest.''
  This is not a laughing matter. There is so much that we have to focus 
on in the world today, in America today, and one of the things this 
administration needs to do is they need a major course correction on 
their energy policy.
  You can't let energy be dictated by the far left of the Democratic 
Party. You can't let national security of America be dictated by the 
``woke'' elements of the Democratic Party. And if you really are 
serious, Mr. President of the United States, you need to call Deb 
Haaland and say: Rescind that memo. Let the officials, the professional 
staff of the Federal Agencies, which the President has charged to do 
their job that they have done with every other administration--rescind 
this memo and start helping our country produce American energy again.
  I yield the floor.

                          ____________________