[Congressional Record Volume 168, Number 46 (Tuesday, March 15, 2022)]
[House]
[Pages H3736-H3740]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                  UNLOCKING RURAL AMERICA'S POTENTIAL

  The SPEAKER pro tempore (Ms. Manning). Under the Speaker's announced 
policy of January 4, 2021, the gentleman from Washington (Mr. Newhouse) 
is recognized for 60 minutes as the designee of the minority leader.


                             General Leave

  Mr. NEWHOUSE. Madam Speaker, before I begin, I ask unanimous consent 
that all Members may have 5 legislative days in which to revise and 
extend their remarks and include extraneous material on the topic of my 
special order.
  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Is there objection to the request of the 
gentleman from Washington?
  There was no objection.
  Mr. NEWHOUSE. Madam Speaker, I hope it is clear to all of my 
colleagues in this body that rural America faces a myriad of 
challenges.
  Every day, members of the Congressional Western Caucus, of which I am 
very honored to be chairman, and many partners throughout rural America 
are working to ensure that local communities across the country are 
heard in our Nation's Capitol, right here, and that these challenges do 
not go unaddressed.
  For many in big cities and urban areas, I think it can be pretty easy 
to overlook our rural communities. But we truly are the backbone of our 
great country, and our challenges are not our challenges alone. Rather, 
they are reflective of the entire Nation's challenges, things like 
managing public lands and fulfilling the government's multipurpose-use 
doctrine, or supporting local economies and encouraging economic 
development, promoting critical infrastructure like roads and bridges 
and dams, ensuring a strong agricultural industry that feeds the world, 
and empowering the communities that we represent to embrace expanded 
domestic energy production and clean energy technologies.

  Our State, local, and private land managers are conservation 
partners. Small businesses and local communities are eager to take the 
reins and make the improvements that we need, but they are consistently 
held back by bureaucratic red tape, delayed permitting processes that 
add years and millions of dollars in cost to projects, and outdated 
laws that don't take into account the best available science of modern 
technologies.
  Over and over again, I hear from my constituents in central 
Washington State, and also from community leaders from across the 
United States, that we need to get the Federal Government out of the 
way.
  That is why, throughout this month of March, Congressional Western 
Caucus members are taking the opportunity to highlight why reforming 
our duplicative and burdensome permitting process is the key to 
unlocking rural America's potential.
  Madam Speaker, broken permitting systems negatively impact the 
progress that we could be making at nearly every step of the way. The 
National Environmental Policy Act, or what many refer to as NEPA, is 
one of the most egregious examples of a well-intentioned law turned 
into a bureaucratic nightmare for those of us who are working to 
improve the communities where we live, work, and farm.
  The Endangered Species Act is another. This landmark species 
protection law has become outdated, and it is now used as a weapon by 
serial litigators and misguided environmentalists, who want nothing 
more than to sue and settle, wasting our limited government resources, 
which are stalling projects across the United States and 
disincentivizing investment in rural America.
  Both of these laws play an important role in protecting lands, 
waters, and wildlife that we cherish throughout the West and across 
rural America. But because Congress has not been able to meaningfully 
reform them, they have actually begun to work against us.
  ESA regulations can add decades to the permitting processes for 
forest management projects or projects that would help prevent 
catastrophic wildfires across the West.
  In my own home State of Washington, and across the Pacific Northwest, 
the policies surrounding the northern spotted owl wreaked havoc on our 
forest industry, destroying--literally destroying--local economies. 
Now, our region experiences some of the worst wildfires in our Nation's 
history.
  Madam Speaker, that is not a coincidence. Delays and roadblocks, and 
I intend to insert a pun there, Madam Speaker, that are caused by NEPA 
regulations have slowed or completely stopped infrastructure projects 
like highway improvements or installation of new hydropower 
technologies that generate clean energy and provide increased fish 
passage.
  Just last week, our members met with former Secretary of the Interior 
David Bernhardt, who worked within the Trump administration to 
streamline inefficiencies and cut the environmental review process from 
4.5 years, if you can believe that, down to no more than 2.
  The Biden administration, of course, is now reversing this progress 
and bending to politically motivated interest groups at the expense of 
rural communities.
  It is clear to us in the Western Caucus that it is time for Congress 
to act. For decades, rural America has been kept in regulatory limbo at 
the mercy of each changing administration.
  Congress is a coequal branch of government, and we need to, we 
should, assert our authority to ensure that our communities have the 
certainty that they need to move forward on these critical projects.
  Our rural communities deserve the investment and the development that 
is disincentivized by our broken permitting processes.
  I know we have Western Caucus members here today who will help shed 
some light on some of these examples in their home districts, in their 
States. We will continue to demonstrate the harmful impacts of the 
status quo and outline our vision for a future that empowers rural 
Americans to tackle our challenges head-on.
  I am very happy to have a group of colleagues here who are very 
interested in this topic, and I will first turn to Mr. Bruce Westerman, 
who is the vice chair of the Western Caucus, one of my vice chairs, but 
also the ranking member of the House Natural Resources Committee.
  I yield to the gentleman from Arkansas (Mr. Westerman).

                              {time}  1945

  Mr. WESTERMAN. Madam Speaker, I thank the gentleman for yielding and 
also for his leadership in the Western Caucus and on these important 
issues that mean a lot to places like the Fourth District of Arkansas, 
to all over rural America, where out-of-touch policies in D.C. have a 
negative impact on people's daily lives, and just being able to earn a 
living, to pay their taxes, and to provide the goods and services that 
the rest of the world needs. So I appreciate you hosting this Special 
Order.
  For years, it has been clear to rural America that our Federal 
permitting and environmental review processes are broken. While well-
intentioned, they are doing more harm than good. The current system is 
complex, burdensome, and ineffective, yet the political

[[Page H3737]]

elite in Washington, D.C., wonder why our farmers, ranchers, and energy 
producers struggle.
  Far-left special interest groups have weaponized, as Mr. Newhouse 
said, well-intentioned laws like the National Environmental Policy Act 
and the Endangered Species Act, and they use them as clubs to bludgeon 
or kill critical infrastructure, natural resource management, and 
energy and minerals development projects across the United States.
  Delays in environmental regulatory systems are especially acute. In 
2020, the Council on Environmental Quality showed that the average time 
for a Federal agency to complete a final environmental impact statement 
through the NEPA process--again, Mr. Newhouse quoted this number--is 
4\1/2\ years. But that is the average number. One-quarter of all 
projects took over 6 years to complete. That is more than red tape. 
That is a roadblock. That is why Republicans support the BUILDER Act to 
streamline the NEPA process and benefit communities looking to improve 
infrastructure investment.
  My district, like many others in the Western Caucus, is built on the 
agriculture industry, and I hear over and over from hardworking 
Arkansans who are simply trying to make a living through the sludge of 
government regulation. Overregulation and stalled regulation ensures 
that only the biggest businesses have the money and time to navigate 
the red tape and hire the lawyers that are needed to even attempt to 
navigate the process. This is the kind of Big Government that puts 
local, small operators out of business. It stamps out small business 
operators and honest competition in one fell swoop.
  The message from rural America is clear: Government needs to get out 
of the way. More than that, government needs to be part of the solution 
and not part of the problem. I think government has forgotten that it 
is the government of the people, by the people, and for the people, and 
that if you work for the government, you work for the people. It is not 
the other way around.
  There is no doubt that we should be good stewards of our environment 
and communities, but too often the free market, unburdened by 
government, is seen as the enemy of both. This is simply false. 
Streamlining a permitting process shouldn't be partisan, political, or 
picking sides. It can be a win for the environment, the economy, and 
our communities simultaneously. We do not need to choose just one. In 
fact, a healthy environment and a strong economy go hand in hand. 
Somehow, we have gotten this idea that they are mutually exclusive, and 
we can't have one without the other.
  Again, Republicans have the solutions to cutting the red tape--it is 
called the BUILDER Act--and by so doing, we can empower rural America 
and strengthen our Nation's economy at the same time.
  Mr. NEWHOUSE. Madam Speaker, I thank Mr. Westerman for his comments. 
It just goes to show that it is not just Washington State, but clear 
across the Nation in Arkansas as well.
  To further prove that point, I would like to turn to the gentleman 
from Pennsylvania (Mr. Keller), my good friend and colleague from the 
northeastern part of the State, a place where I have had the privilege 
to visit and see the great things that are happening in the energy 
sector there.
  Mr. KELLER. Madam Speaker, I thank the gentleman for yielding to me 
and for organizing this Special Order and all the great work that he 
does leading the Western Caucus.
  We are really working on issues that impact not just rural America 
but all of America. And just to highlight a little bit of what is 
happening in Pennsylvania, currently in Pennsylvania, Pennsylvanians 
are paying on average $4.42 per gallon of gas. That is $1.39 more than 
they were paying a year ago.
  The White House is frantically trying to spin a narrative that points 
to Russia's invasion of Ukraine as the catalyst for skyrocketing gas 
prices.
  The truth is that the Biden administration set this energy crisis 
into motion on day one of his term in office by cutting American 
pipelines and halting leases for drilling on Federal lands. Blocking 
oil and natural gas drilling puts a stranglehold on domestic production 
and leads to higher prices for American families.
  Not only has the Biden administration diminished American energy 
independence, but it also gave Russia the confidence to weaponize its 
energy exports. Pair this with Biden's refusal to unleash American 
energy dominance, and you have a United States, our United States that 
is dependent on tyrannical nations for energy.
  American energy is right beneath our feet. We must kick production 
into high gear. We heard the President stand here and talk about buy 
American, made American. Well, we can't do that without American 
energy. We can't build American infrastructure without American energy.
  To unleash that energy, the Biden administration needs to start 
listening to the people, needs to trust in the energy producers. We 
produce energy in the United States more cleanly than any other nation 
on the face of the Earth. We do it right, we do it environmentally 
friendly, and we do not want to enrich people who want to do harm to us 
or our allies. That is what we need to do.
  We need expedited permits for LNG-exporting facilities. We need to 
get through the permitting process for drilling. We need to make sure 
we can drill on Federal lands. We need to make sure we 
complete pipelines. Those are the things that are halting American 
energy production, fueling inflation, and adding to the skyrocketing 
cost of energy for all Americans.

  It is costing more to fill up our gas tanks. It is costing more to 
run our businesses and heat our homes. Simply, it is avoidable if the 
Biden administration would just reverse its policies and go back to 
where we were just 1\1/2\ short years ago, and that was energy 
independence. I look forward to working with Mr. Newhouse on many 
things that can help make America stronger and put Americans first.
  Mr. NEWHOUSE. Madam Speaker, I thank Mr. Keller for reminding us that 
these policies and decisions have impacts not just domestically but 
truly impact our relationships and our position of strength throughout 
the world, and especially in the situation we find ourselves in today.
  Next, I yield to the gentlewoman from Washington (Mrs. Rodgers), a 
good friend and colleague, the ranking member on the Energy and 
Commerce Committee, someone I have served with for a long time, not 
only in the statehouse in Washington State but here in the people's 
House in Washington, D.C.
  Mrs. RODGERS of Washington. Madam Speaker, I thank the gentleman, my 
good friend,   Dan Newhouse, chairman of the Western Caucus, for his 
great leadership for bringing us together tonight.
  This is a pivotal moment in our Nation's history. We are witnessing 
the real dangers of undermining our independence because of a rush-to-
green agenda and what it means for our national security, our 
geopolitical power, and our standard of living here in the United 
States of America.
  Energy is foundational to everything that we do. Actions to shut down 
American energy disarms us, and it disarms our security. By boosting 
our domestic production of oil and natural gas, we could be helping our 
allies in Europe, standing with Ukraine, and countering Putin's war.
  Shutting down American energy drives people into poverty. Energy 
prices here at home are surging. Gas prices are the most expensive in 
the United States' history, breaking the record that was set by the 
Obama administration in 2008. Filling up the gas tank now will cost a 
typical family an additional $2,000 this year. This is not ``Putin's 
price hike.''
  How did this happen? How did America get into this energy crisis? 
These are the facts:
  Under President Biden, domestic oil production declined by more than 
1.5 million barrels per day, while Russian imports to the United States 
reached an 11-year high.
  President Biden canceled the Keystone XL pipeline and imposed a 
moratorium on energy development on Federal lands.
  The administration is currently sitting on more than 4,500 permits to 
drill.
  Regulatory uncertainty surrounding pipeline approvals have already 
led to the cancelation of at least four major

[[Page H3738]]

pipeline projects that could have served over 25 million homes.
  The cancelations of these four pipelines restricted nearly 10 percent 
of our natural gas production. And other pipelines are under threat of 
closure, like Line 5, which is critical to those who live in Michigan 
and Ohio.
  But what is the administration's solution to this self-made crisis? 
What they really want to do is ban all oil and force a faster 
transition to their radical agenda. The President is doubling down on 
the rush to wind, solar, and electric vehicles--he stated so in the 
State of the Union--while at the same time saying that he wants to make 
things in America.
  In order to make things in America, we must cut the red tape for 
domestic mining, the processing of minerals that right now is nearly 
impossible in our Nation. China is controlling 80 percent of the 
critical minerals and materials needed to manufacture renewables and 
batteries. We can't trade American energy security, reliability, and 
affordability by rushing to green technologies that make us reliant on 
the Chinese Communist Party.
  America is the number one energy producer in the world, and we should 
act like it, yet the actions we are taking right now are not helping. 
We could boost our domestic energy production. It is vital to our way 
of life, our security in bringing down energy prices.
  This Congress should move the legislation that I introduced with my 
friend Bruce Westerman, who is the ranking Republican on the Natural 
Resources Committee. It is called the American Energy Independence from 
Russia Act.
  It would immediately remove restrictions on U.S. LNG exports so that 
we could deliver natural gas to our allies in Europe rather than them 
continuing to be dependent on Russia. They get 40 percent of their 
natural gas from Russia.
  It would restart the oil and gas leasing on Federal lands and 
offshore so that we could regain our energy dominance, our energy 
independence.
  It would protect American energy and mineral development from 
unilateral shutdowns by the Biden administration just revoking permits.
  And because we need more pipelines, pipelines that are the safest way 
to move product, we would approve the Keystone XL pipeline.
  Second, the administration must stop delaying the permits and put 
Americans to work on energy infrastructure in America. Right now, it 
takes on average 6 or 7 years to review a project.
  Third, we need to embrace innovation for abundant, affordable, and 
clean energy for us and the rest of the world. It means reducing the 
permitting and regulatory burdens around nuclear. We should be leading 
in advanced nuclear technology, for us here in the United States and 
around the world, but right now the permitting is so costly and time 
consuming, it is delaying our progress.
  With an all-of-the-above strategy, we can say ``yes'' to America's 
global leadership and lower energy prices. I continue to urge my 
colleagues across the aisle to work together on this. Let's flip the 
switch on American energy to ensure a better life and a more secure 
future for all.

  Mr. NEWHOUSE. Madam Speaker, I thank the gentlewoman very much for 
helping to bring home the impact this is going to have on Americans, on 
families, on people just trying to get to work every day and having to 
fill up their gas tanks. These policies have consequences, and we need 
to understand that.
  Mrs. RODGERS of Washington. For sure. We need energy to do 
everything.
  Mr. NEWHOUSE. We do absolutely.
  Mrs. RODGERS of Washington. We need to be leading. It is American 
leadership; it is American competitiveness; it is our security. Let's 
do it.
  Mr. NEWHOUSE. Madam Speaker, I yield to the gentlewoman from Iowa 
(Mrs. Miller-Meeks), one of our great Members who has truly been a 
champion in helping to reduce red tape and improve the regulatory 
picture for people throughout this country.
  Mrs. MILLER-MEEKS. Madam Speaker, I thank the gentleman from 
Washington for yielding to me to speak on this important topic.
  Most Americans can agree that the Federal Government is very good at 
creating regulations and making what should often be a simple process 
extremely complicated. In recent years, Federal permitting regulations 
have been some of the most overbearing and burdensome of regulations.
  Landmark environmental protection laws, like the National 
Environmental Protection Act and the Endangered Species Act have become 
outdated and grown far too expansive. It is now nearly impossible to 
secure permits in a timely, efficient, and reasonable manner. From 
energy and mining projects to infrastructure development and forest 
management, burdensome and duplicative permitting processes have slowed 
or halted development throughout rural America.
  Iowans are all too familiar with the overregulated government 
permitting process. One such example is the cumbersome and unworkable 
2015 waters of the United States rule, also known as WOTUS.

                              {time}  2000

  Under the 2015 definition, the Federal government was given the 
authority to regulate almost any waters, including streams, ditches, 
ponds, and creeks.
  In fact, the Federal Government would have the authority to regulate 
water on 97 percent of the land in Iowa. Let me repeat that: 97 percent 
of the land in Iowa. This left farmers, ranchers, landowners, and 
businesses to face confusion and burdensome restrictions on how to use 
their own property. WOTUS drastically expanded the jurisdiction over 
bodies of water like streams and ponds that the Clean Water Act never 
intended to regulate.
  Instead of burdening private citizens with confusing and ambiguous 
standards that could end up costing them thousands of dollars, we 
should work to ensure that the Federal Government's clean water efforts 
are focused on clearly defined bodies of water.
  WOTUS hurt American farmers, ranchers, landowners, and businesses, it 
caused confusion, and it hindered economic development.
  To help rural America, the Trump administration issued the 2020 
Navigable Waters Protection Rule, also known as NWPR. The NWPR is much 
more workable and keeps our water and land clean without destroying 
businesses in the process.
  Unfortunately, the Biden administration is taking steps to revoke the 
2020 NWPR and return to the 2015 WOTUS rule. Reverting back to terrible 
policies such as the WOTUS rule would have an extreme Federal overreach 
and would significantly harm small businesses and cripple our country's 
economic recovery.
  The Trump administration also took steps to streamline processes 
under the National Environmental Protection Act to improve the ability 
for individuals and businesses to build, improve, and maintain 
infrastructure by facilitating more efficient, effective, and timely 
NEPA reviews by Federal agencies.
  With our economy on the mend, the Biden administration should not be 
considering unnecessary and overly burdensome government regulations.
  Reverting back to these policies represents a blatant, 
unconstitutional power grab aimed at taking Federal control over States 
in a way that threatens the rights of farmers, ranchers, and all other 
landowners in Iowa and across our great Nation. We need to let people 
do their jobs and cut back on the incredible number of Federal 
regulations in the permitting process.
  We can protect our Nation's waterways and make improvements to 
infrastructure without burdensome regulations. In Iowa and in rural 
communities throughout the country, we recognize that farmers and 
ranchers are the original conservationists, and that bureaucratic red 
tape does not help us grow, prosper, protect our water and our land.
  Mr. NEWHOUSE. Madam Speaker, I appreciate the gentlewoman's work on 
WOTUS and the navigable waters issue. I think I have heard her say 
something like those things, WOTUS, is truly the most--the worst 
regulatory overreach in our Nation's history and it is something we 
have to stop. I thank the gentlewoman for her work on that.
  I would like to go just a little bit south from the State of 
Washington to another State that adjoins my State, and the good 
gentleman from Oregon, in his first term in Congress, but just doing an 
excellent job; and I am just delighted to have him as part of this 
effort.

[[Page H3739]]

  Madam Speaker, I yield to the gentleman from Oregon (Mr. Bentz).
  Mr. BENTZ. Madam Speaker, outdated and complicated permitting 
processes, excess paperwork, environmental impact statements, and 
years-long litigation processes have delayed or prevented projects all 
across Oregon, especially in my district, which covers more than two-
thirds of the State.
  Federal permitting involves too many agencies and too many 
bureaucrats. As far as Federal agencies are concerned, there are no 
consequences for time lost or money spent. Nowhere is this problem more 
pronounced than in forest management.
  For decades, Congress has stacked process upon process, creating more 
and more red tape for agencies to deal with. Of course we want to know 
what the impact of a project will be. However, when the processes of 
determining that impact stall action for up to 20 years, the system is 
obviously broken.
  With over 70 million acres of our national forest at high or moderate 
risk of wildfire, there is an urgent need to reduce the amount of 
unneeded and dangerous fuel. We have seen the tragic results of 
inaction as millions of acres of our beautiful forests burn each year, 
including over 10 million acres in 2020 alone and over 7 million acres 
in 2021.
  In my home State of Oregon, over a million acres burned last year in 
the Labor Day fires. Last summer, smoke from the massive Oregon Bootleg 
Fire spread across the entire United States, visibly fouling the air 
and poisoning people even here in Washington, D.C.
  The Biden administration issued a 10-year plan acknowledging the 
wildfire and forest health crisis and calling for treatment of an 
additional 20 million acres of the National Forest System, a fraction 
of what is actually necessary. Congress recently provided the Forest 
Service with over $6 billion in the bipartisan Infrastructure and Jobs 
Act to increase hazardous fuels reduction and forest restoration 
activities. The agency, however, remains buried in red tape, endless 
analysis, and frivolous litigation.
  A 2014 GAO report found that the United States Forest Service did 
more of the most costly and time-consuming NEPA reviews than any other 
Federal agency. These National Environmental Policy Act reviews often 
require the Forest Service to spend over $1 million to complete 
paperwork, and then they take an average of almost 5 years to merely 
authorize small and inconsequential forest thinning projects intended 
to reduce the risk of catastrophic wildfire to our forests and 
communities.
  While precious time is wasted, massive wildfires rage on, dumping 
billions of tons of toxic, cancer-causing pollution into our air. This 
is an environmental disaster rapidly becoming a nightmare.

  Congress must take action to give the Forest Service additional tools 
to reduce the time, cost, and litigation that delay the agency from 
authorizing and implementing these critical projects. I am proud to be 
a cosponsor of the Resilient Federal Forests Act, which would do just 
that.
  Earlier this year, I expressed my concern on this very floor about 
the so-called River Democracy Act currently pending in the Senate. It 
would place new management restrictions on some 3 million acres of 
Federal land in Oregon by establishing a 1-mile wild and scenic buffer 
along some 4,700 miles of creeks and, in some areas, dry gulches.
  The Forest Service recently reported that over half of the 2 million 
Forest Service acres of land impacted by this act is at high risk for 
wildfire. Treating these acres only becomes more difficult, if not 
impossible, with these types of designations.
  It is time to overhaul our Nation's permitting and NEPA process. 
Current laws and agency rules hand far too much power to litigation 
groups that use sue and settle tactics to profit off our tax dollars by 
delaying and, in some cases, preventing important restoration projects.
  We need serious, thoughtful reform to put an end to this abuse. I am 
glad my colleagues share my determination to make that happen, and 
hopefully it will be a bipartisan process.
  Mr. NEWHOUSE. Madam Speaker, I thank the gentleman for focusing on a 
very important issue for us in the West. Every summer we hear the West 
is burning. We have got to change our policies in order to prevent the 
loss of property, loss of life, the detriment to our environment.
  I would like to turn the floor over now to someone who is--you know, 
we are the Western Caucus, right? But we have members from all over the 
country. And one of our members represents almost the furthest east in 
our caucus. The good gentleman from the great State of Georgia.
  Madam Speaker, I yield to the gentleman from the great State of 
Georgia and the beautiful community of Savannah (Mr. Carter).
  Mr. CARTER of Georgia. I thank the gentleman for yielding.
  Madam Speaker, President Biden wants to build back better. What he 
doesn't realize is that first, we must be able to build. Many otherwise 
shovel-ready infrastructure projects get trapped in bureaucratic 
gridlock for years.
  Developers routinely find themselves navigating environmental reviews 
that require up to over 60 authorizations from as many as 13 different 
Federal agencies.
  Projects starting today with new funding from the infrastructure deal 
won't be realized for 5 to 7 years, if not longer. After years of 
project design, engineering, planning, and financing, the 2 to 4-year 
permitting process commences. This pushes orders for new windmills, 
solar panels, transmission lines, charging stations, construction 
equipment, steel, concrete, labor contracts, and whatever else a 
project may need years into the future. Only after all of that can the 
2 to 3 years of construction begin.
  The Federal Permitting Improvement Steering Council analyzed 69 major 
projects and found that bureaucratic delays cost developers $100 
billion.
  New wind and solar projects take 2.3 years, on average, to receive 
Federal permits; 3.3 years for electricity transmission projects, and 
4.7 years for major new road projects.
  This contrast with the ambitious and radical climate goals Democrats 
have set, calling for a 50 percent reduction in emissions by 2030. In 
that case, a 7 to 10-year development timeline is entirely too long or 
realistic.
  Permitting challenges have resulted in extended delays and creating a 
chilling effect on new infrastructure investment. This isn't just a 
sacrifice of time. Perhaps worse, it costs money, a lot of money.
  Twenty to 30 percent of total project funding is wasted on 
unnecessary red tape. We are wasting millions of dollars a year by just 
waiting. Instead of fixing that well-known issue, Democrats chose to 
throw more money at the problem. Now we see how this has brought on 
record inflation.
  Sadly, the cost of these unnecessary delays is ultimately passed down 
to taxpayers, either through taxes, tolls, or increased rates in usage 
fees. It is no wonder that the U.S.' infrastructure is falling behind 
other developed nations.
  What is curious is, why did Biden's so-called infrastructure bill do 
nothing to speed up the process, and, instead, doubled down on delays 
and bureaucracy?
  Republicans and Democrats alike are struggling to build around these 
roadblocks, and it is high time Congress did something about it.
  I thank the gentleman again for yielding.
  Mr. NEWHOUSE. Madam Speaker, I thank the gentleman for helping 
illustrate the impact that this has on local communities, the costs, 
not only in dollars, of the long permitting process, but the delay to 
communities for these much-needed projects.
  Now, this could probably come under saving the best for last. The 
great Representative from the great State of California, I would like 
to say is was one of the premier members of the new freshman class. I 
appreciate Mr. Valadao, a fellow farmer, a fellow West Coaster, being 
here being part of this Special Order to talk about some very important 
issues here.
  Madam Speaker, I yield to the gentleman from California (Mr. 
Valadao).
  Mr. VALADAO. I appreciate the opportunity. Mr. Newhouse has done an 
amazing job leading the Western Caucus and fighting for the things that 
affect some of us across the country.
  You just heard of one of our colleagues from all the way on the East

[[Page H3740]]

Coast talk about some of the issues. It always amazes me that our 
issues are so aligned.
  But specifically today I am going to talk a little bit about water. 
So in communities like the Central Valley, Federal permitting 
requirements, coupled with the State's strict environmental regulations 
make it harder for our communities to get the water they so desperately 
need.
  Increasing water storage capacity is critical to ensuring a reliable 
water supply for our valley farmers that feed the country. 
Unfortunately, our broken permitting process prevents many of these 
critical water infrastructure projects from ever getting off the 
ground.
  We need to fix complex and contradictory laws, court decisions, and 
regulations at the State and Federal levels that hinder our water 
storage infrastructure.
  Layers of unnecessary bureaucracy and red tape in permitting 
decisions have blocked much of the needed progress on a long list of 
projects, from water storage, to energy production, to highways.
  The government red tape in permitting is not only affecting water 
storage, it is also having a devastating effect on our Nation's energy 
supply.
  There is a backlog of over 4,600 permits to drill pending under the 
Biden administration, and even though Federal law requires approval of 
the permits on Federal lands within 30 days, permits often languish at 
the Department of the Interior for a year or more.
  This government red tape is hurting families in the Central Valley 
and across the country in the form of higher gas prices. It is time for 
the government bureaucracy to get out of the way so we can once again 
become energy independent.
  There is no reason that streamlining the Federal permitting process 
should be a controversial issue. Rural communities like the one I 
represent are tired of burdensome government regulations holding them 
back. Greater efficiency in the Federal permitting process is critical 
for getting water to those in the Central Valley that need it most.
  And as we saw, from other colleagues that spoke before us, this isn't 
just a California issue. And I know that the chairman here, Mr. 
Newhouse and I, our districts are a lot alike. We both grow a lot of 
different commodities, and we are proud of our districts. But we both 
need something that makes it all possible, and that is water and 
energy.
  I thank the gentleman for his leadership on these important issues 
and thank him for giving me the opportunity.
  Mr. NEWHOUSE. Madam Speaker, the gentleman is right. What is more 
precious than water? And those of us in the West understand that very 
well.
  So, Madam Speaker, let me just say I am very grateful to have 
colleagues from across this great country join me tonight to talk about 
these issues, and to discuss our efforts in the Western Caucus as it 
relates to permitting month.

                              {time}  2015

  As you have heard, the broken processes surrounding permitting 
throughout the Federal Government have truly kneecapped our rural 
communities. This has slowed progress and has cost millions and 
millions of dollars.
  In order to truly unleash American potential, we have to reform this 
process, and we will. Between the Western Caucus and those of us in 
Congress, we will continue to advocate for commonsense policies that 
are going to do just that.
  Madam Speaker, I am grateful for the Special Order opportunity this 
evening, and I yield back the balance of my time.

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