[Congressional Record Volume 168, Number 116 (Thursday, July 14, 2022)]
[Senate]
[Pages S3312-S3314]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                             INFRASTRUCTURE

  Mr. SULLIVAN. Madam President, I just had the opportunity to host a 
lunch--the Thursday lunch--for a number of my Senate colleagues. This 
is an opportunity that Senators get to essentially brag about their 
State. It is kind of like what I do with the ``Alaskan of the Week'' 
speech that I give.
  I know we have new pages here.
  I am going to be putting out a Facebook post on the incredible bounty 
that we just had at the lunch--salmon, halibut, peonies flowers, which 
are now growing in abundance in Alaska. It was a really, really 
incredible meal, if I do say so myself, from Alaskans. So we are going 
to talk about that.
  Next week I will be back to my ``Alaskan of the Week'' series, for 
the new pages. I promise you, this is going to be your favorite speech 
of the week because it is interesting, and it tells stories, and it is 
exciting about what is going on in Alaska.
  Madam President, I want to talk about two other issues today that I 
care deeply about--I think most Senators do, and certainly Americans 
do--and that is two things that our country desperately needs: 
infrastructure and energy. Infrastructure and energy--and we all know 
that this is what is needed.
  We talk about it here a lot in the Senate. However, some, especially 
in the Biden administration, talk a lot about these issues but, then, 
when it comes to taking action, maybe not so much. Maybe that is 
starting to change, maybe not.
  But I am going to talk about something I introduced in the Senate 
yesterday that is going to be action, especially on infrastructure. So 
let's talk about infrastructure first.
  Yesterday, I introduced a joint resolution of disapproval under the 
Congressional Review Act--it is what we call the CRA--which will 
nullify the Biden administration's new regulations that are remarkably 
going to bog down

[[Page S3313]]

the ability to permit infrastructure projects. It is going to add to 
the redtape that every single American who cares about this issue knows 
is a problem, and it is a new reg from the Biden administration--
remarkably, because they supposedly are for infrastructure, and I am 
going to get to that. It is a new reg to make it harder to build 
infrastructure projects.
  So let me unpack a little bit of that because it is something that I 
think all Americans care about. I know they care about it, but it can 
kind of be boring and technical, with permitting and things like that.
  When the National Environmental Policy Act, NEPA, was passed in the 
late sixties, it required an environmental impact statement, an EIS, as 
we call these things. In the old days, you would do an EIS. It would 
take about a year, maybe. You would get public input. It was maybe 100 
pages. OK? The process worked. People were engaged. It didn't bog down 
things, and you would have a couple of hundred pages that the average 
American could read and then you would build, which is what we all want 
to do in a responsible way.
  Fast forward to today. NEPA has been completely abused. This is a 
huge passion of mine because it hurts everybody. Too many people, too 
many Americans now know the numbers: 4 to 6 years on average to 
complete any EIS in America. Most cost millions of dollars. Most EISes 
are thousands of pages so no one reads them. How can you read them? And 
it is undeniably killing our ability to build infrastructure.
  The only people, in my view, who really like this new system are, A, 
radical far-left environmental groups that don't want to build 
anything--OK, that is a group; it is not a big group in America, but, 
unfortunately, they have a loud voice--and probably the Chinese 
Communist Party. When they know they have to compete against us, they 
love the fact that it takes 9 to 10 years to permit a bridge in the 
U.S.A.
  Let me provide some examples. GAO did a study quite a while ago on 
new highway construction to build and design a new highway, 9 to 19 
years, on average, in America. It is about 8 years, I think, for 
Federal permits to permit a bridge--a bridge--in America.
  The Gross Reservoir in Colorado, which is going to offer clean water 
to the people of that State, it has been two decades--20 years--to 
permit that important infrastructure project.
  The California bullet train project--holy cow--approved in the 
nineties and still not built. The Mountain Valley Pipeline in Virginia 
and West Virginia, it began in 2015 with 20 miles left to complete. I 
hate to say it. It will never be completed--litigation, back to the 
courts, NEPA, radical enviros stopping it. This is not America. This is 
not the way it should work.
  My State, unfortunately, has been the epicenter of groups that try to 
stop any resource development projects--any projects--a road, a bridge, 
a gold mine. The Kensington Mine in Alaska now employs over 400 people, 
average wage $110,000 per year. That is great money. It took almost 20 
years to permit if you include the litigation--20 years. Who is that 
benefiting?
  I worked with the Trump administration on their NEPA Executive order. 
I worked in the Environment and Public Works Committee on this 
infrastructure bill that President Biden supported. We got good--not 
great--but we got some pretty darn good permitting reform, based on 
some of what we did in the Trump administration, to bring projects to 
be able to build in a timely, efficient manner, not cutting corners. 
There is one Federal Agency in charge of decision, time limits on NEPA 
requirements to 2 years, limitations on pages for NEPA. These are 
commonsense reforms. We got them into law. OK. That is pretty good. 
Bipartisan. The President hailed this as one of his big signature 
achievements. I voted for it, in part, because of NEPA reforms, because 
of permitting reforms.
  What am I upset about? About 4 months ago, the Biden administration's 
Council on Environmental Quality not only revised the Trump Executive 
order on permitting, which the average American Republican and Democrat 
thought was good--they actually undertook new regulations for NEPA that 
are clearly--clearly--intended to make it harder to permit 
infrastructure projects, particularly energy infrastructure projects.
  Just ask anyone. Go look at the regs. Go look at what they put out. 
What I find remarkable is that the President let this come out of his 
White House. He is supposedly ``Mr. Infrastructure,'' ``Mr. Building 
Trades,'' ``Mr. Joe Six-Pack Union Guy.''
  This is a product of the radical, elite, coastal Democratic special 
interests that is going to make it harder to build things. That is a 
fact. It is a sad fact, especially because a lot of us came together as 
Democrats and Republicans to pass permitting reform.
  So what did I file yesterday? A Congressional Review Act resolution 
says that if Congress doesn't like a big regulation coming out of the 
executive branch, we can vote to rescind it. We can vote to rescind it. 
So, yesterday, I filed one of those resolutions targeting this new rule 
from the Biden administration meant to slow down the building of 
infrastructure.
  Here is the thing. You don't see this a lot, but every single 
Republican Senator is a cosponsor of my resolution--50--50 cosponsors 
of our Congressional Review Act resolution on infrastructure.
  The other good thing about the CRA law, Congressional Review Act law, 
it is a privileged resolution. What does that mean? It means Majority 
Leader Schumer, even if he doesn't like it, has to take it up.
  Here is the other thing. Under the CRA law, you only need 51 Senators 
51 Senators to make it pass the Senate. So my Democratic colleagues are 
going to have a tough choice here. I don't think it should be tough. I 
think it should be 100 to 0. If you want infrastructure for America and 
you want to stand with the men and women who build things in America, 
then you are going to vote for my resolution. Simple.
  Let me quote the Laborers' International, LIUNA, the biggest 
construction trade union in America, led by a great American, Terry 
O'Sullivan. When the Biden administration was putting out their NEPA 
rule, the laborers said: What are you doing? Here is our statement. 
Here is what they thought about that rule:

       Once again, communities in need of vital infrastructure and 
     the hard working men and women who build America will be 
     waiting as project details for infrastructure are 
     subjected to onerous reviews [by these new rules].

  That is the Laborers'. Those are the men and women who build America. 
Americans will continue to bear the expense of NEPA-related delays, 
which cost taxpayers millions of dollars annually.
  Lengthy review processes and unpredictable legal challenges which 
will result from these new regs will have a chilling impact on private 
investment and infrastructure.
  That is what the Laborers' said.
  This is going to be an interesting vote because I have said this a 
number of times--I think some of my Democratic friends have gotten a 
little upset with me, but I think it is a fact; it is certainly a fact 
in Alaska--whenever the national Democrats have a choice between the 
radical far-left environmentalists, the coastal elites, and the men and 
women who build things and made our country great, they always choose 
the radical environmentalists. I mentioned this in the Commerce 
Committee hearing the other day. Some of my colleagues got a little 
upset with me. I said: All right. Guess what I am going to have--a CRA. 
I am going to put it on the floor, and it is going to be a test vote. I 
know where 50 Republicans stand. We are going to stand with the men and 
women who build stuff. If you support my CRA like the Laborers' do or 
will, the resolution, you are going to support it. If you support 
infrastructure for America, you are going to support our resolution. If 
you support energy for America, you are going to support our 
resolution. If you support the men and women who actually build stuff 
in this country, good wages, you are going to support my resolution. If 
you stand with the coastal environmental elites who want to shut down 
this country, you will vote against it.
  I think it is going to be really interesting to see what the men and 
women of the U.S. Senate stand for: far-left environmentalists who just 
want to stop anything and shut it all down or the men or women who 
build stuff?

[[Page S3314]]

  That vote is going to come in the next few weeks, and I am going to 
be down here on the floor a lot talking about it. I hope my colleagues 
do the right thing because we all know what the right thing to do is: 
to move this country forward, to build on the infrastructure bill, and 
to get working and support the men and women who do that hard work.

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