[Congressional Record Volume 168, Number 126 (Thursday, July 28, 2022)]
[House]
[Pages H7400-H7401]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
INCLUDING CERTAIN COMPUTER-RELATED PROJECTS IN THE FEDERAL PERMITTING
PROGRAM UNDER TITLE XLI OF THE FAST ACT
Mr. COSTA. Mr. Speaker, I move to suspend the rules and pass the bill
(S. 3451) to include certain computer-related projects in the Federal
permitting program under title XLI of the FAST Act, and for other
purposes.
The Clerk read the title of the bill.
The text of the bill is as follows:
S. 3451
Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of
the United States of America in Congress assembled,
SECTION 1. FEDERAL PERMITTING IMPROVEMENT.
Section 41001(6)(A) of the FAST Act (42 U.S.C. 4370m(6)(A))
is amended, in the matter preceding clause (i), by inserting
``semiconductors, artificial intelligence and machine
learning, high-performance computing and advanced computer
hardware and software, quantum information science and
technology, data storage and data management,
cybersecurity,'' after ``manufacturing,''.
The SPEAKER pro tempore. Pursuant to the rule, the gentleman from
California (Mr. Costa) and the gentleman from Arkansas (Mr. Westerman)
each will control 20 minutes.
The Chair recognizes the gentleman from California.
General Leave
Mr. COSTA. Mr. Speaker, I ask unanimous consent that all Members may
have 5 legislative days in which to revise and extend their remarks.
The SPEAKER pro tempore. Is there objection to the request of the
gentleman from California?
There was no objection.
Mr. COSTA. Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume.
Mr. Speaker, this is a commonsense bill that I believe has bipartisan
support involving the construction of chip manufacturing and other
computer-related manufacturing rights here in the United States.
Obviously, this is a big effort that has been ongoing in Congress for
some time.
The bill here simply adds key national security-related technologies,
like semiconductors, to the types of projects that are eligible for an
existing Federal program that improves the coordination between Federal
departments on permitting. We oftentimes, as we know, have difficulty
in getting the permitting process to work, and it creates delays in
process. It not only takes time, but it increases costs. So this is an
effort to try to address that.
The bill passed the Senate unanimously back in January. Sending this
bill to the President will build on the progress we are already making
today with the CHIPS and Science Act.
Both bills are critical to America leading in manufacturing of chips.
We know that it is the future of the 21st century economy that creates
good jobs and ensures our competitiveness in the global economy that we
live in.
Mr. Speaker, I urge the House's adoption of this bill, and I reserve
the balance of my time.
Mr. WESTERMAN. Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may
consume.
Mr. Speaker, I, too, rise in support of S. 3451. However, when we
start sacrificing regular order to score political points, we are on an
extremely slippery slope. Unfortunately, that is the course this bill
sets us on.
It didn't move through the Committee on Natural Resources, the
committee of jurisdiction. Instead, it was one of the many promises
made by Democrat leadership to secure the votes they needed in the
Senate to pass the CHIPS-Plus Act.
The irony of this, Mr. Speaker, is yesterday we were in an all-day
long markup in the Natural Resources Committee on Chairman Grijalva's
Environmental Justice for All Act, which is a bill that really doubles
down on NEPA regulations. Obviously, we have differences of opinion on
that, but we were having the debate. Democrats wanted to increase NEPA
regulations, Republicans wanted to streamline regulations.
So you can imagine the shock when Chairman Grijalva's staff, almost
simultaneously with my staff, told us to be prepared tomorrow afternoon
because there is going to be a NEPA streamlining bill on the suspension
calendar.
When I was told the bill was being added, I thought to myself, this
bill didn't go through regular order, and this is something my
colleagues across the aisle would normally really be opposed to. So I
Googled the bill, and it turns out that S. 3451 is but a bargaining
chip in the larger CHIPS debate.
[[Page H7401]]
This is what I found on the internet. It said, ``From yesterday's
Roll Call, as they reported on the CHIPS-Plus package.'' A quote from
that is: ``One of the Republicans who voted for the bill . . . had
sought an amendment to fast track the permitting process for companies
building semiconductor plants . . . instead he was promised that the
House would clear his Senate-passed bill.''
This legislation, S. 3451, provides modest permit streamlining to
expedite reviews of infrastructure projects concerning semiconductors,
artificial intelligence and machine learning, high-performance
computing and advanced computer hardware and software, quantum
information science and technology, data storage, and data management,
or cybersecurity.
{time} 1645
Mr. Speaker, I strongly support streamlining. In fact, for the last
18 months, Republicans on the Committee on Natural Resources have been
calling to move legislation that would streamline the onerous NEPA
process, cut bureaucratic red tape, and fight back against
environmental activist litigants, the kinds of meaningful actions
Congress needs to take to move our country forward.
I woke up this morning, and I was reading online my local newspaper
back home. There was actually a story about the CHIPS Act that talked
about this very bill that we have on the suspension calendar today. I
found it interesting that someone from the Sierra Club was interviewed
about it.
Now, normally if you are going to streamline NEPA, it sets Sierra
Club's hair on fire, and they are calling all of their activists and
putting alerts out. But it was interesting that on this one, the Sierra
Club was going to study the text a little bit more, even though we are
here this afternoon passing this on suspension.
These commonsense Republican solutions are crucial to improving the
health of our Federal lands, repairing our crumbling infrastructure,
constructing water storage projects needed to make our Western
communities more resilient to drought, and developing America's
domestic resources to secure our supply chain and our country.
In response, Democrats have repeatedly told us we were gutting
bedrock environmental laws, and that we support pillaging the land from
sea to shining sea.
Just yesterday, I spent, as I mentioned, over 10 hours in a Committee
on Natural Resources markup where the Democrats advanced a bill--we not
only debated it; we marked it up and advanced it--a bill to expand
NEPA, create more burdensome red tape, and handcuff our great Nation
from future development.
Now, today, after years of committee Republicans hearing how we are
trying to destroy America, suddenly the exact same commonsense
streamlining and reasonable sideboards on frivolous litigation are
necessary to build semiconductor plants and America's future.
This bill is only part of the solution. While building domestic chip
manufacturing facilities is important and we want to bring those jobs
to the United States for American workers, the reality is there is not
much domestic about a chip made with 100 percent foreign materials.
For instance, today, the United States is 100 percent reliant on
other countries to meet our demand for gallium and indium, both of
which are needed in semiconductors. China is the lead supplier for
both.
Semiconductors also require a mineral called bismuth, 90 percent of
which the U.S. imports. Again, China is the lead supplier to the U.S.
of bismuth.
Semiconductors are among dozens of high-tech commodities, such as
satellites, electric vehicles, and missile defense systems reliant on
mineral resources to function. China unquestionably controls the market
on nearly every one of the necessary minerals.
If we truly want to secure the supply chain for semiconductors and
the huge array of other products dependent on critical minerals, it is
imperative to ensure a robust domestic mining industry through an
efficient, predictable mine permitting system here in the United
States.
While the bill before us is a step in the right direction, it does
not address the supply chain necessary to build our domestic high-tech
manufacturing technology.
Republicans have the solutions. To name a few: H.R. 2604, the
Accessing America's Critical Mineral Act, introduced by Congressman
Pete Stauber, reforms onerous and duplicative steps in the critical
mineral permitting process by requiring Federal agencies to adhere to
timelines and improve coordination.
H.R. 2637, the American Critical Minerals Independence Act,
introduced by Congressmen Michael Waltz and Paul Gosar, invests in
recycling technologies and innovative mining and processing techniques,
streamlines the permitting of critical minerals production, and
requires that agencies analyze the mineral potential of Federal lands.
If Democrats were serious about streamlining and promoting a robust
domestic manufacturing sector for semiconductors and other high-tech
applications, they would be bringing these bills and others to the
floor.
Mr. Speaker, S. 3451 is a modest step in the right direction, and I
support the passage of this bill. Now that it appears Democrats have
seen the error of their ways and they suddenly have done a 180 on
streamlining environmental bureaucracy, I look forward to working with
each and every Member who votes for this bill to advance many other
Republican solutions to further address streamlining and secure a
robust domestic critical minerals supply chain.
Unfortunately, while I would like to say that, with Democrats'
newfound support of streamlining, the remaining Republican solutions
will be coming to the floor quickly, something tells me Democrats'
willingness to ignore environmental extremists and bring up commonsense
policy solutions like S. 3451 has a lot more to do with politics than
making good policy.
Mr. Speaker, I urge adoption of this bill, and I reserve the balance
of my time.
Mr. COSTA. Mr. Speaker, I reserve the balance of my time.
Mr. WESTERMAN. Mr. Speaker, I urge adoption of this bill, and I yield
back the balance of my time.
Mr. COSTA. Mr. Speaker, clearly, I think there is an agreement that
America needs to increase its production of critical minerals for the
economy of the 21st century. I think oftentimes there are differences
on how we establish a framework and a goal in terms of the production
of those critical minerals.
I think that there is support on both sides of the aisle for
streamlining the permitting process that is reflected in this bill,
and, clearly, I appreciate the efforts and the comments of my
colleague, the gentleman from Arkansas. Obviously, we have more work to
do, and this is a good bill.
Mr. Speaker, I urge the House's adoption, and I yield the balance of
my time.
The SPEAKER pro tempore. The question is on the motion offered by the
gentleman from California (Mr. Costa) that the House suspend the rules
and pass the bill, S. 3451.
The question was taken.
The SPEAKER pro tempore. In the opinion of the Chair, two-thirds
being in the affirmative, the ayes have it.
Mr. NORMAN. Mr. Speaker, on that I demand the yeas and nays.
The yeas and nays were ordered.
The SPEAKER pro tempore. Pursuant to clause 8 of rule XX, further
proceedings on this motion will be postponed.
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