[Congressional Record Volume 169, Number 43 (Tuesday, March 7, 2023)]
[Senate]
[Pages S670-S672]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
STATEMENTS ON INTRODUCED BILLS AND JOINT RESOLUTIONS
By Mr. PADILLA (for himself and Mrs. Feinstein):
S. 683. A bill to modify the boundary of the Berryessa Snow Mountain
National Monument to include certain Federal land in Lake County,
California, and for other purposes; to the Committee on Energy and
Natural Resources.
Mr. PADILLA. Madam President, I rise to introduce the Berryessa Snow
Mountain National Monument Expansion Act.
This legislation would expand the Berryessa Snow Mountain National
Monument to include approximately 3,925 acres of adjacent public land
managed by the Bureau of Land Management.
In 2015, President Obama established the Berryessa Snow Mountain
National Monument, proclaiming that ``once covered by ocean waters, it
is a landscape shaped by geologic forces of staggering power overlain
with bountiful but fragile biodiversity. Anchored in the north by Snow
Mountain's remote forests and in the south by scenic Berryessa
Mountain, this area stretches through unbroken wildlands and important
wildlife corridors, a mosaic of native grasslands, picturesque oak
woodlands, rare wetlands, and wild chaparral . . . This dramatic and
diverse landscape is a biological hotspot providing refuge for rare
plant and animal species and showcasing the human history of north-
central California.''
The Berryessa Snow Mountain National Monument is managed jointly by
the Bureau of Land Management, BLM, and the U.S. Forest Service, USFS,
and provides for unparalleled outdoor recreational opportunities, is
home to rich biodiversity, and contains lands that are culturally
significant to over two dozen federally recognized Tribes. This
legislation would add over 3,900 acres of adjacent, BLM-administered
land to the existing national monument.
This expansion would include portions of the land known previously as
Walker Ridge in Lake County, CA. Importantly, the legislation renames
``Walker Ridge'' to ``Condor Ridge'', which is translated from Molok
Luyuk in the indigenous Patwin language. For thousands of years, these
sacred lands have been central to Tribal origin stories, and Condor
Ridge is an area that retains deep cultural significance to the Patwin
people and over two dozen Native American Tribes. The legislation also
directs the BLM and USFS to complete the management plan for the
national monument and to consult with federally recognized Tribes to do
so.
I am proud that this legislation would better enable federally
recognized Tribes to be involved in the day-
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to-day management of the national monument. This essential, landmark
component of the legislation would enable Tribal communities to share
their rich history and ecological knowledge to better conserve and care
for these lands.
With the protections provided by this legislation, the abundant
natural resources and the rich history on Molok Luyuk will be preserved
for our children and future generations. By requiring the Federal
Agencies to finally develop a management plan and by allowing for
Tribal governments to be involved in the management of the monument,
the bill would improve the health of these lands to benefit both people
and biodiversity.
I thank Senator Feinstein for introducing this legislation with me,
and I thank Congressmen Garamendi and Thompson for spearheading this
effort in the House of Representatives. I would also like to thank
Chairman Manchin and Ranking Member Barrasso for working with me on
this legislation and the entire Energy and Natural Resources Committee
for unanimously supporting this legislation through committee last
Congress. I am hopeful that we will see similar bipartisan support in
the 118th Congress.
I would also like to thank the Yocha Dehe Wintun Nation for their
leadership and desire to cooperatively manage Molok Luyuk to ensure
that all Californians and Americans have the opportunity to benefit
from these sacred lands.
I look forward to working with my colleagues to enact the Berryessa
Snow Mountain National Monument Expansion Act as quickly as possible.
______
By Mr. COTTON (for himself, Mrs. Blackburn, Mr. Braun, Mr.
Cramer, Mr. Cruz, Mr. Daines, Mr. Graham, Mr. Grassley, Mr.
Hagerty, Mr. Hoeven, Mrs. Hyde-Smith, Mr. Lankford, Mr.
Marshall, Mr. Rubio, Mr. Scott of Florida, Mr. Thune, Mr.
Wicker, and Mr. Young):
S. 691. A bill to deter foreign financial institutions from providing
banking services for the benefit of foreign terrorist organizations and
from facilitating or promoting payments for acts of terrorism; to the
Committee on Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs.
Mr. COTTON. Madam President, there is one foreign leader for whom the
Democratic Party seems to reserve special scorn. Leading Democrats have
called him a reactionary, a racist, an ethnonationalist. They have
accused him of committing war crimes and of leading an apartheid state.
President Biden has called him extreme and has said they don't agree on
a damn thing. Strong words.
Who is this monster, you may ask. Were the Democrats talking about
Vladimir Putin or Xi Jinping or, perhaps, Ayatollah Khamenei? No. They
were referring to Benjamin Netanyahu, Israel's longest serving Prime
Minister and one of America's best friends.
Once again, these Democrats have proven their party's tendency to
coddle our enemies and condemn our friends. But the Democrats don't
stop at mere words. They are working right now to undermine Bibi and
his government.
Yesterday, the Washington Free Beacon reported that the State
Department is funneling your tax dollars to Netanyahu's domestic
opponents. Since 2020, the State has sent more than $38,000 to
something known as the Movement for Quality Government, for so-called
democracy education.
So what is the Movement for Quality Government, and how good is this
democracy education?
This movement is an activist group that is fomenting unrest against
the Israeli Government and demanding Netanyahu's resignation. In recent
days, leftwing demonstrators associated with this group have protested
the government's proposed judicial reforms. Last week, hundreds of
protesters harassed Netanyahu's wife, forcing police to intervene and
escort her to safety.
Far from staying neutral in Israel's domestic affairs, Secretary of
State Tony Blinken lectured Netanyahu about the judicial reforms to his
face, tacitly siding with the demonstrators. Some Democratic Senators
have also condemned the reform proposals, which is awfully rich coming
from Democrats who have voted to shred this Senate's ancient rules to
pack our Supreme Court and to rewrite our founding documents. I guess,
when American liberals want to change the courts, it is the only way to
save democracy; but when Israeli conservatives want to, it is a threat
to democracy. Go figure.
The State Department doesn't even deny it is funneling money to these
leftwing activities, by the way, which is troubling because it is a
clear violation of the usual State Department policy against funding
foreign partisan organizations.
Not only is this U.S.-funded organization subverting a foreign
government, it is subverting the government of one of our closest
allies. Secretary Blinken should immediately apologize to the Prime
Minister of Israel, demand your money back, and open an investigation
into how this happened. But then again, I suspect we already know how
this happened. After all, the Democratic Party has been meddling in
Israeli democracy to undermine Benjamin Netanyahu for more than a
quarter century.
By his own admission, President Bill Clinton intervened in the 1996
Israeli election to support Netanyahu's opponent, Shimon Peres. Clinton
met with Peres; dispatched his own campaign advisers; dangled policy
shifts to Israel--all to get Peres across the finish line. Netanyahu
prevailed nevertheless.
Team Clinton intervened, yet again, in 1999. The Clinton White House
reportedly urged Democratic donors to give money to Netanyahu's next
opponent, Ehud Barak.
And it didn't stop there. Clinton's political advisers again
campaigned against Bibi while the Clinton State Department allegedly
spread falsehoods about the Israeli Government and Netanyahu himself.
Netanyahu lost this time around; though, he was more of a victim of
his own success against Palestinian terrorism than Barak and Clinton's
campaign against him. But Bibi returned to the Knesset just 3 years
later and became Prime Minister again in 2009.
The Obama State Department was, if anything, worse than Clinton's in
its funneling of hundreds of thousands of your tax dollars to a group
called the OneVoice Movement. Not coincidentally, OneVoice partnered
with an organization running anti-Netanyahu ads that was advised by--
you guessed it--a top Obama campaign operative.
Of course, the Democrats will insist they are innocent of these
charges and aren't meddling in Israel's democracy, but Israelis know
the truth. Obama's meddling was so pervasive that an astounding 62
percent of Israelis thought he was interfering. Indeed, one Foreign
Policy magazine headline read ``Obama is Pursuing Regime Change in
Israel''--not in Iran--our mortal enemy--but in Israel, mind you.
Now Joe Biden is simply following in Obama's footsteps by trying to
sabotage Netanyahu. In 2021, the Biden administration reportedly
pressured the United Arab Emirates to cancel an Abraham Accords
Summit--all to deprive Netanyahu of a diplomatic victory ahead of that
year's election. Then, after Netanyahu won the 2022 election, the Biden
administration immediately sought to undermine his coalition government
by trying to veto key Cabinet appointments.
This most recent scandal is not an aberration, therefore. It has been
the de facto policy of the Democratic Party for a quarter century to
beat Netanyahu, though he keeps beating the Democrats. Though, it does
provide more evidence, yet again, for the old saw that while it is
dangerous to be America's enemy, it can be fatal to be America's
friend--at least when the Democrats are in charge.
Instead of trying to topple the democratically elected Government of
Israel, I would suggest we should support it. Israelis are more than
capable of managing their domestic affairs without Democratic meddling,
but they need our help to stop Iran from getting a nuclear bomb; they
need our help to achieve peace with their neighbors; and they need our
help to defeat the terrorists who are threatening both of our nations.
They don't get that from the Biden administration either. Iran is
racing toward a nuclear breakout while the President dithers. His
administration can barely utter the words ``Abraham Accords,'' and
President Biden is
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breaking U.S. law to subsidize the Palestinian Authority's support for
terrorism.
A few years back, Congress passed the Taylor Force Act, which
prohibits nonhumanitarian aid to the Palestinian Authority until it
ends its so-called martyr payments--a euphemism for bounties given to
Palestinian terrorists or their families for maiming and killing Jews.
So the administration has, instead, funneled tens of millions of your
tax dollars to nongovernmental organizations to build roads, sidewalks,
parking lots, and other infrastructure projects on behalf of the
Palestinian Authority. As a result, since money is fungible, the
Palestinian Authority can ignore these basic responsibilities of
government and, instead, keep pouring more money into its pay-for-slay
program.
The contrast couldn't be starker. If the Palestinian Authority wants
to bankroll terrorists and their families, the Biden administration
will contort the law beyond recognition to fund the Palestinians; but
if a center-right government gets elected once again in Israel, the
Biden administration will work overtime to undermine it. This is
exactly backward. We should demand the Palestinian Authority stop
subsidizing terrorism before it gets another penny of your tax dollars.
While we are at it, we should pass the Taylor Force Martyr Payment
Prevention Act, which I am reintroducing this week, to sanction foreign
banks that process these so-called martyr payments for the Palestinian
Authority.
Meanwhile, President Biden and his administration should quit
treating Prime Minister Netanyahu like he is a rival or even an
adversary and start treating him as he is--a war hero, a courageous
patriot, a towering figure of modern Israel, and most importantly for
us, a great friend of America.
____________________