[Congressional Record Volume 169, Number 183 (Monday, November 6, 2023)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Pages E1061-E1062]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




     DEPARTMENT OF THE INTERIOR, ENVIRONMENT, AND RELATED AGENCIES 
                        APPROPRIATIONS ACT, 2024

                                 ______
                                 

                               speech of

                          HON. BETTY McCOLLUM

                              of minnesota

                    in the house of representatives

                       Thursday, November 2, 2023

  Ms. McCOLLUM. Mr. Chair, I rise in strong opposition to H.R. 4821, 
Interior, Environment,

[[Page E1062]]

and Related Agencies Appropriations Act, 2024. The overall 35 percent 
reduction to the top line of this bill is simply irresponsible. With 
this bill, House Republicans are endangering public health, damaging 
our public lands and natural resources, and are failing to address the 
existential threat of climate change.
  Communities in Minnesota and across our nation need reliable access 
to safe drinking water and clean air. The Environmental Protection 
Agency is tasked with safeguarding the air we breathe and the water we 
drink, cleaning up harmful pollution, and responding to public health 
emergencies like the train derailment last February in East Palestine, 
Ohio, where the EPA is still overseeing the cleanup of toxic 
contamination today. This bill includes a crippling 39 percent cut to 
the EPA that will jeopardize our public health. H.R. 4821 eliminates 
funding for environmental justice grant programs. These programs are 
designed to ensure disadvantaged communities that have historically 
suffered from underinvestment have access to clean air and water and 
climate resilience solutions. Just this October, the EPA issued $3 
million in environmental justice grants across the state of Minnesota 
to address environmental or public health issues and build a healthier 
future for all Minnesotans. These grants must be protected.
  Our public lands and natural resources must be protected not only for 
today, but for future generations. H.R 4821 threatens our public lands 
and critical watersheds throughout the nation, and specifically harms 
conservation efforts in Minnesota with harmful policy riders that would 
overturn two final decisions by the Forest Service and Bureau of Land 
Management to protect the watershed that flows through the 1.1-million-
acre Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness. This wilderness protects a 
priceless reserve of water so clean that you can drink directly from 
the lakes. We should not be using a funding bill to ignore settled 
scientific record and overturn final decisions on mineral leases and 
mining withdrawals.
  As Ranking Member on the Defense Appropriations Subcommittee, I am 
intimately aware that the Department of Defense considers climate 
change to be a top national security issue. Why are House Republicans 
harming our country's ability to respond to this threat? The drastic 
cuts made in this bill will put us at a severe global disadvantage in 
responding to climate change and helping communities who are directly 
affected by it.
  Mr. Chair, instead of reevaluating their extreme 2024 funding bills 
and working to find a bipartisan path forward to fund the government 
beyond November 17th, House Republicans are moving forward with passing 
bills that have no chance of ever becoming law. With this bill, House 
Republicans are debilitating essential government agencies, 
jeopardizing our public lands and natural resources, and abandoning 
investments made by Democrats last Congress to address the threat of 
climate change. For all of these reasons, I must vote against H.R. 
4821, and I urge my colleagues to do the same.

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