[Congressional Record Volume 170, Number 67 (Wednesday, April 17, 2024)]
[House]
[Pages H2486-H2492]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                   RESPONDING TO AMERICANS' CONCERNS

  The SPEAKER pro tempore (Mr. Williams of New York). Under the 
Speaker's announced policy of January 9, 2023, the gentleman from Utah 
(Mr. Moore) is recognized for 60 minutes as the designee of the 
majority leader.


                             General Leave

  Mr. MOORE of Utah. Mr. Speaker, 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 this special 
order.
  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Is there objection to the request of the 
gentleman from Utah?
  There was no objection.
  Mr. MOORE of Utah. Mr. Speaker, I appreciate this opportunity to join 
my colleagues and share some very important perspectives and messages.
  House Republicans are responding to many concerns held by Americans

[[Page H2487]]

across the country, from this historic crisis happening at our southern 
border to the increasing cost of everyday goods and services as a 
result of the Biden administration's tax-and-spend agenda that is 
burdening hardworking families from New York to California, from Utah 
to Ohio.
  Just this weekend, Americans watched as Iran launched an 
unprecedented attack on Israel, our ally, and yet again threatened 
Israel's very existence.
  The American people deserve better. They deserve better leadership 
from this the administration, better stewardship of our Federal 
resources, and better strength on the global stage.
  I am grateful to my colleagues for joining me on the House floor this 
evening to share their thoughts on how these issues are impacting their 
constituents and our Conference's solutions.
  We look forward to hearing from a few of my colleagues this evening.
  Mr. Speaker, I yield to the gentleman from South Carolina (Mr. 
Wilson).
  Mr. WILSON of South Carolina. Mr. Speaker, I thank Congressman Moore 
for his leadership. We appreciate it very much.
  Mr. Speaker, last week, on April 2, the New York Post published an 
op-ed that explained the proven conservative position of peace through 
strength. This continues the world-changing success for expanding 
freedom of Senator Barry Goldwater and President Ronald Reagan. There 
are over 20 countries now of Central and Eastern Europe and Central 
Asia that are free today because of the defeat of Soviet communism, 
which war criminal Putin wants to revive.

  The article is titled: ``Kudos to Speaker Johnson: Moving Ukraine aid 
is critical to national security,'' by Daniel Kochis, a senior fellow 
of the Hudson Institute's Center on Europe and Eurasia. The Hudson 
Institute was founded by the visionary Herman Kahn and is universally 
respected for its research and accuracy.
  I am grateful to find and learn that Ambassador and Governor Nikki 
Haley of South Carolina will now be a valued fellow.
  The column in the New York Post reads: ``Speaker Mike Johnson's 
Easter announcement that he will bring a new Ukraine aid package to a 
vote . . . is welcome news. Congressional backing for Ukraine 
assistance has been mired in the political muck for months. More than 
5,000 miles away on the front lines, the maddening impasse has 
needlessly cost Ukrainian lives and territory.
  ``Three-quarters of Americans recognize that the Russian war against 
Ukraine and the conflicts that allies Israel and Taiwan face are 
important to U.S. national interests. It is time Congress got on the 
same page as its constituents and found a way to move critical support 
over the finish line.
  ``For Ukraine, the dearth of new aid has left soldiers to ration 
ammunition. Russia's artillery advantage has consequently increased by 
an order of magnitude. Moscow has been firing five times the number of 
shells per day as Kyiv for most of the year.''
  This isn't in the article, Mr. Speaker, but you should understand 
many of these shells came from North Korea, from the dictatorship in 
the DPRK, which is also threatening our allies South Korea and Japan.
  ``Russian forces simply out-pummeled Ukraine's defenders. Some good 
news came 2 weeks ago: The Czech Republic has stepped into the breach 
in a major way, scouring the world to secure 800,000 artillery shells. 
The first batch could reach Ukraine early this month, a lifeline that 
will allow defending forces to start shooting more rounds, secure in 
the knowledge that replacements are on the way.
  ``But while the Czech Republic's role as intermediary in finding, 
purchasing, and securing permissions for the export of critical stocks 
of munitions is phenomenal, it won't fill the void left by a lack of 
American assistance and leadership.''

                              {time}  1845

  ``It is in America's interest to continue to aid our friends, most 
especially those defending their families and homes in Ukraine. 
Inaction not only harms U.S. national interests; it is expressly not 
what the American people have told policymakers they desire.
  ``Multiple recent polls have found a majority of Americans continue 
to back the aid to Ukraine, both economic and military. Behind closed 
doors, most congressional Members recognize the importance of 
continuing assistance. . . .
  ``From a military point of view, Ukraine is far better off today than 
it was 2 years ago and Russia far worse. And though from a moral 
perspective, the war remains starkly black and white . . . declined. . 
. .
  ``The administration allowing the war to fester by continuing to balk 
at sending Ukraine the systems it needs to win hasn't helped. . . .
  ``Team Biden's shockingly shortsighted and incompetent Afghanistan 
withdrawal is still fresh in the minds of many Americans, and they do 
not want a repeat. But failing to robustly stand with Ukraine and 
decisively defeat Russia makes this specter more likely to happen. The 
outcome of Russia's genocidal campaign there will have far broader 
implications for America's future security than either Afghanistan or 
Iraq. There is, however, room for optimism.
  ``Unlike in Afghanistan or Iraq, America is not a combatant in 
Ukraine, but we do benefit from its success. Despite some recent 
territorial setbacks, Ukraine can defeat Russia and its backers in 
Beijing, Pyongyang, and Tehran--if it has its allies' consistent, stout 
backing.
  ``The situation on the front lines--and in the minds of Americans--is 
far from irretrievable, but it starts with Congress finding the will to 
do what is in the long-term American interest: Send Russian President 
Vladimir Putin a clear bipartisan message that the United States will 
stand by Ukraine for the long haul.
  ``Conservative lawmakers certainly have a duty to engage the 
administration on the migrant crisis, an issue of key importance to the 
public, but they should do so separately, recognizing Ukraine's 
national security importance. Linking aid to migration is a disservice 
to the American people. Support for Ukraine is not a worthless donation 
but a downpayment on a more secure and prosperous future. The American 
people know this; Congress should prove it does too.''
  Additionally, I include in the Congressional Record an op-ed that I 
provided in The Washington Times of February 9, 2022. This indicates: 
``Why Ukraine Matters for American Families: A destabilized world with 
higher inflation, gas prices.''

               [From the Washington Times, Feb. 9, 2022]

               Why Ukraine Matters for American Families

                            (By Joe Wilson)

       Why does Ukraine matter for American families? Simply put: 
     Energy prices, inflation and the empowerment of our 
     adversaries across the world. Russian President Vladimir 
     Putin wants to recreate the Soviet empire, divide our allies 
     in Europe, and expand his malign influence across the globe.
       Rather than former President Donald Trump's approach of 
     Peace Through Strength, President Biden's foreign policy can 
     best be characterized as war through weakness. During the 
     Trump administration, Mr. Putin never attempted anything 
     close to such an invasion of Ukraine. Mr. Putin understood 
     that a severe price would be paid, as Mr. Trump, along with 
     Congress, more than tripled the size of the European 
     Deterrence Initiative, providing military support to 
     countries on Russia's borders, and selling Javelin missiles 
     to Ukraine, which former President Barack Obama failed to 
     deliver.
       The Biden administration gave Mr. Putin the biggest gift an 
     American president has ever given the Russian dictator by 
     waiving sanctions required by Congress in the Protecting 
     Europe's Energy Security Act, despite Mr. Putin's hacking and 
     shutting down the Colonial Pipeline for six days, and 
     shocking gas prices, just months earlier. Mr. Putin's answer: 
     more aggression and the largest-ever military buildup on 
     Ukraine's border. Rather than push back, Mr. Biden just two 
     weeks ago appeared fine with a ``minor incursion'' into 
     Ukraine. Biden officials have floated pulling back missile 
     defense deployments in Europe, limiting the size and scope of 
     military exercises, and even reentering the failed 
     Intermediate Nuclear Forces treaty, which was violated by 
     Russia and was withdrawn from by Mr. Trump, if Mr. Putin 
     promised not to enter Ukraine. Yet even Mr. Biden seems to 
     understand that his policy has completely failed, with CNN 
     reporting that Mr. Biden told Ukrainian President Volodymyr 
     Zelenskyy on Thursday that an invasion by Russia is all but 
     assured.
       Mr. Putin wants to keep Ukraine dependent on Russian oil. 
     He wants the Nord Stream 2 pipeline to neutralize Germany. 
     With money, the oligarchs controlling the oppressed Russian 
     people can attempt to re-

[[Page H2488]]

     create the Soviet empire with a military-industrial complex, 
     recently developing hypersonic missiles to attack America as 
     Russia threatens to send troops in Cuba and Venezuela. In 
     addition, Mr. Putin is working closer than ever with China in 
     the military and economic arenas. Both countries are directly 
     helping Iran, the world's leading state sponsor of terrorism, 
     bypass American sanctions.
       The effect of a war in Ukraine on American families will be 
     catastrophic. China is following our weak response to Mr. 
     Putin's aggression in Ukraine closely, in addition to our 
     surrender in Afghanistan, as it threatens Taiwan in an 
     unprecedented fashion and moves even closer to aggression 
     against the island. In addition, the results will be felt by 
     Germany, Japan, Korea, Israel and India with the cost of gas 
     increasing, doubling in my state of South Carolina alone, 
     from the Trump administration to the Biden administration, 
     crippling families with more inflation as transportation and 
     delivery costs create shortages.
       On my visit to Kyiv, Ukraine, in December, I was shocked 
     that the Biden response was repeating the Afghanistan 
     disaster of leaving Americans behind to provide $40 million 
     ``after the invasion.'' Of note, there are currently 10,000 
     Americans in Ukraine, and 14,000 Ukrainians died in the 2014 
     Putin invasion.
       I am grateful with bipartisan cooperation, the Biden 
     policies have changed to reinforce the Trump policies of 
     javelin missiles to Ukraine, reinforcing American troops in 
     Poland, and promoting blocking of Nord Stream 2. It was 
     revealing that our Delegation Leader, Democrat Ruben Gallego 
     of Arizona, was publicly threatened in a television interview 
     by a member of the Russian Duma to be kidnapped and brought 
     to Moscow for trial for supporting Kyiv.
       The Biden policy should be Peace Through Strength. War can 
     be avoided if we impose real costs on Mr. Putin. The latest 
     defensive weapons for land, air and sea should be provided to 
     Ukraine, the largest country in Europe by geography with 43 
     million citizens. Our German allies should terminate Nord 
     Stream 2 and its corruption forever. We should also 
     immediately kick Russia out of the International SWIFT Code 
     System, sanction the Russian financial system and sovereign 
     debt to ensure that Mr. Putin does not have the resources to 
     finance an invasion.
       I was grateful to co-lead the Putin Accountability Act with 
     the Republican Study Committee, which would do just that 
     along with sanctions of Mr. Putin and his family directly, 
     and his network of corrupt oligarchs.
  Mr. WILSON of South Carolina. Indeed, this op-ed, over 2 years old, 
actually is as true today as it was when it was published; that is, it 
does matter to American families, and we need to be understanding to 
protect the borders of Ukraine, of Israel, Taiwan, and America.
  Mr. MOORE of Utah. Mr. Speaker, I thank the gentleman from South 
Carolina for his words and his steadfast work on the Armed Services 
Committee and all national security matters.
  Mr. Speaker, I yield to the gentleman from Florida (Mr. Gaetz).
  Mr. GAETZ. Mr. Speaker, I thank our vice chair for yielding.
  Mr. Speaker, I include in the Record a link for a document styled, 
``Unwelcome in Niger: The Interim Report from Congressman Matt Gaetz on 
the Crisis in Niger.'' Https://gaetz.house.gov/sites/evo-subsites/
gaetz.house. gov/files/evo-media-document/Rep.%20Gaetz%27 s%20Niger%20 
Report%20-%20Unwelcome%20 in%20Niger%204.17.24__compressed% 
20%281%29.pdf.
       Dear Congressman Johnson: I am writing to express my deep 
     concern regarding the actions taken by the U.S. Embassy in 
     Niger, particularly involving the Ambassador, Kathleen A. 
     FitzGibbon and the Senior Defense Official/Defense Attache 
     (SDO/DATT). Colonel Nora J. Nelson-Richter. The recent events 
     have raised serious questions about the conduct and decision-
     making of these officials, and I believe Congress must 
     address these issues.
       As a service member deployed to Niger, Africa, I have 
     noticed that the Embassy, and more specifically the SDO/DATT, 
     intentionally suppressed intelligence information from the 
     ground force collection elements to maintain the facade of a 
     great country-to-country relationship. They failed to be 
     transparent with U.S. service members deployed to this 
     country. They gave a pretense that ``things are being 
     worked'' and ``that is above our level,'' all the while 
     Diplomatic Overflight Clearances for U.S. Military aircraft 
     were purposefully not being approved by the country's 
     Military Government as a political bargaining chip to entice 
     the U.S. Government back to negotiate their withdrawal.
       Since July 23rd, the day of the Coup d'etat, the Americans 
     deployed here have not been able to perform their primary 
     mission and have been told to ``sit and hold.'' it is clear 
     that the country of Niger does not want a permanent military 
     presence in their country and they have informed us that we 
     need to leave. At this time, there are approximately 1,100 
     U.S. Military Service Members in the country who are 
     essentially being held hostage from returning home to their 
     families while the State Department continues with failed 
     diplomacy by not communicating with the Country of Niger on 
     what their withdrawal plan would look like after the Status 
     of Forces Agreement was repudiated by the Host Nation. 
     Additionally, the government of Niger is not processing Visas 
     for U.S. members for entry into the country, which is 
     especially concerning considering that all U.S. forces were 
     scheduled to end a six-month deployment early this month when 
     relief forces arrived. The Embassy failed to share any of 
     this information with decision-makers at any level in the 
     Department of Defense regarding this, further complicating 
     our ability to conduct that swap of personnel.
       These actions have deeply troubled me and many others in 
     the community at home, as well as all the service members 
     deployed here with me, and their families back in the States. 
     Our diplomatic and defense representatives need to uphold the 
     highest standards of professionalism and ethical conduct, 
     especially in sensitive regions like Niger. The actions taken 
     by the embassy officials not only reflect poorly on the 
     United States but also have potential implications for our 
     bilateral relations with other Partner Nations and the safety 
     of our personnel in the region.
       As a concerned citizen, I urge you to use your position and 
     influence to investigate these matters and hold the 
     responsible parties accountable thoroughly. Transparency and 
     accountability are fundamental to the integrity of our 
     diplomatic and defense institutions, and any misconduct or 
     negligence must be addressed promptly and decisively.
       I trust that you will take appropriate action to ensure 
     that the necessary inquiries and corrective measures are 
     undertaken. It is vital for the reputation and effectiveness 
     of our diplomatic and defense efforts in Niger, Africa, and 
     beyond.
       Thank you for your attention to this important issue. I 
     look forward to your leadership in addressing these concerns.
           Sincerely,
                                                             USAF,
                                             Air Base 101, Niamey.
  Mr. GAETZ. Mr. Speaker, I come to the House floor this evening to 
expose a cover-up in the African country of Niger. This cover-up exists 
to conceal the humiliating failures of the Biden administration in 
Niger, throughout Africa, and throughout the world. We learn of the 
victims of this cover-up, the 1,100 U.S. troops currently stationed in 
Niger, functionally stranded by a Biden administration which cares more 
about saving face than saving their lives.
  Our troops in Niger have been pleading for help. They have sent 
intelligence reports and letters stating that they are rarely getting 
safe water. They can't get diplomatic oversights to receive medicine, 
fresh troop rotations, or basic supplies. They have no mission.
  In addition, the local authorities are becoming increasingly hostile. 
The current government of Niger has called the U.S. presence in the 
country illegal.
  Why have these pleas not been heard? It is because U.S. Embassy Niger 
has been blocking the intelligence. I fear, as we speak, the conditions 
may be forming to create another Benghazi-style attack.
  How did we get here with 1,100 American troops stuck, thoroughly 
unwelcome in a country where we have invested more than half a billion 
U.S. taxpayer dollars? It all began when Biden and Blinken chose Niger 
to be the centerpiece of their Africa strategy. Blinken even visited 
the country in March of last year saying: ``Niger is . . . an 
extraordinary model . . . a model of resilience, a model of democracy, 
a model of cooperation.''
  What a difference a year makes. Just 1 year and 1 day after those 
remarks, the democratically elected government of Niger was replaced by 
a military coup, and the United States military literally trained the 
coup leaders.
  I asked General Langley, who runs AFRICOM, why this happened, why so 
many coup leaders are trained by our servicemembers. He said: Well, 
Congressman, training people to overthrow their democratically elected 
governments is not in our curriculum.
  However, the results are staggering and embarrassing in Guinea, Mali, 
Niger, Burkina Faso, and other countries. There were coups, and in each 
of those coups, there was one common element: U.S. training for the 
coup leaders.
  Now, the coup government currently in charge of Niger wouldn't even 
meet with General Langley when he went to talk about our base. The 
Prime Minister literally slammed the door in his

[[Page H2489]]

face. One would think, if we trained you to overthrow your 
democratically elected government, we could at least get a meeting. 
However, instead of a burgeoning pro-U.S. sentiment, we now have the 
coup leaders we trained turning to Russia as their preferred security 
partner.
  Where does that leave our 1,100 troops, our Americans? I did not 
serve in the military. I represent a military community, and I hear 
that these senior-enlisted servicemembers at a U.S. installation 
abroad, they are a big deal. They are kind of like the mayor of the 
installation.
  The senior-enlisted servicemember at Airbase 101 in Niger wrote a 
letter to Congressman Dusty Johnson.
  Mr. Speaker, I include in the Record this letter.
  ``Dear Congressman Johnson, I am writing to express my deep concern 
regarding the actions taken by U.S. Embassy Niger, particularly 
involving the Ambassador Kathleen A. FitzGibbon. . . . The recent 
events have raised serious questions about the conduct and 
decisionmaking of these officials, and I believe Congress must address 
these issues.
  ``As a servicemember deployed to Niger, Africa, I have noticed that 
the Embassy . . . intentionally suppressed intelligence information 
from the ground force collection elements to maintain the facade of a 
great country-to-country relationship. They failed to be transparent 
with U.S. servicemembers deployed to this country. They gave a pretense 
that `things are being worked' and `that it is above our level,' all 
the while, diplomatic overflight clearances for U.S. military aircraft 
were purposefully not being approved by the country's military 
government as a political bargaining chip to entice the U.S. Government 
back to negotiate their withdrawal.
  ``Since July 23, the day of the coup d'etat, the Americans deployed 
here have not been able to perform their primary mission and have been 
told to `sit and hold.' It is clear that the country of Niger does not 
want a permanent military presence in their country and they have 
informed us we need to leave. At this time, there are approximately 
1,100 U.S. military servicemembers in the country who are essentially 
being held hostage from returning home to their families while the 
State Department continues with failed diplomacy by not communicating 
with the country of Niger on what the withdrawal plan would look like. 
. . . Additionally, the government of Niger is not processing visas for 
U.S. servicemembers for entry into the country, which is especially 
concerning considering that all U.S. Forces were scheduled to end a 6-
month deployment early this month when relief forces arrived. The 
embassy failed to share any of this information with decisionmakers at 
any level in the Department of Defense regarding this, further 
complicating our ability to conduct the swap of personnel.
  ``These actions have deeply troubled me and many others in the 
community at home, as well as the servicemembers deployed here with me, 
and their families back in the States. Our diplomatic and defense 
representatives need to uphold the highest standards of professionalism 
and ethical conduct, especially in sensitive regions like Niger. The 
actions taken by the embassy officials not only reflect poorly on the 
United States but also have potential implications for our bilateral 
relations with other partner nations and the safety of our personnel in 
this region.''
  When I became aware of this letter, my office conducted a number of 
interviews, which confirmed the claims made by the senior-enlisted 
official, and he signed his name to that letter, which we have entered 
in the Record. We have done those investigations. We have learned that 
the top public health official says that in the month of May, they are 
going to run out of medicine in Niger. It is worse than that. Our 
partner countries, Italy and Germany, who you would think would help us 
facilitate medicine and supplies, but they won't even help transport 
needed materiel to our servicemembers because they are worried about 
being expelled from the country.

  If that isn't worse, the fact that we have got Russia as the 
preferred security partner now means there are Russians behind the wire 
at Airbase 101. We have Russians on our base somewhere. That would 
never happen. The only reason it is happening is because Blinken and 
Biden are humiliated that their plan failed, that they poured half a 
billion dollars into this country where now we are being thrown out by 
the scruff of our neck. Well, Joe Biden and Tony Blinken's failures 
should not have to be visited on the 1,100 servicemembers who are there 
fighting for us, wanting to do patriotic duty and they are being held 
hostage and they are stranded.
  I will fight for them. I will fight against this administration that 
would use our servicemembers as pawns because they can't get their act 
together.
  Just because Biden and Blinken can't say oops doesn't mean we should 
abandon our troops.
  Mr. Speaker, and I thank the gentleman from Utah (Mr. Moore) for his 
indulgence and the time.
  Mr. MOORE of Utah. Mr. Speaker, I thank the gentleman from Florida 
for sharing that information. It is part of the job that we need to be 
doing and what we can do to uncover and for a thorough analysis.
  Mr. Speaker, I will next yield to my colleague from the great State 
of California (Mr. LaMalfa).
  Mr. LaMALFA. Mr. Speaker, as we contemplate and navigate our way 
through these hard times, the difficult economy with, indeed, 
Bidenomics working the way it has been the last couple years for us in 
this country, we have to get to what is the root cause and what is the 
route out of this? It really comes down to getting back to our roots, 
getting back to the source of our economy. Where does the economy come 
from, and how do we make things reasonably priced again and affordable 
for our countrymen?
  If you look here, they are all tied together when you get right down 
to it. Cost of electricity up over 28 percent, food over 20 percent, 
residential rent nearly 20 percent. What are the building blocks that 
help us to thrive and help us get back out of this mess?
  Well, I will start. There are a few items that I work quite a bit on 
in my committee work, back at home and here in D.C., as well. Forestry 
is right at the beginning of that. What do you get from good forestry: 
Healthy forests and an economy that comes from our rural areas of the 
country that are suffering so much due to shutdowns, regulations, and 
inactivity by the U.S. Forest Service.
  You see here a forest, how it looks when it has been treated 
properly, when it has been thinned on this side of the poster here. 
That is a healthy forest. That is one that will withstand fire. It is 
good for the wildlife population. It is good for the trees themselves. 
They won't have to compete for limited soil and water resources, 
especially through a drought period.
  This side here is a tinderbox that is going to go up and it is going 
to be devastating as so much has happened in the West over these last 
years. A million-acre fire happened in my district. There are many six-
digit fires all over the western States. This does not work for very 
long. It is not good for wildlife when it is green, and certainly not 
for when it is caught in the middle of a forest fire.
  Indeed, we have to do much more work in order to catch up on that 
because of what I mentioned. The cost of rent, when you have high costs 
of building inputs which can come from wood products that, just a 
couple years ago, were in short, and paper products. Remember the 
toilet paper shortage. Why in the world did we have that? We need to 
have our American forests be very active.
  There are over 800 million acres of forest that have approximately 
350 billion trees in this country, a total inventory of 13 trillion 
board-feet, annual growth of 300 billion board-feet, whether we harvest 
it or not. America's total wood use via lumber, paper, biomass, and 
firewood is approximately half of annual growth, 150 billion board-
feet. We see we have an issue, don't we? If we are only harvesting and 
using half of what grows each year, that means these forests will get 
more and more dense every year.
  We have the ability to do something about that. For some reason, I 
keep wondering why the U.S. is--recently surpassing China since their 
economy is slowing down--now the number one importer of wood products 
when we have the resource here that actually needs to be thinned, needs 
to be harvested, needs to be taken care of, and

[[Page H2490]]

not clear cut, not the whole works. That isn't what it is about. That 
is the first thing that the city folks want to say: Oh, you are going 
to cut all the trees. No.

                              {time}  1900

  We thin them out. This is what that looks like right here. Then that 
forest keeps on growing and is healthy. The next wave of harvest 
happens 30, 40, 50 years later, and it is a successful program instead 
of importing and sending the jobs somewhere else.
  Now that China has receded somewhat--number one importer of wood. It 
doesn't make a lick of sense to me.
  In the farm bill, we can address some of these issues coming up if we 
can be successful on passing what would be best in a 5-year farm bill 
soon and help with our forest health as well as the cost of housing and 
building new housing, building new apartments, whatever, for people.
  That will get me to my next poster here having to do with food, which 
is another part of the building blocks.
  I mentioned electricity. Those prices have gone up, food, and then 
housing.
  Here, we have an example of the food that is grown in my home State 
of California, but it is important to the whole country. Many other 
States are key to food supply in the Midwest, the Southern States, and 
so many areas of the country.
  I will point out what we have growing in California because we 
oftentimes have a water problem where the water supply, in tougher 
years, doesn't get to agriculture. The last 2 years, we have had an 
amazing water supply, amazing snowpack--indeed, above the 100-percent 
level of normal.
  Our lakes are filling. We can keep after the people making the 
decisions to allow them to fill the last bit to top it off because we 
still have several reservoirs that have a lot of space in them. I want 
to see them all hit 100 percent so we can survive maybe the next 
drought or certainly allocate water to agriculture as well as the 
people in the urban areas who are seeing themselves having to ration 
water. They are going to be cut back to 42 gallons per day, in some 
cases, due to the extreme measures that people who are not planning 
water supply are going to cause them to do.
  I don't know how that looks to my colleagues in L.A. County, Orange 
County, San Francisco County, having to tell people they are only going 
to get 42 gallons of water per day because of the mismanagement of 
water supply in our State.
  We could be building more storage. We should be building more 
storage. We have the chance to build a place called Sites Reservoir, 
1.5 million acre-feet of storage. We could raise Shasta Dam only 18 
feet, which would yield 630,000 acre-feet more of water.
  If we were actually filling the San Luis Reservoir the last 500,000 
acre-feet of space it has right now--because they won't run the pumps 
because of some phony numbers they are using on fish and it affecting 
the fish by running the pumps. There are half a million acre-feet we 
are leaving on the table this year right now unless something changes 
dramatically soon on running the pumps down there in the delta.
  The priority these days everywhere is fish and environmental water. 
People are being left behind on this. We are going to see the 
allocation of water to some of the San Joaquin districts and areas 
curtailed, again, in a high-water year, in a high-snowpack year--great 
water. We have been blessed. They are going to see only 30 or 35 
percent of their normal allocation, and that means these crops aren't 
going to be grown.
  As I pointed out, these crops are grown in California: 100 percent of 
the artichokes, celery, garlic, honeydew, kiwifruit, nectarines, 
olives, plums, shelled almonds, shelled pistachios, shelled walnuts, 
tomatoes. Basically, 100 percent of what America uses comes from 
California on a commercial basis. I know people grow patches of it here 
and there in their garden and stuff around the country, but 
commercially grown, that is what California represents.
  Getting down to some that are not quite 100 percent: mandarins, 
avocados, grapes, carrots, broccoli.
  These are at the 90 percent mark: strawberries, 89 percent; wild 
rice, 60 percent grown in California; horseradish, 30 percent, a lot of 
it up in my area of Tully Lake--except they are having their water 
taken away, except they are having their dams removed due to 
environmental stuff.
  How are we going to get a handle on the high price of inflation? With 
the dams I just mentioned, electricity is up 20-something percent.
  They tear down hydroelectric dams and say they are going to replace 
them with high-cost solar or wind that has to be massively subsidized; 
otherwise, no one would ever be able to afford it. They take out the 
hydroelectric dams. That is not going to make electricity any cheaper.
  Let's talk about food. If you don't build the water, allocate the 
water, and back people off on the regulations, such as making them 
electrify every aspect of agriculture and even the equipment--they are 
coming after the locomotives that transport all this and the trucks 
that transport it. All that does is drive up the cost of food.
  As I mentioned also with housing, if we can't cut the timber, if we 
can't provide for low-cost timber that comes from this country instead 
of somewhere else--it still baffles me that we are the number one 
importer of wood products--then housing is not going to get any cheaper 
either. That is tied into a lot of other regulations, available land 
use, and things like that.
  All of these things work together to drive up the costs for regular 
Americans who are struggling these days. They don't have the same 
options of freedom of movement, their freedom of time, where they might 
want to send their kids to school, or go on a vacation once in a while, 
tourism.
  All those things are dramatically curtailed because of government 
regulations, lack of government foresight on energy, where our energy 
is going to come from, what our energy policy is. Every time you don't 
allow a pipeline to happen means it is going to have to be coming from 
somewhere else, imported oil and gas. Yes, we are going to continue to 
use oil and gas in this country for a long time. The rest of the world 
is going to be.
  If we want to be competitive, we are putting ourselves down a really 
steep rathole if we are not going to continue to allow oil and gas to 
power certain aspects of our economy, of our mobility, et cetera.
  We are not going to electrify everything at the same time we are 
pulling out hydroelectric dams because of the environment. We are 
precariously on the edge of whether we are going to allow the nuclear 
power plant to continue to run in California past just another a few 
years.
  Are we going to build more nuclear power in this country? If you are 
worried about CO2, it is a great way to go, as are the 
hydroelectric dams. I am not worried about CO2 because it 
only represents 0.04 percent of our atmosphere. It is a rounding error, 
and it has been hyped a lot in order to make climate change scare the 
heck out of everybody when it really isn't that kind of a factor.
  There are other things we can do cleaner, cleaner running engines and 
things like that, less methane. Those are good things to work at, but 
CO2 is not the problem. CO2 is basically sucked 
up by these plants that we grow in agriculture and the forest 
photograph I showed you a minute ago. They are out there enjoying 
CO2 and giving us oxygen back if we would just be a little 
smarter about it.
  At the end of it, one of the important things we need to do this 
year, this spring, really, is move the farm bill because it is 
important as far as forestry goes. It is important, as far as this food 
supply goes, to have stability in the ag economy. A big portion of it 
is the SNAP program, which is important to help keep low-cost food on 
the table for many Americans who are on the low side of the income 
scale or going through tough times themselves. We need to pass that in 
order to have the SNAP program stay viable and stay modernized as 
things change.
  Moving forward with the farm bill, it is going to be very important 
in the short term to get a 5-year bill and not just another extension, 
which doesn't really allow us to change or upgrade what the pieces of 
the farm bill are, like crop insurance.
  Some of these crops need to have more ability to access crop 
insurance. If you have crop insurance, then there

[[Page H2491]]

is less need to have a bailout for a disaster because it is being taken 
care of upfront, as well as a promotion of products, some of that 
through MAP funds and other programs to promote some of these products 
that we export.
  We do need to have an export economy. We have a giant negative 
economy with import-export with China and others, and agriculture has 
been one of our mainstays to have anywhere close to balance on foreign 
trade, so it is a good thing for us.
  Instead, what do we get? We get things such as the Inflation 
Reduction Act, which is a joke in its name. It didn't reduce inflation. 
Inflation is still going up.
  It is still part of our everyday worry we have here, and that is what 
we get is more government spending. Instead, unleash the economy by 
allowing people to log timber, grow food, and produce energy as I am 
talking about here.
  We need to be able to make a difference to help these producers and 
then help the consumers. We need to produce more fertilizer in this 
country. We need to mine more minerals in this country. They are 
important to all of these sectors and producing energy.
  If we want to have more gadgets, more equipment that uses 
electricity, then why aren't we mining the products here instead of 
making it a problem for some Third World country that doesn't have near 
the labor protections or environmental protections that we have here?
  If we do all of these things, it makes things more affordable, brings 
the jobs home, and makes us more accountable as a country. Instead, we 
are losing ground on the world stage in many aspects. Why are we a net 
agriculture importer when we have so much plenty in this country?
  We are less independent. We are less resilient. We are less 
competitive due to these policies that are associated with Bidenomics. 
In the face of declining farm income and these other challenges, it is 
essential that we prioritize farm and ranch families with the farm 
bill, with what we consume here.
  I mentioned crop insurance, which is extremely important. 
Additionally, the farm safety net is important, which is part of that 
farm bill.
  The input costs I mentioned, water allocations, all the above are 
important to work our way through instead of ignoring them and thinking 
that the priorities seemed to be reset around here. They have nothing 
to do with helping Americans in their everyday lives.
  It is a steep road here, but we can get back to a little bit of 
common sense. I had the chance to speak to the President right on this 
floor about water supply, about our timber situation, our forest 
situation here, and he listened. I just hope his Cabinet, his people 
who surround him, will pay more attention to what we are dealing with 
and how negatively, when these things aren't paid attention to and 
solved, how much it hurts the American people, how much it costs them, 
how much it costs them options for their family to do other things 
other than just trying to get by.
  It doesn't have to be this way. This inflation we have had the last 3 
years--we came out of COVID, yes, but our economy should be thriving 
much better than what it is and not have these ridiculous regulations 
and things that limit us so much and advantage our competitors around 
the world--China, the Pacific Rim, and others--especially at such a 
perilous time with such unrest in the world, with the wars that are 
breaking out.
  We need to be strong. We need to be self-sufficient.
  Mr. MOORE of Utah. Mr. Speaker, I thank the gentleman and appreciate 
his willingness to participate always.
  Mr. Speaker, as I wrap up our Special Order and my remarks, the world 
watched over the weekend as Iran launched an unprecedented attack on 
our ally, Israel.
  This attack deservedly was met with scorn and contempt from 
governments across the world, and it was reassuring to see such strong 
cooperation from the U.S., U.K., Israel, Egypt, Jordan, and Saudi 
Arabia to intercept Iranian missiles to keep Jerusalem and its holy 
sites from being completely destroyed.

  I never thought I would be in that situation, to be in Congress, to 
be a part of legislation this week, to be at this moment, to meet this 
moment.
  People watched across the world because of these holy sites. Look, I 
have said this before, and as I finalize my thoughts here, I think back 
to one of my first meetings in my first term of Congress. I got to meet 
with the Consul General from the Israeli Consulate in Los Angeles. He 
was in Utah, and I got a chance to sit down with him. I said, as I dig 
into this, I am so impressed with the Abraham Accords.
  Candidly, I think it was President Trump and Vice President Pence's 
most significant success in our foreign policy during their 
administration. The Abraham Accords are diplomatic and trade 
relationships with Israel and Arab nations. I mean, when you think 
about the years and decades and centuries of us trying to find common 
ground and peace in that region of the world, we created an 
opportunity, and the U.S. was a big part of this, to establish these 
relationships with Arab nations and Israel. Potential bellwether 
countries like Saudi Arabia could have joined on.
  I asked him what the recipe was for success to make that happen, and 
he said that it came down to one thing, that these Arab states--Arab 
Emirates, Morocco, Bahrain--knew the U.S. stood firm against Iranian 
aggression. That was what he boiled the whole entire experience down 
to.
  Nobody in that region wants Iran to gain more influence. They want to 
destabilize everything over there. The whole region understands this. 
Arab nation, Jewish nation, whatever, they all understand that Iran 
wants to destabilize.
  They want to have the U.S. as a presence, a strong presence, to make 
sure that the U.S. had the backs of Arab nations and had Israel's back 
against continual potential aggression from Iran.

                              {time}  1915

  Knowing that, they were willing to enter into these trade 
relationships that were potentially treacherous because Iran doesn't 
want anybody to have a trade relationship, a diplomatic relationship 
with Israel.
  This is my number one, biggest complaint with President Biden's 
foreign policy, is to just--okay, look, President Obama was going on 
the JCPOA, so let's just start those talks back up again and completely 
ignore the success that we had had to create peace in the Middle East.
  It is something that every President has wanted. President Clinton, 
watching what he was trying to do, the absolute tragedy of the 
assassination that took place during his time. Every President, 
Republican or Democrat, has wanted peace in the Middle East.
  To flatly say and to overlook the reason why the Abraham Accords were 
successful and to not take that type of same strength to Iran, it was 
the biggest blunder, I believe, in President Biden's foreign policy 
approach in that particular region.
  Is it any wonder why we are sitting here today with unprecedented 
drone and missile attacks directly on our ally Israel?
  You have to stand up to Iran in order to promote peace in the Middle 
East. You cannot have it all. You can't have the entire pie. You have 
to call it as it is sometimes and cut it off.
  The JCPOA should never have been reengaged. It has not created any 
positive outcomes over in the region. Can anybody disagree with that?
  Are we better today in the Middle East than we were when we had the 
Abraham Accords thriving? No, we are not, and everybody knows that. 
Anybody who is honest is willing to address it.
  If you want to be Israel's ally, you cannot also continue to pander 
to Iran. It is not a recipe for success, and that is not just from the 
Israeli point of view. That is from the Arab State point of view. I 
hope to impress upon the Biden administration recognition of that.
  That is what we are trying to do this week, putting several floor 
measures up to hold Iran and its proxy groups accountable for their 
actions. We will continue to hold the line in supporting Israel and 
ensuring they have what they need to defend their freedom.
  Mr. Speaker, I yield back the balance of my time.

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