[Congressional Record Volume 171, Number 193 (Monday, November 17, 2025)]
[House]
[Page H4674]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                              WELCOME BACK

  (Ms. Stansbury of New Mexico was recognized to address the House for 
5 minutes.)
  Ms. STANSBURY. Mr. Speaker, I rise to say: Welcome back to the House 
of Representatives.
  This is our first full week back after the shutdown and the 54 days 
of lockout that we experienced here in this Chamber, after a completely 
wasteful, avoidable, and painful shutdown that not only harmed 
families, workers, and our communities but cost our country billions of 
dollars. It did not result, ultimately, in the fight to end the attacks 
on our healthcare.
  Mr. Speaker, rather than coming back this week after our shutdown, 
the longest shutdown in history, to address the real issues that were 
at the heart of this debate--lowering healthcare costs, addressing the 
healthcare cliff, addressing the cost of food, and addressing the cost 
of housing--what are we doing here this week? We are attacking our 
public lands and opening them up for oil and gas drilling.
  This week, our colleagues across the aisle, fresh from their 
multiweek vacation, have come with a whole slew of special asks by 
special interests from the oil and gas industry.
  We have H.J. Res. 130, the Congressional Review Act, to reverse a 
resource management plan that was developed with Tribal consultation 
and public benefit to open the door to coal development in an area 
where communities have been abundantly clear that they do not want 
these attacks on these public lands because of the threats it poses to 
climate change, public health, and to their future.
  Why are they ignoring what these communities have already said? Yet, 
here we are voting on legislation this week that would repeal 
community-based strategies to protect our public lands.
  All three of the CRA measures that are scheduled to be voted on this 
week are literally put forward to open some of our Nation's most sacred 
and treasured places. This includes opening protected areas in the 
Arctic that are not only important to protect for ecological reasons 
and wildlife but for cultural reasons.
  These are areas that our colleagues know that Tribal communities have 
fought for generations to protect. These are areas that our colleagues 
know are sensitive. These are areas that we know during the first Trump 
administration, when they tried to sell them off to the lowest bidder, 
the oil and gas industry didn't even want to drill there.
  Yet, here they are trying to reverse the protections that have been 
put in place to protect not only these important lands in the Arctic, 
but these sacred lands.
  Mr. Speaker, these bills not only impact these lands but are part of 
a larger pattern that we see in this administration of revoking 
previous protections that have been put in place to respect not only 
the ecological importance of lands but also sacred places.
  In fact, during the shutdown, Tribes in my district received notice 
that the administration was considering repealing the protections for 
Chaco Canyon.
  Mr. Speaker, you should understand what Chaco Canyon is. It is a 
global World Heritage Site. It is a sacred site. It is a place 
generations of Pueblo and Dine Navajo people have come to pray.

                              {time}  1230

  It is a place where on a cold morning standing on top of the mesa 
overlooking Pueblo Bonito, you can see the ancient cities, kivas, and 
sacred sites not just below but that stretch out across a landscape as 
far as the eye can see.
  It is a place where you can walk in the footsteps of people who built 
these structures and you understand why it is sacred. It is the 
ancestral homeland of the Pueblo people. It is a place today where 
religious leaders and community leaders continue to come for their 
religious practices. It is a place that we have fought to protect for 
generations.
  Yet in the middle of the longest government shutdown, as Tribes could 
not even get basic programs and services to operate, could not figure 
out if their grants and their programs were able to continue to 
operate, could not get access to lands that were important to them, 
this administration had the gall to send a letter to our Tribes saying 
that they were going to revoke protections.
  Mr. Speaker, I am here to say we will fight back, and we will defeat 
this effort.

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