[Congressional Record Volume 171, Number 194 (Tuesday, November 18, 2025)]
[House]
[Pages H4746-H4750]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
PROVIDING FOR CONGRESSIONAL DISAPPROVAL OF THE RULE SUBMITTED BY THE
BUREAU OF LAND MANAGEMENT RELATING TO ``BUFFALO FIELD OFFICE RECORD OF
DECISION AND APPROVED RESOURCE MANAGEMENT PLAN AMENDMENT''
Mr. WESTERMAN. Mr. Speaker, pursuant to House Resolution 879, I call
up the joint resolution (H.J. Res. 130) providing for congressional
disapproval under chapter 8 of title 5, United States Code, of the rule
submitted by the Bureau of Land Management relating to ``Buffalo Field
Office Record of Decision and Approved Resource Management Plan
Amendment'', and ask for its immediate consideration in the House.
The Clerk read the title of the joint resolution.
The SPEAKER pro tempore. Pursuant to House Resolution 879, the joint
resolution is considered read.
The text of the joint resolution is as follows:
H.J. Res. 130
Resolved by the Senate and House of Representatives of the
United States of America in Congress assembled, That Congress
disapproves the rule submitted by the Bureau of Land
Management relating to ``Buffalo Field Office Record of
Decision and Approved Resource Management Plan Amendment''
(issued November 20, 2024, as a record of decision and
approved resource management plan amendment, and a letter of
opinion from the Government Accountability Office dated
September 18, 2025, printed in the Congressional Record on
September 29, 2025, on pages S6825-S6826, concluding that
such record of decision and approved resource management plan
is a rule under the Congressional Review Act), and such rule
shall have no force or effect.
The SPEAKER pro tempore. The joint resolution shall be debatable for
1 hour, equally divided and controlled by the chair and ranking
minority member of the Committee on Natural Resources or their
respective designees.
The gentleman from Arkansas (Mr. Westerman) and the gentleman from
California (Mr. Huffman) each will control 30 minutes.
The Chair recognizes the gentleman from Arkansas (Mr. Westerman).
General Leave
Mr. WESTERMAN. Mr. Speaker, I ask unanimous consent that all Members
may have 5 legislative days to revise and extend their remarks and
include extraneous material on H.J. Res. 130.
The SPEAKER pro tempore. Is there objection to the request of the
gentleman from Arkansas?
There was no objection.
Mr. WESTERMAN. Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may
consume.
Mr. Speaker, I rise in strong support of H.J. Res. 130, which would
repeal the Bureau of Land Management's misguided resource management
plan, or RMP, amendment for the Buffalo Field Office in Wyoming, which
was finalized in the twilight hours of the Biden-Harris administration.
Wyoming's Powder River Basin currently supplies 40 percent of the
Nation's coal. The RMP amendment in question effectively halted future
Federal coal leasing across a region in Wyoming larger than New Jersey
and located in the heart of America's coal country. Without repeal, the
RMP amendment will end coal production in the region entirely by 2041
and close 12 active mines.
The RMP amendment is a death blow to America's energy security,
Wyoming's workers, and the economic backbone of the State itself.
It is projected that U.S. electricity demand will grow by as much as
128 gigawatts through 2029, and global energy demand is expected to
double by 2050.
Coal is reliable, affordable, and essential to meet the increasing
power demands of the AI revolution and advanced manufacturing. The RMP
amendment locked up an astonishing 48 billion short tons of coal. That
is enough to meet U.S. coal demand for the next 116 years.
Mr. Speaker, 92 percent of Wyoming's coal is exported to other
States, helping keep the lights on and utility prices affordable in
distant places as far as Texas, Illinois, and my home State of
Arkansas.
Nationwide, residential electricity prices have increased by 13
percent since 2022, and overturning misguided policies like this RMP
amendment will help make the cost of living more affordable for
families across America.
It is time to unleash our domestic resources to put this money back
into the pockets of American families by repealing the Biden
administration's anti-American energy policies. What is more, instead
of working with the State, the Biden administration blatantly ignored
local opposition at every stage of this process and rammed this RMP
amendment through to appease environmental extremists.
The Biden administration provided a limited opportunity for public
comment or engagement on this RMP amendment. Wyoming's Governor, a
unified congressional delegation, locally elected officials, Tribes,
and local communities all expressed strong opposition to this plan
amendment. The previous administration ignored them all.
According to local representatives, it is suspect and disturbing that
such a dramatic change to the current land use plan would solicit such
little engagement during the public comment period. Campbell and
Johnson County commissioners who represent the local communities
affected by this plan stated that whatever information they provided to
the BLM in this process was ignored by the Federal agency.
Overturning the RMP amendment takes power from bureaucrats in
Washington, D.C., and returns it to the people of Wyoming.
The BLM also ignored Tribal input in developing this RMP amendment.
The Navajo Transitional Energy Company, which is wholly owned by the
Navajo Nation, provided detailed comments opposing this amendment. They
were all dismissed by the BLM.
In a letter they submitted to the agency, they stated:
``BLM consistently downplayed the reasonably foreseeable negative
impacts of the mines' closures on the surrounding social justice
communities. And it did not even consider the jobs lost in the
downstream communities that rely on the [Powder River Basin] coal.''
Energy security is national security, and Wyoming's energy industry
remains indispensable to ensuring that America stays energy dominant.
Wyoming's Powder River Basin, with its low-sulfur coal, produces the
world's cleanest burning coal. We should be focused on exporting this
abundant natural resource to our allies abroad, not burying this
baseload power under layers of bureaucracy.
By passing this CRA today, we are advancing President Trump's
executive orders on unleashing American energy and reinvigorating
America's coal industry. We are also restoring hundreds of millions of
dollars in future revenue for Wyoming's K-12 public education system
and protecting more than 4,000 high-paying jobs in rural Wyoming.
In conjunction with the pro-energy policies included in the working
families tax cut law, this CRA also has the potential to generate more
than $260 million for the Federal Treasury.
This CRA helps the U.S. remain energy dominant and will lower prices
for families, strengthen our economy, and boost real wages for
hardworking men and women. I urge my colleagues to stand with Wyoming,
stand with American workers, and stand for energy security by
supporting this resolution.
Mr. Speaker, I reserve the balance of my time.
Mr. HUFFMAN. Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume.
Mr. Speaker, I wish Chairman Westerman a happy birthday, but even
that goodwill does not change the fact that this is bad legislation.
So, unfortunately, I am going to have to rise in opposition to the bill
while wishing the gentleman a happy birthday.
Mr. Speaker, we are all grateful that the Republican shutdown is
finally over, but millions of Americans are still on the cusp of losing
healthcare. They are struggling to put food on the table. After their
7-week paid vacation, I can't imagine anything more disconnected than
for House Republicans to come back here and make their first priority
not helping working families to make ends meet but jamming through more
favors for their billionaire buddies.
{time} 1650
These three Congressional Review Act, or CRA, resolutions treat
America's public lands like they are just lines on a balance sheet.
They silence
[[Page H4747]]
public opinion, ignore the fires and storms that are made worse by
climate change to make fossil fuel extraction the number one priority
going forward for how we manage our public lands. Wildfire defense,
public safety, recreation, and conservation all take a backseat now to
maximizing corporate profits, even in our most fragile landscapes like
America's Arctic.
Americans want clean air, clean water, and accessible public lands,
not handouts to polluters. Overturning balanced, forward-looking BLM
plans in Wyoming and Alaska is a colossal mistake.
Across the Federal land management agencies, plans like these are the
foundation for responsible, sustainable management of our public lands.
RMPs are the product of extensive public input, rigorous scientific
reviews, and meaningful Tribal consultation. Balancing the activities
on our public lands from energy development to recreation is what these
plans do.
They reflect the needs of communities, industries, and ecosystems.
They outline a clear vision for the stewardship of millions of acres of
public lands.
Let's look at the Buffalo Field Office RMP targeted by this
particular resolution. It was developed after a court found that the
previous plan failed to address the public health and climate impacts
of unfettered coal mining in the region. Importantly, the current RMP
was also developed after robust Tribal consultation and public input.
Are we just going to throw that all away?
Mr. Speaker, I strongly oppose H.J. Res. 130, which would repeal the
current balanced RMP for BLM's Buffalo Field Office in order to prop up
the coal industry in Wyoming's Powder River Valley. The plan targeted
by this resolution ended new coal leasing in the region because of its
harm to the climate and public health and because of decreasing demand
for coal.
At the same time, the plan allowed existing mines to continue to
operate through the end of their current leases. Rescinding this plan
means locking us into unnecessary emissions and energy costs at a time
when the planet and the American people cannot afford it. It also puts
us on a treadmill of litigation and uncertainty, sending us back
theoretically to a plan that was already adjudicated to be illegal.
Maybe Republicans are waiting for a new plan to come forward from the
Trump administration, I guess, hoping that a future court will decide
that it is not substantially similar to the ones that have been thrown
out with your CRA. This is something that my friends across the aisle
simply haven't thought through. There is so much chaos and uncertainty
when the sledgehammer of the CRA is used in this reckless manner.
House Republicans already passed, and the administration implemented,
unprecedented giveaways to the coal industry through the One Big
Beautiful Bill Act, including slashing the royalty rates for coal from
12 percent to 7.5 percent and opening more than 13 million acres of
public lands for coal leasing.
Yet, even with these handouts, it is not enough to reverse decades of
market contraction in the coal industry. The coal industry is dying.
What Republicans don't mention is that BLM's coal lease sales this year
have either failed to reach market value, been indefinitely canceled,
or received little to no bids.
Rather than simply redoing this RMP through the well-established
public process, which the Trump administration is already doing, House
Republicans want to overturn it using the CRA, again an extremely blunt
instrument, that will throw us into great uncertainty and litigation
for sure.
This choice would lock out the perspective from previous Tribal and
public engagement and ban the agency from ever again issuing a
substantially similar RMP, leaving land policy frozen in time and
frozen in some kind of a limbo with incredible uncertainty and chaos.
House Republicans want to permanently enshrine fossil fuel extraction
as the top priority for millions of acres of public land across the
country, no matter the cost. They are picking winners and losers here,
blocking affordable renewable energy projects, and sacrificing our
public lands in the process.
Mr. Speaker, I urge my colleagues to reject these reckless
resolutions that would upend millions of acres of public land
management and reject this entire familiar playbook from congressional
Republicans.
They are trying to deepen our dependence on dirty fossil fuels that
pollute our air, contaminate our water, and harm the public health
while doing everything possible to slow, stop, or sabotage the
development of affordable renewable energy. Our constituents deserve a
lot better than this. We deserve clean, affordable, and reliable
energy. We deserve good-paying jobs and affordable healthcare. We
shouldn't sacrifice America's health, environment, and livelihoods in
order to do it.
This legislation and my friends across the aisle are on the wrong
side of history trying to prop up the dying coal industry. They are on
the wrong side of public land management. They are on the wrong side of
the American people's pocketbooks as they face rising electricity
costs.
Mr. Speaker, that is why I oppose this resolution, and I reserve the
balance of my time.
Mr. WESTERMAN. Mr. Speaker, I sincerely appreciate the birthday
wishes from my friend across the aisle. That means a lot to me.
If I had a birthday wish of my own, it would be to make energy more
affordable for the American people, to help the good folks of Wyoming
to have a livelihood and to not only keep prices down, but keep good-
paying jobs across this country that are in the energy industry. We
know that we need more energy going forward. We need more electrons on
the grid. We need a larger grid. We need to all work together to do
those things, but if this resource management plan amendment by the
previous administration was balanced, I would hate to see a heavy-
handed resource management plan amendment by the previous
administration because this took a sledgehammer to an established
industry in the State of Wyoming.
I am sure my distinguished colleague from the great State of Wyoming,
Representative Hageman, who is the lead sponsor of this legislation,
will go into detail what this would mean to Wyoming if this plan
amendment stays in place.
Mr. Speaker, I yield 6 minutes to the gentlewoman from Wyoming (Ms.
Hageman).
Ms. HAGEMAN. Mr. Speaker, I rise today in support of my legislation,
H.J. Res. 130, which utilizes the congressional disapproval procedure
under the Congressional Review Act, or CRA, to restore coal leasing in
Wyoming's Powder River Basin.
Many on the East Coast of America might be surprised to learn that
the Federal Government owns massive amounts of the western States.
In Wyoming, the Federal Government owns about half of our surface
estate and 60 percent of the subsurface estate, or our minerals. In
northeast Wyoming, the Bureau of Land Management's Buffalo Field Office
owns and manages over 780,000 acres of land and 4.7 million acres of
our mineral estate.
Notably, this land encompasses Wyoming's share of the Powder River
Basin, North America's largest coal deposit responsible for the
production of 40 percent of our Nation's coal.
Wyoming is the largest coal producer in the Nation. We, in other
words, are responsible for ensuring that you can turn on your lights
and heat your home. The BLM manages its public lands pursuant to the
Federal Land Policy and Management Act, which is implemented pursuant
to what we refer to as resource management plans, or RMPs.
These RMPs are designed to maximize resource values for the public.
The BLM is required to comply with a multiple use mandate, ensuring
that these combination of uses meet current and future needs of the
American people.
In its waning days, the Biden administration issued an RMP amendment
for the Buffalo Field Office which pursued the no new leasing
alternative, pulling 481,000 acres of America's largest coal reserves
and resources offline, making 48 billion short tons of coal unavailable
and ending leasing in the Powder River Basin.
Such a decision cannot be considered a legitimate or legal RMP
pursuant to
[[Page H4748]]
FLPMA, and neither does it align with Congress' multiple use mandate.
The Biden RMP is instead very clearly a mineral withdrawal enacted by
climate activists in direct violation of the law.
The Biden administration's decision to terminate mining in Wyoming's
PRB is not only irresponsible and harmful but downright illegal, a
mechanism used by the governing elite to inflict harm on every single
citizen of this great country to further climate change lunacy.
{time} 1700
If this RMPA is allowed to continue, it would risk 4,122 jobs in
rural Wyoming, $1.9 billion in labor output through 2048, and millions
of dollars in State revenue used to fund public K-12 education.
This seemingly localized decision has national repercussions, as
well. In 2024, Wyoming produced 191 million tons of coal, 171 million
tons of which were shipped to 26 different States for producing
electricity.
At these rates, Wyoming produces about 40 percent of the Nation's
coal and about 80 percent of all Federal coal production.
With coal generating as much as 23 percent of America's electricity
at any given time, Wyoming coal supplies as much as 9.2 percent of the
electricity produced in this country.
Watching the arguments in the Committee on Rules last night and on
the floor today, it is clear that ``affordability'' is the word of the
day for my colleagues across the aisle. If utility bills for Americans
are something they genuinely care about, then I encourage them to vote
for H.J. Res. 130 and to not turn off the Powder River Basin coal,
which accounts for so much of American energy and could generate even
more if Washington, D.C., had not waged a war on coal for the last
three decades.
In short, it is policies such as no new coal leasing contained in
this Buffalo RMPA that reduce affordability, which my colleagues on the
other side of the aisle will be supporting if they continue to oppose
H.J. Res. 130.
This vote today is a vote to shore up the grid, which will have
positive impacts on the utility bills of Americans. When combined with
what this majority did for energy development in the One Big Beautiful
Bill Act, we are shoring up centuries of energy production.
We cannot survive in this country without Wyoming coal, the majority
of which is produced in the Powder River Basin. Demand for Wyoming coal
is only increasing, both here and abroad. If you turn out the lights on
one of Wyoming's most important industries, you will also be turning
out the lights on America.
The Biden administration knew this and pursued this harmful policy
anyway, and they did so in violation of the law.
On September 18, 2025, the Government Accountability Office
determined that the Buffalo RMP was a rule subject to the CRA on the
grounds that it is an agency statement, is of future effect, and it
implements, interprets, or prescribes law and policy.
This decision is in line with previous GAO decisions on similar land
management plans and RMPs, several of which this body has passed in the
119th Congress.
A vote today for H.J. Res. 130 has many positive implications.
First, it would overturn this harmful plan and revert to the 2015
RMP, thereby protecting access to 481,000 acres for coal leasing.
Second, it would provide certainty to countless Wyomingites who rely
on our good, clean coal for jobs and for revenue that funds the schools
that our children attend.
Third, it is a vote for the millions of Americans who continue to
rely on Wyoming coal--and who always will.
Fourth, it is a win for Congress, reminding the agencies that we are
the primary policymaking branch of government and that we will hold the
agencies responsible for bad, unlawful regulations.
I urge all of my colleagues to vote in favor of H.J. Res. 130.
Mr. HUFFMAN. Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume.
Mr. Speaker, it occurs to me that as we are having this debate,
pretty much the rest of the world is in Brazil right now for the
climate conference. Of course, the Trump administration has
disgracefully pulled the United States out of the Paris Agreement once
again, and we have no Federal delegation at all.
As the rest of the world convenes to accept the reality of the
climate crisis and to accept the related reality of coal being the
biggest contributor to carbon pollution, and the entire world is
talking about how to phase down our dependence on coal pollution and
fossil fuel pollution, we are here in this alternate reality of the
Republican majority, where my colleague from Wyoming calls it climate
lunacy.
It is a sad, sad testament to, frankly, the disgraceful leadership of
this Republican majority that propping up the coal industry with
discounted royalties, massive subsidies, millions of acres of land
giveaways, and now this misuse of the Congressional Review Act is the
official policy of the Republican majority. It is just almost
unthinkable, yet that is where we are.
Mr. Speaker, I yield such time as he may consume to the gentleman
from New Mexico (Mr. Vasquez).
Mr. VASQUEZ. Mr. Speaker, I thank the ranking member for the time.
Mr. Speaker, first, coming from New Mexico, let me tell you that I
have gone through the RMP process firsthand in my own Las Cruces
district, the TriCounty RMP, and those are long and painful processes.
They take a lot of public input and a lot of painful meetings. Those
plans are developed with the input from residents from all sides of the
aisle who represent different parts of what are our public lands and
that mandate to have multiple-use lands. They are not meant for just
one industry. They are meant for everybody that uses those public
lands.
When I served on the U.S. Federal committee to advise the Forest
Service, we got all of these stakeholders together to implement the
2012 planning rule, and it was the same deal. We did it deliberately.
We did it with all stakeholders at the table. These RMPs are actually
developed with public input from every community, not from one single
stakeholder group. That is the painful process that it takes to update
these plans, many of which haven't been updated since the 1980s.
It is important that we take into account the time and effort of not
just the agency staff and those folks who show up to those hard
meetings and hear the public out, but the public who comes out, in my
district sometimes driving 30, 40, 50 miles, just to attend one of
those meetings so that they can eventually get to an RPM, knowing that
that will be the law of the land.
Today, I rise in opposition to all the CRAs, but in particular, I
want to talk about one very special place.
In 2017, when the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge's Coastal Plain was
first officially opened to drilling, supporters promised that the sale
would raise significant revenue. Instead, only three bidders emerged.
The first mandated lease sale brought in less than 1 percent of the
$2.2 billion that Congress was told to expect, less than 1 percent.
That burdened taxpayers with an additional $2 billion in national debt.
Why? Well, because the Arctic is one of the most expensive places on
Earth to drill, and investors in the oil industry know this. In fact,
BP and Shell already abandoned their Arctic proposals, even paying to
exit those leases. Financing has dried up completely, with nearly every
major U.S. bank and 20 global insurance companies having publicly
pledged not to finance Arctic drilling projects. Yet, here we are.
The Coastal Plain is too remote, too costly, and too risky to make
drilling financially feasible, especially when we already produce
record oil and gas volumes elsewhere at a far lower cost to taxpayers,
including in my district, the Permian Basin.
Let's be clear, Arctic drilling will not lower gas prices. With no
existing roads, pipelines, or infrastructure, any Arctic oil would take
years to reach the market, if it ever does.
I know this myself because this is a picture from when I was in the
Arctic.
This is also a question of what we value. The Arctic refuge is the
only national wildlife refuge that protects a complete Arctic
ecosystem. It is called the crown jewel of our public lands, and it is
called that for a reason. I saw why firsthand when I was there last
summer.
[[Page H4749]]
This special place offers unmatched, truly wild fishing and hunting
opportunities for all Americans. When you catch your first Arctic char
in the Canning River on the Coastal Plain, it is a moment you will
never forget as an American. These lands have provided sustenance to
the Gwich'in and the Inupiat peoples for millennia.
The bottom line, setting the unique wildlife and recreation values of
America's Arctic aside, using the CRA to overturn land management plans
is bad policy, bad economics, and bad land management. Truly, it is a
disrespect to the constituents who showed up to those meetings to
create that RPM in the first place, year over year over year.
By treating every resource management plan as a rule that is subject
to the CRA, Congress is throwing the legal status of every oil and gas
lease, every grazing permit, and recreational activity across the West
into question.
I ask my Republican colleagues: Why pursue the CRA process when this
administration has already revised the plan in question? They have
already opened up the Coastal Plain, so why do this?
We should vote ``no,'' not to score a political point, but because
this proposal simply doesn't make sense and won't work.
{time} 1710
Mr. WESTERMAN. Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may
consume.
Mr. Speaker, it has been mentioned that U.S. coal is dying. U.S. coal
is being murdered. There has been an attack on it for many years, and
some people will not stop until they see it gone. That would be to our
own demise because we depend so much on the energy not only from coal
but from natural gas.
We need more nuclear power. We need more hydropower. We need all
kinds of new power, and this isn't the time to be attacking our fuel
sources. We will have a debate on the Arctic Slope and the Coastal
Plain, but when we are talking about Wyoming, we are talking about coal
and really the backbone of our electrical generating and distribution
system.
I yield 3 minutes to the gentleman from Minnesota (Mr. Stauber), the
chairman of the Energy and Mineral Resources Subcommittee of the
Natural Resources Committee.
Mr. STAUBER. Mr. Speaker, I rise today in strong support of this CRA
resolution introduced by my good friend and colleague from Wyoming,
Representative Hageman. This resolution overturns the Biden
administration's actions to lock up public lands in Wyoming from
responsible coal development, all part of the Democrat and President
Biden's agenda, which was anywhere but America, any worker but American
energy agenda.
Last year, I had the opportunity to join Representative Hageman on a
tour across the Powder River Basin, where we visited the coal mines and
met the proud men and women who have been working there for
generations.
While I visited one of these mines, I met a union electrician, third-
generation miner, who raised his hand and stated: Please don't take our
jobs away. I am working here, and my son just got hired here.
The passion he had for the industry and these jobs was incredible. He
and now his children work in that coal mine. That gentleman told me his
family's story with a lump in his throat. Like generations before him,
he and now his children had access to good-paying union jobs in the
coal mines across the Powder River Basin, but thanks to the Biden
administration's continued war on coal, his job and his livelihood was
on the line, as the mine he worked in was set to run out of coal
reserves in just a few short years.
Thanks to the Biden administration's resource management plan that
blocked new coal leasing, the mine wouldn't be able to access
additional reserves and would have to close. In doing so, the mine
would have to lay off hundreds of workers and devastate the surrounding
communities that depend on the coal mining industry to drive their
local economies.
With tears in his eyes, this electrician asked me to save his job and
save his livelihood so he could continue to provide for his family and
energy for America.
Mr. Speaker, we have the opportunity today to do just that. By voting
in favor of this CRA, we will be able to roll back the disastrous Biden
administration's anti-American energy policies and keep the Powder
River Basin alive. Through the CRA, we will stop future anti-American
energy administrations from taking similar steps to shut down the
Powder River Basin.
I thank my colleague from Wyoming for introducing this important CRA
resolution on behalf of the hardworking men and women that make up
Wyoming's coal industry. I urge my colleagues to join me in voting for
this resolution.
Mr. HUFFMAN. Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume.
Mr. Speaker, it is a little bit rich to hear all of this concern
about jobs and the poor electrician who is going to lose a job and to
hear all of this concern about the energy that we desperately need to
meet projected demand increase.
What we are really hearing across the aisle is a very selective
concern about some jobs and about some types of energy. At the same
time as we are having this debate about a desperate scheme to try to
prop up the dying coal industry, not just with this CRA but with the
discounted royalties, the massive public land giveaways, and all of the
other favors that have been doled out to this industry, the Trump
administration is trying in every way it can to kill off the clean
energy industry, which generates far more jobs than coal. Far more
people stand to lose their jobs, far more electricians, like the one my
friend was just so concerned about a moment ago, stand to lose their
jobs because of this war on clean energy that my friends across the
aisle are just fine with.
Now, Chairman Westerman said we need all types of new energy. I guess
we will have a chance this week to find out if that, too, is just more
happy talk, more hollow words because there will be a markup on his
legislation on permitting. Democrats have been asking for meaningful
changes to this war on clean energy as the first item to have a serious
negotiation and discussion about. We will find out.
I hope that Mr. Westerman delivers on his promise to work in good
faith with Democrats and to do something about the war on clean energy.
Unless and until he does and unless and until my colleagues across the
aisle stop pretending that an entire industry with far more jobs than
coal and far more energy that can be brought to bear to meet rising
demand at far less cost, until they stop pretending that that war on
clean energy is not happening, all of this, frankly, is just political
theater.
Mr. Speaker, to the point about the so-called viability of coal,
let's just zoom in on the coal industry in the Powder River Basin, the
very place that would be impacted by this CRA. On October 6, the Bureau
of Land Management held a lease sale for 167 million tons of coal on
public lands on the Montana side of this specific basin. The BLM
received one bid that valued each ton of coal at one-tenth of one
penny.
The administration rejected that bid and canceled the lease sale
because that abysmal price did not meet the requirements of fair market
value outlined in the Mineral Leasing Act. That is the reason that the
BLM came together to finalize the Buffalo Field Office RMP amendment,
to address decreasing demand for coal, which is both the dirtiest and
the most expensive form of energy.
House Republicans would give away our public lands and waters to big
coal for pennies, fractions of pennies. The coin that they are phasing
out as practically worthless is about as valuable as the coal they are
trying to subsidize.
This resolution will do nothing to address skyrocketing energy bills
in Wyoming or anywhere else. A conservative former Wyoming State
representative recently penned an op-ed that really speaks to what is
happening on the ground: ``We need responsible legislators, who do not
rely on wishful thinking, to make long-term policy decisions. It's time
to take off the aluminum foil hats filled with wishful thinking, and
make some real decisions based on responsible prediction.''
Mr. Speaker, I reserve the balance of my time.
Mr. WESTERMAN. Mr. Speaker, I am prepared to close and continue to
reserve the balance of my time.
[[Page H4750]]
Mr. HUFFMAN. Mr. Speaker, I yield myself the balance of my time.
Mr. Speaker, in closing, I strongly oppose this resolution.
Using the CRA to overturn this RMP and the others that we are
debating this week will throw our public lands into chaos. It
completely sidelines the input and perspectives of local communities
that have spent years working with BLM on this plan. It is another
reckless attempt to prop up the fossil fuel industry and line the
pockets of polluters, all at the expense of affordable energy and good-
paying jobs.
The Buffalo Field Office RMP allows existing coal leases to continue
with reasonable safeguards to reduce emissions and protect land and
water. Congress should not be overturning this plan with the
sledgehammer of the CRA.
I strongly urge my colleagues to vote ``no'' on the resolution. I
urge my Republican colleagues to think twice about the consequences of
this action and setting this chaotic precedent.
Mr. Speaker, I yield back the balance of my time.
Mr. WESTERMAN. Mr. Speaker, I yield myself the balance of my time to
close.
Since my colleague mentioned the SPEED Act, which we will be marking
up in committee on Thursday, even though it is not on the floor today,
I will put in a shameless plug for our bipartisan legislation that is
not only tech neutral, but it is agnostic to the project, the project
type.
It would definitely help us produce more energy in America, and it
will also help us to build things in America again, something we
desperately need to do. We will debate that Thursday, and, hopefully,
some day we will be out here debating it on the floor.
This particular RMPA that is on the floor today is because the Biden
administration, on their way out, pushed something through by rule that
they could never get passed into law. The CRA, I remind you, is so that
Congress can exert its legislative authority over an administrative
agency or over an administration.
I would remind future administrations not to make dumb rules when
they are going out the door or somebody in Congress will be standing
here maybe on the other side of the aisle doing a CRA to turn back the
rulemaking ability that is not lawmaking, as we are instructed to do in
the Constitution as the legislative branch.
{time} 1720
Mr. Speaker, in response to the actual RMPA that we are talking
about, the CRA on it today, now is the time to unleash American energy.
The Buffalo Field Office resource management plan would not only
devastate Wyoming's energy workforce but it would raise prices
nationwide.
We are in a competition. We are in a competition with China that
certainly hasn't backed off on building coal-fired plants. As a matter
of fact, they are building at a rate of about one every 2 or 3 days
coming online because they know they need reliable energy. They need
affordable energy. They need that to establish their manufacturing
dominance and to beat us in the race for AI.
Mr. Speaker, we can't allow that to happen. Even though China
produces twice as much electricity as we do today, we shouldn't
discriminate against any energy source. We should try to produce as
much energy as we can so that we can win in that competition.
By passing this CRA, we are restoring the BLM's multiple use and
sustained yield mandate and preventing future administrations from
locking up America's natural resources. The era of curtailing multiple
uses of our Federal lands hopefully is over. It is time to usher in a
golden age of unleashing our energy and mineral resources.
Mr. Speaker, I urge adoption of this bill, and I yield back the
balance of my time.
The SPEAKER pro tempore (Mr. Bean of Florida). All time for debate
has expired.
Pursuant to House Resolution 879, the previous question is ordered on
the joint resolution.
The question is on the engrossment and third reading of the joint
resolution.
The joint resolution was ordered to be engrossed and read a third
time, and was read the third time.
The SPEAKER pro tempore. The question is on passage of the joint
resolution.
The question was taken; and the Speaker pro tempore announced that
the ayes appeared to have it.
Mr. HUFFMAN. 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 question will be postponed.
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