[Congressional Record Volume 171, Number 195 (Wednesday, November 19, 2025)]
[Senate]
[Pages S8216-S8217]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




  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''--Motion to Proceed

  Ms. LUMMIS. Madam President, Wyoming became a State in 1890. It was 
the 44th State to enter the Union. In 1893, Wyoming adopted our State 
seal, which also appears on our State flag inside the buffalo, and on 
that seal are two figures that tell the story of Wyoming.
  (Mr. SCHMITT assumed the Chair.)
  One figure represents the livestock industry and the ranchers and 
cattlemen of Wyoming, and the other represents our mining heritage--
here, it says mining and oil--the miners that power America and have 
powered it for years.
  These two industries are instrumental to my State, but in terms of 
gross State product, no industry comes close to the energy industry. 
Wyoming is an energy-producing State.
  For over 130 years, these figures have stood as a testament to 
Wyoming's values: hard work, self-reliance, and providing for our 
Nation.
  The Biden administration looked at that seal and decided Wyoming's 
way of life has to end. They wanted to unilaterally rip the mining 
symbol from our State's seal. One way they wanted to end this mining 
heritage was via the Buffalo Resource Management Plan amendment, which 
was a deliberate, calculated attack on our miners and an assault on 
every Wyoming family that depends on coal. Wyoming has since 1986 been 
the No. 1 coal producer in the Nation. We produce 40 percent of 
America's coal.
  So today, I come before the Senate in defense of the people of 
Wyoming and our rich energy sector. In a last-minute, desperate, post-
election attempt to promote his anti-energy Green New Deal scam, 
President Biden issued the Buffalo Resource Management Plan amendment 
to cripple Wyoming's coal industry. Biden's Bureau of Land Management 
zeroed out almost 500,000 acres of coal in Wyoming, shutting down the 
possibility of any future coal leasing.
  This is why I introduced the congressional resolution of disapproval 
with Senator Barrasso to overturn this reckless, anti-Wyoming assault. 
We have the backing of the Department of the Interior, and we have the 
full support of President Trump.
  As I said earlier, Wyoming produces 40 percent of America's coal. The 
Powder River Basin holds more than 48 billion short tons--enough to 
power our Nation for more than a century.
  The Biden plan would have destroyed thousands of high-paying Wyoming 
jobs, erased billions in labor income, and gutted the State revenue 
that funds our communities and, more importantly, our K-through-12 
school system.
  Moreover, the Biden Bureau of Land Management and this resource 
management plan didn't just attack coal, it aimed to lock up Federal 
land that belongs to the American people.
  While the Biden administration tried to shutter American coal mines, 
our foreign adversaries are ramping up production. Their coal is 
dirtier, their environmental standards are nonexistent, and their labor 
practices include child labor and human rights abuses no American would 
ever tolerate.
  Shuttering U.S. coal doesn't help the planet; it outsources pollution 
to the worst polluters on Earth and sends American jobs straight 
overseas.
  American coal--Wyoming coal--is the cleanest, safest, and most 
responsibly produced coal in the world. The most recent coal plant that 
was built

[[Page S8217]]

in Wyoming was so clean that they didn't even want to report to the EPA 
how clean the emissions were because the EPA had moved from a standard 
of most affordable to most attainable emissions. Well, attainability is 
you--regardless of what it costs, if you can attain this level of 
emissions, you have to produce that low level of emissions.
  That is what makes Wyoming coal the cleanest, safest, and most 
responsibly produced coal in the world.
  The last time I visited that coal-fired powerplant, where we have 
people testing the effluence and able to practice and provide 
experiments for new methodologies to produce cleaner coal, the Chinese 
were there in Campbell County, WY, trying to learn.
  The Buffalo RMPA is national security sabotage disguised as a far-
left environmental policy.
  President Trump has already made it clear that if this resolution 
reaches his desk, he will sign it. He knows Wyoming coal is vital to 
his American energy dominance agenda.
  By passing this resolution, we will reopen 481,000 acres for coal 
leasing in the Powder River Basin, protect over 4,000 Wyoming jobs, 
safeguard more than $1.9 billion in labor output, preserve the revenue 
that keeps Wyoming schools strong, and ensure that coal remains 
available to power America's future.
  I will not let unelected bureaucrats--
  The PRESIDING OFFICER (Mr. Banks). Time is expired.
  Ms. LUMMIS. I urge my colleagues to stand with Wyoming workers and to 
stand with affordable, reliable energy by voting to pass this measure.


                           Motion to Proceed

  I move to proceed to S.J. Res. 89.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The clerk will report the motion.
  The senior assistant legislative clerk read as follows:

       Motion to proceed to Calendar No. 270, S.J. Res. 89, 
     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''.


                             Vote on Motion

  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The question is on agreeing to the motion.
  Mr. WICKER. I ask for the yeas and nays.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. Is there a sufficient second?
  There appears to be a sufficient second.
  The clerk will call the roll.
  The senior assistant legislative clerk called the roll.
  Mr. BARRASSO. The following Senators are necessarily absent: the 
Senator from West Virginia (Mr. Justice), the Senator from North 
Carolina (Mr. Tillis).
  The result was announced--yeas 51, nays 47, as follows:

                      [Rollcall Vote No. 621 Leg.]

                                YEAS--51

     Banks
     Barrasso
     Blackburn
     Boozman
     Britt
     Budd
     Capito
     Cassidy
     Collins
     Cornyn
     Cotton
     Cramer
     Crapo
     Cruz
     Curtis
     Daines
     Ernst
     Fischer
     Graham
     Grassley
     Hagerty
     Hawley
     Hoeven
     Husted
     Hyde-Smith
     Johnson
     Kennedy
     Lankford
     Lee
     Lummis
     Marshall
     McConnell
     McCormick
     Moody
     Moran
     Moreno
     Mullin
     Murkowski
     Paul
     Ricketts
     Risch
     Rounds
     Schmitt
     Scott (FL)
     Scott (SC)
     Sheehy
     Sullivan
     Thune
     Tuberville
     Wicker
     Young

                                NAYS--47

     Alsobrooks
     Baldwin
     Bennet
     Blumenthal
     Blunt Rochester
     Booker
     Cantwell
     Coons
     Cortez Masto
     Duckworth
     Durbin
     Fetterman
     Gallego
     Gillibrand
     Hassan
     Heinrich
     Hickenlooper
     Hirono
     Kaine
     Kelly
     Kim
     King
     Klobuchar
     Lujan
     Markey
     Merkley
     Murphy
     Murray
     Ossoff
     Padilla
     Peters
     Reed
     Rosen
     Sanders
     Schatz
     Schiff
     Schumer
     Shaheen
     Slotkin
     Smith
     Van Hollen
     Warner
     Warnock
     Warren
     Welch
     Whitehouse
     Wyden

                             NOT VOTING--2

     Justice
     Tillis
       
  The motion was agreed to.

                          ____________________