Providing for Consideration of H.R. 1937, National Strategic and Critical Minerals Production Act of 2015
Floor Speech
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Mr. POLIS. Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume.
I thank the gentleman for yielding me the customary 30 minutes.
Mr. Speaker, I rise in opposition to the rule and the underlying bill--the so-called Strategic and Critical Minerals Production Act.
My colleague from Washington mentioned what is not being discussed here today. Again, to be clear, it feels like we are at Groundhog Day here. We have 8 legislative days until we hit the debt limit and default on our Nation's debt. In 6 legislative days, the Federal transportation authorization will expire. In 22 legislative days, we will be on the brink of yet another government shutdown. To a certain extent, I feel like we are fiddling while Rome burns. Here we are, talking about an issue which, I am sure, deserves its day in the Sun. I will talk about some of the deficiencies in this bill, but we are tackling a recycled bill that in similar form has already passed this body and that doesn't address any of these urgent deadline items that we are actually facing.
In fact, as I travel across my district in Colorado, I don't hear a lot of my constituents crying out for access to sand and clay. I do hear them saying, ``Don't default on the national debt.'' ``Do something about the budget.'' ``Make sure that we prevent another government shutdown.'' Yet all of those deadlines are looming while we are fiddling here with other bills that aren't going anywhere and aren't becoming law and have already passed this body in similar form. So, for the fourth time in three Congresses, we are going to consider a nearly
identical measure that the Republicans have brought to the floor despite the Senate's unwillingness to pick it up and the President's opposition.
The so-called Strategic and Critical Minerals Production Act promotes industry interests over the American people's health and welfare. The biggest conceptual problem with it is the definition that it gives of ``strategic and critical minerals.'' The bill not only expands the mining companies' ability to mine on public lands for minerals like gold and copper, but also materials that one would think, by no stretch of common sense, are rare, like sand and clay.
If we include sand from the beach or from my kids' sandbox as a mineral of critical development and if we include the gravel from my driveway as a mineral of critical development, I am not sure what we are excluding. I think this applies to almost everything. In fact, I am not even sure how we are even saying the term ``critical and strategic'' can even apply here when we are talking about sand and gravel and some of the most common natural resources that we have.
This bill permits nearly all mining operations to circumvent the important public health and environmental review processes that are required under the National Environmental Policy Act.
Instead of maintaining a reasonable threshold to ensure that we focus on resources and developing resources that are actually critical for our defense or for our economy, this bill expands our definition of ``strategic and critical,'' effectively making it worthless. By including everything and by saying everything is strategic and critical, you are effectively saying that nothing is strategic and critical. That is what this bill does while we are 8 days from hitting the debt limit, while we are 6 days from expiring on the Federal transportation authorization.
By the way, I have to talk about how these ``days'' work because we are 8 days from the debt limit and 6 days from the transportation authorization. Those aren't real days that Americans know. That is because the Republicans always send this Congress on vacation nearly every week. So it might be 6 legislative days. I think it is, actually, 15 or 20 days, but Congress isn't working for most of those. While these deadlines tick, Members of Congress are actually at home most of the time because the Republican leadership won't let us work. They won't let us come here. They are adjourning the session. That is why, when something is 20 days off, we are sounding alarm bells, saying it is 6 days off--because they are only letting us work 6 of those 20 days. I would be happy to show up for the other 14, Mr. Speaker, but you wouldn't be here to gavel us into session.
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Mr. POLIS. Maybe we will just have to try that sometime when we are 2 or 3 days from the expiration of our transportation funding or from defaulting on our national debt. I will be happy to come here to an empty Chamber.
I recall one time, Mr. Speaker, when you and the Republican majority accidentally left the cameras on, and our Democratic whip, Steny Hoyer, was on the floor, demanding why we couldn't bring up a bill. Maybe, if I am here and if you are not here, Mr. Speaker, we can get those C-SPAN cameras turned on when we are 2 or 3 days from a deadline so that the American people understand this funny math, where somehow 20 days is only 6 legislative days because you don't let us work the other 14, when hardworking Americans have to go to work every day to support their families.
This bill's impacts are far reaching. As drafted, it makes the term ``critical and strategic'' meaningless. The legislation would increase the pollution of our water resources for States dealing with extreme drought conditions and deadly blazes. The last thing we need is to jeopardize our already scarce sources of water. We can't afford to do any more harm to the quality of our limited water supplies and to risk the jobs that are created across the West through outdoor recreation, leisure, and agriculture.
Why the House Republicans see a need for legislation to further promote mining interests at the expense of public health continues to be mystifying. The industry already has free rein to extract mineral resources. Under the antiquated 1872 mining law, Federal land managers are actually barred from denying hard rock mining proposals. The Bureau of Land Management and the Forest Service have almost never denied a large mining process. Why exempt them further from all environmental review for sand and gravel, which aren't even rare elements?
This bill fails to update the antiquated legal framework. It fails to address the reforms needed. It fails to protect our environment. It doesn't change the fact that mining companies currently enjoy--guess what, Mr. Speaker. What do you think--a 3 percent royalty rate? What do they pay--a 2 percent royalty rate? Do they pay a 1 percent royalty rate? No. They pay a zero percent royalty rate on Federal land. This bill fails to address that. It doesn't change the fact that mining companies have left an estimated half a million mines. That is nearly one for every person in my district, Mr. Speaker. Half a million mines all across the country have been abandoned, most of which are in dire need of cleanup or restoration, which this bill fails to address.
I had the opportunity to introduce a bill with Ranking Member Grijalva earlier this year that would have addressed many of these ongoing failures in mining accountability, but it hasn't been brought up before the committee. Instead, legislation like this, the so-called Strategic and Critical Minerals Production Act, is rocketed to the floor even though it has passed four times in the last three sessions.
Instead of confronting real challenges facing our economy, facing American families, we continue to line the pockets of the mining industry, which already has one of the fattest profit margins of any, while risking the health of the American people and exploiting our natural resources without adequate return and royalties to the taxpayers, who own our public lands.
I oppose the rule and the underlying bill.
Mr. Speaker, I reserve the balance of my time.
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Mr. POLIS. Mr. Speaker, I yield myself the balance of my time.
Mr. Speaker, if we defeat the previous question, I will offer an amendment to the rule to bring up legislation that would permanently authorize the Land and Water Conservation Fund. The Land and Water Conservation Fund supports the protection of public lands and waters, such as natural parks, forests, and recreation areas.
Many conservation organizations from my district and nationally have been in to meet with me on this important topic, and I know they have reached out to other Members on the Hill as well.
Mr. Speaker, I ask unanimous consent to insert the text of the amendment in the Record, along with extraneous material, immediately prior to the vote on the previous question.
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Mr. POLIS. Mr. Speaker, the Strategic and Critical Minerals Production Act--again, it is hard to say that name with a straight face when they are defining strategic and critical minerals in such a broad way that it involves basically the dirt under our feet, the sand under our feet, the gravel in our drive. When you define something like that and try to mean everything, you wind up meaning nothing.
Rather than actually doing something to protect minerals that are critical for our defense, for our economy, this bill waters that down by expanding this access to sand and dirt and gravel, maximizing mining companies' profits at the expense of our health, our water, our land, and our natural resources.
Furthermore, the underlying bill would damage our economy by placing the use of the mining industry above the many other important economic uses of our public lands. I will give you some examples. How about hunting? angling? hiking? biking? These are the economic drivers in my district, Mr. Speaker.
If we didn't have an environmental review process and large gravel pits and silver mines were put in place with wild abandon, we would lose jobs. We would lose most jobs in Eagle and Summit Counties which relate to the tourism industry. The beautiful, pristine, outdoor public lands that attract visitors from across the country--probably from your district, Mr. Speaker--Vail, Breckenridge, Winter Park, and Rocky Mountain National Park, we would love to have you; but you better come quickly before this bill becomes law, because there won't be much to see if it does.
When visiting my constituents in Colorado this summer, expanding mining access was not one of the issues that they brought up. In fact, they asked me to ensure that mining companies are held accountable to greater levels of accountability and transparency. They asked me to develop environmental safeguards to make sure that disasters and tragedies don't occur and that abandoned mines are cleaned up and that our extraction industry can be done in a thoughtful way, and to make sure it doesn't destroy jobs by conflicting with other higher and better economic uses of some parcels of public land.
Look, Members on both sides of the aisle support the development of rare earth and critical mineral policy. There is no disagreement about that. I would be happy to work with my colleague, Mr. Speaker, from Washington State and others on putting together a commonsense bill that defines rare earth and critical minerals in a commonsense way. Not the dirt beneath our feet, not the sand in my kid's sandbox, but in a commonsense way where we look at the needs of industry, our supply, we define it, and we come up with a targeted access plan, including access to our public lands in appropriate ways, that is expedited for national priority items. That is not what this bill does.
We could work together, Mr. Speaker. And this body needs to work together, not just on this bill, but to avoid defaulting on our national debt, to continue to fund our highways and infrastructure, in fact, to keep government open. We might only have 11 legislative days to try to keep government open.
By the way, I think that is 30-some actual days for most Americans, Mr. Speaker. As we talked about, you won't be here, Mr. Speaker. If there is a way that I can be here and advance an agenda of keeping government open, I would be happy to, but I am afraid it requires a Speaker to gavel us in.
Now, there are bills that seek to balance the challenges of mining with its impact on surrounding communities, but, unfortunately, Mr. Speaker, my colleagues weren't interested in discussing those. Instead we are discussing a recycled bill for the fourth time that would eliminate environmental review, allow for the unfettered mining of public lands, define critical minerals in such a way that it means the dirt between your toes and the sand in your kid's sandbox. It would likely not be brought up by the Senate and dead on arrival at the President's desk.
This is a job-destroying bill that the American people are not even asking Congress to take up. It takes a simple concept--preserving access to critical resources, which would have strong bipartisan support--and contorts it into a divisive job-destroying, health-destroying, commonsense-defying issue that doesn't appear anywhere on the priority list of struggling families across the country.
Mr. Speaker, I urge my colleagues to vote ``no'' and defeat the previous question and to vote ``no'' on the rule.
I yield back the balance of my time.
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