National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2019
Floor Speech
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Mr. AMODEI. Mr. Chairman, I yield myself 1 minute.
My amendment would streamline the permitting process for production of minerals deemed critical and strategic for national security and other infrastructure needs.
What does the word ``streamline'' mean? If you read the amendment, it means 30 months. Now, I am a little embarrassed to tell you that streamline is 30 months, but unless the parties agree to something longer, it is 30 months.
When you say ``deemed critical,'' if you read the amendment, you will see multiple pages basically paying respect to the NEPA process and also setting forth due process and asking for a Federal representative of the lead agency to coordinate Federal permitting actions so that we proceed as expeditiously as possible when there is, in fact, a need that affects the Armed Services of our country for supply chain and things like that that are critical.
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Mr. AMODEI. Mr. Chairman, I yield 1 minute to the gentleman from Arizona (Mr. Gosar).
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Mr. AMODEI. Mr. Chairman, I yield myself such time as I may consume.
Mr. Chairman, it is good to hear that my colleagues from the Golden State think that the administration is doing a good job in this area in some respects, and it is good to hear about concerns about the State of Kentucky.
But let's talk about what is actually in the amendment.
So let's talk about what is not in the amendment first. First of all, there is nothing in the amendment that says you must approve a request to be considered a strategic critical mineral. So when we talk in the context of, oh, gee, this could be sand and gravel, some Federal land manager in the executive department, under the provisions in this amendment, has to find that. By the way, there are multiple pages saying how they go about that. So it is 30 months. Guess what? After that 30 months, you don't get a yes.
So when we talk about how the sky is going to fall, let's keep in mind that if you can't satisfy them on whatever it is that is critical, then guess what? You may get a no, as should be done if it doesn't satisfy that.
So to indicate in context that this is something that is going to make everything critical omits the whole application process and omits the consideration process that goes over 30 months.
Now, I just want to point out a couple other things, because, quite frankly, although maybe the other side thinks that the crystal ball that the administration has is an excellent one, I beg to differ. Since we are talking about things that happened in specific States, let's talk about the Loma Prieta earthquake that happened in northern California a while back that, quite frankly, shut down freeways--major arteries--in the bay area.
Now, I don't know if sand and gravel would have been appropriate and critical for that, but guess what? To those people in the bay area who wanted that transportation infrastructure open, they wanted it open as soon as possible. So if we have to wait for 30 months to haul loads of sand and gravel and make concrete to get the 580 or the 680, or whatever it was, in the East Bay open, then perhaps there was an argument for that. I don't know, unless something like that happens again.
But for those minerals that are critical to our healthcare industry, our defense industry, and all of those sorts of things, they ought to have the opportunity to apply and see if they get told yes or no in 30 months.
Mr. Chairman, I yield back the balance of my time.
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