Department of the Interior, Environment, and Related Agencies Appropriations Act, 2019

Floor Speech

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Mr. GIANFORTE. Mr. Chairman, I thank the gentleman for yielding.

Mr. Chairman, I rise in support of the amendment. It would prohibit funds from being used to advance guidance or make rules that rely on Obama-era social cost of carbon guidance.

I have heard from folks in Montana who cannot get a permit to expand a coal mine because they didn't account for the carbon released by the trains that would carry the coal. I have heard of the difficulties of building railroad bridges because they might allow more coal to be transported.

We must stop relying on metrics that were designed by the keep-it-in- the-ground crowd. Similar language passed, on a bipartisan vote, here in the House last September. I urge adoption of the amendment.

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Mr. GIANFORTE. Mr. Chairman, I rise in support of this amendment.

This amendment would block funds used by the agencies to pay legal fees under any lawsuit settlement that arises under the Clean Air Act, the Clean Water Act, and the Endangered Species Act.

While the intent of these pieces of legislation was good, serial litigants and special interest groups have turned these laws into tools used to block access to our forests and our mineral resources.

In Montana, we have a litigation problem, as many of our forest management projects are locked up by environmental extremists filing frivolous lawsuits. Agencies spend more time behind a desk and more resources defending their actions than they do working on our lands.

These lawyers continue to get richer as Montana's landscape goes up in smoke and taxpayer funds are wasted.

This same amendment passed the House last September, and I urge my colleagues to support this amendment again.

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