Department of State, Foreign Operations, and Related Programs Appropriations Act, 2021

Floor Speech

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Mr. JOYCE of Ohio. Mr. Speaker, I thank the gentlewoman for yielding.

Mr. Speaker, I rise today in opposition to H.R. 7608.

Before I get into the details of division C, the Interior and Environment section of the bill, I take a moment to thank Chairwoman Lowey and Ranking Member Granger for their steadfast leadership on the Committee on Appropriations.

I extend my thanks to my friend and colleague, Betty McCollum, the chair of the Subcommittee on Interior, Environment, Related Agencies. Chair McCollum has been an excellent leader, and I am glad to have the opportunity to serve alongside her as the ranking member on the subcommittee.

Mr. Speaker, the fiscal year 2021 Interior, Environment bill includes many bipartisan initiatives to conserve and protect our natural resources and to increase the Federal commitment to honor our treaties and trust responsibilities with American Indians and Alaska Natives.

The bill increases investments in wildfire suppression, hazardous fuels activities, provides additional support for the National Park Service, EPA's rural water technical assistance grants, and fully funds the Payments in Lieu of Taxes program.

The bill also provides significant funding--more than one-quarter of the bill--to help Tribal communities across Indian Country with healthcare, education, and law enforcement needs. This support is essential given, on a per capita basis, COVID-19 has hit Indian Country harder than any other area in our Nation.

As a co-chair of the Bipartisan Task Force to End Sexual Violence, I was pleased to see critical funding included to implement the Violence Against Woman Act in Indian Country and to support Operation Lady Justice, an initiative established by the President to address missing and murdered indigenous people, human trafficking, and other violent crimes.

Chair McCollum and her staff have worked hard to accommodate these requests for Members on both sides of the aisle in the bill. They will be appreciated by our constituents, regardless of party.

In particular, I am grateful for the continued, robust investment in the Great Lakes Restoration Initiative, which is essential to reducing harmful algal blooms, eradicating Asian carp, and addressing coastline erosion.

However, despite these investments and bipartisan priorities, there are concerns in this bill that will need to be addressed before we reach bipartisan agreement.

First and foremost, the bill adds several new controversial policy riders, administrative provisions, and report language directives. These partisan provisions prevent the administration from reducing regulatory burdens and limit responsible natural resource development.

Limiting our domestic supply of much-needed natural resources does not decrease our demand for them, it only makes us more dependent on foreign nations to obtain them, which is not only a national security concern, but is also an economic security concern. We cannot protect American jobs if we cannot supply them with the energy and raw materials.

This bill also eliminates several longstanding commonsense provisions that have enjoyed bipartisan support for many years. Adding these provisions back will be essential to reaching a bipartisan agreement.

A final area of concern is the funding level proposed in this bill. This bill benefits from off-budget emergency funding provided in other bills, and instead of using the savings from the passage of the Great American Outdoors Act towards paying down our ever-growing national debt, the bill reallocates those funds.

The bill also includes a new title, with $15 billion in so-called emergency spending for additional infrastructure.

To be clear, there are critical infrastructure programs in this bill that need these funds and more, but that alone does not give the Federal Government license to continue to borrow and spend without any overarching plan for fiscal responsibility.

Mr. Speaker, it is for a combination of these funding and policy reasons that I cannot support this bill at this time and in its current form, but I am committed to working with my colleagues on both sides of the aisle as we move through the fiscal year 2021 process to craft a bill that can receive bipartisan support.

Mr. Speaker, until then, I strongly urge my colleagues to vote ``no'' on this package.

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Mr. JOYCE of Ohio. Madam Speaker, I rise in opposition to the amendment. This amendment interferes with an already rigorous scientific and public review process before the process has even been completed.

The public comment period closed less than a month ago, and the EPA is in the process of considering more than 66,000 public comments received and making corresponding changes to the proposal.

The EPA's proposal to maintain the standards set by President Obama comes after careful consideration of the most current available scientific evidence and risk and exposure information and with consultation and confirmation by the agency's independent science advisors.

By maintaining the current national particulate matter standard, the EPA continues to protect our environment and the health of the American citizens without placing additional burdens on communities.

There already too many States and counties currently struggling to meet the current standards, which are already among the strictest safeguards in the world. For these areas of our Nation, the solution is to help them meet the bar, not raise the bar.

The EPA remains publicly committed to helping these areas succeed, and to Chair McCollum's credit, this bill gives the EPA the resources necessary to keep doing so.

We are on the right track. The U.S. has made incredible strides in reducing particulate matter concentrations across the Nation. As a result of the Clean Air Act, programs and efforts by State, local, and Tribal Governments, as well as technological improvements, average fine particulate matter concentrations in the U.S. fell by 39 percent between 2000 and 2018, while average coarse particulate matter concentrations fell by 31 percent during the same period.

Madam Speaker, the process that Congress created and continues to fund in this bill is working. Now it is our job to get out of the way.

Vote ``no'' on the amendment, and let the EPA do its job.

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