National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2022

Floor Speech

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Mrs. BOEBERT. Madam Speaker, on that I demand the yeas and nays. The SPEAKER pro tempore. Pursuant to section 3(s) of House Resolution 8, the yeas and nays are ordered.

Pursuant to clause 8 of rule XX, further proceedings on this question are postponed. Amendment No. 16 Offered by Ms. DeGette

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Mrs. BOEBERT. Madam Speaker, I thank the gentleman from Colorado for yielding his time and for his leadership and protecting freedom for multiple uses of our public lands by opposing sloppy Democrat land grabs like the ones contained in this amendment.

This amendment is loaded with more than 30 different land grabs that undermine our national security interests. I have actually traveled in helicopters with our servicemen and servicewomen who say that this bill would hinder the land that they currently practice over, with these wilderness designations, and it would prevent them from amazing training that they do, bringing people in worldwide.

The U.S. Department of Defense uses 750,000 tons of minerals each year for equipment and other important technologies. Copper is used to manufacture military planes and ships. Silver is used in Apache helicopters. Beryllium is used to enhance the speed of fighter jets. Molybdenum is used for armored vehicles, missiles, and aircraft.

The amendment we are discussing proposes to add nearly 1.5 million acres of new wilderness and permanently withdraws 1.2 million acres from mineral production.

Again, our Department of Defense needs 750,000 tons of minerals each year. This amendment permanently withdraws 1.2 million acres that contain critical minerals and other rare earths that we need for defense, to protect our men and women in uniform.

Approximately 550,000 of those 1.5 million acres that would be locked up by these new wilderness designations are in my district. Now, can you imagine if I had a bill designating the 16th Street Mall in Denver, Colorado, and said that there would be a wilderness designation. I mean, it is wild and scenic, but I don't have a bill that does such because I tend to my district.

None of the Colorado acres proposed for the wilderness designation in this amendment are located in the district represented by the sponsor of this amendment, and I urge a ``no'' vote.

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Mrs. BOEBERT. Madam Speaker, this amendment, which has nothing to do with the national defense, creates significant land restrictions on nearly 400,000 acres of land in Colorado.

This entirely inappropriate amendment to the NDAA seeks to create 73,068 acres of new wilderness in Colorado, which will severely restrict all forms of recreation, much-needed management, and economic activity. We can all agree that we need forest management, and the answer is not a hands-off approach.

While there are a lot of terrible policies in this amendment, one of my biggest concerns is the increased threat of disastrous wildfires that will result from the new wilderness designations and other land grabs in this bill.

Colorado just came out of one of the worst wildfire seasons we have ever experienced. In 2020 the U.S. set a new record for the number of acres burned by wildfires, as more than 10.3 million acres went up in smoke.

Wilderness is the most restrictive land use designation possible, and it prevents active management in our forests, which is critical to prevent catastrophic wildfires.

I have spent months meeting with foresters, experts in the timber industry, and active management advocates. Every one of them has said we do not need wilderness areas in Colorado, and wilderness areas prevent active management of our forests and have exacerbated catastrophic wildfires.

Madam Speaker, this amendment is a blatant attempt to sneak a deeply partisan environmentalist wish list into the vital and important funding vehicle of our Nation's defense.

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