Unlocking Rural America's Potential

Floor Speech

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Mr. NEWHOUSE. Madam Speaker, I hope it is clear to all of my colleagues in this body that rural America faces a myriad of challenges.

Every day, members of the Congressional Western Caucus, of which I am very honored to be chairman, and many partners throughout rural America are working to ensure that local communities across the country are heard in our Nation's Capitol, right here, and that these challenges do not go unaddressed.

For many in big cities and urban areas, I think it can be pretty easy to overlook our rural communities. But we truly are the backbone of our great country, and our challenges are not our challenges alone. Rather, they are reflective of the entire Nation's challenges, things like managing public lands and fulfilling the government's multipurpose-use doctrine, or supporting local economies and encouraging economic development, promoting critical infrastructure like roads and bridges and dams, ensuring a strong agricultural industry that feeds the world, and empowering the communities that we represent to embrace expanded domestic energy production and clean energy technologies.

Our State, local, and private land managers are conservation partners. Small businesses and local communities are eager to take the reins and make the improvements that we need, but they are consistently held back by bureaucratic red tape, delayed permitting processes that add years and millions of dollars in cost to projects, and outdated laws that don't take into account the best available science of modern technologies.

Over and over again, I hear from my constituents in central Washington State, and also from community leaders from across the United States, that we need to get the Federal Government out of the way.

That is why, throughout this month of March, Congressional Western Caucus members are taking the opportunity to highlight why reforming our duplicative and burdensome permitting process is the key to unlocking rural America's potential.

Madam Speaker, broken permitting systems negatively impact the progress that we could be making at nearly every step of the way. The National Environmental Policy Act, or what many refer to as NEPA, is one of the most egregious examples of a well-intentioned law turned into a bureaucratic nightmare for those of us who are working to improve the communities where we live, work, and farm.

The Endangered Species Act is another. This landmark species protection law has become outdated, and it is now used as a weapon by serial litigators and misguided environmentalists, who want nothing more than to sue and settle, wasting our limited government resources, which are stalling projects across the United States and disincentivizing investment in rural America.

Both of these laws play an important role in protecting lands, waters, and wildlife that we cherish throughout the West and across rural America. But because Congress has not been able to meaningfully reform them, they have actually begun to work against us.

ESA regulations can add decades to the permitting processes for forest management projects or projects that would help prevent catastrophic wildfires across the West.

In my own home State of Washington, and across the Pacific Northwest, the policies surrounding the northern spotted owl wreaked havoc on our forest industry, destroying--literally destroying--local economies. Now, our region experiences some of the worst wildfires in our Nation's history.

Madam Speaker, that is not a coincidence. Delays and roadblocks, and I intend to insert a pun there, Madam Speaker, that are caused by NEPA regulations have slowed or completely stopped infrastructure projects like highway improvements or installation of new hydropower technologies that generate clean energy and provide increased fish passage.

Just last week, our members met with former Secretary of the Interior David Bernhardt, who worked within the Trump administration to streamline inefficiencies and cut the environmental review process from 4.5 years, if you can believe that, down to no more than 2.

The Biden administration, of course, is now reversing this progress and bending to politically motivated interest groups at the expense of rural communities.

It is clear to us in the Western Caucus that it is time for Congress to act. For decades, rural America has been kept in regulatory limbo at the mercy of each changing administration.

Congress is a coequal branch of government, and we need to, we should, assert our authority to ensure that our communities have the certainty that they need to move forward on these critical projects.

Our rural communities deserve the investment and the development that is disincentivized by our broken permitting processes.

I know we have Western Caucus members here today who will help shed some light on some of these examples in their home districts, in their States. We will continue to demonstrate the harmful impacts of the status quo and outline our vision for a future that empowers rural Americans to tackle our challenges head-on.

I am very happy to have a group of colleagues here who are very interested in this topic, and I will first turn to Mr. Bruce Westerman, who is the vice chair of the Western Caucus, one of my vice chairs, but also the ranking member of the House Natural Resources Committee.

I yield to the gentleman from Arkansas (Mr. Westerman).

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Mr. NEWHOUSE. Madam Speaker, I thank Mr. Westerman for his comments. It just goes to show that it is not just Washington State, but clear across the Nation in Arkansas as well.

To further prove that point, I would like to turn to the gentleman from Pennsylvania (Mr. Keller), my good friend and colleague from the northeastern part of the State, a place where I have had the privilege to visit and see the great things that are happening in the energy sector there.

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Mr. NEWHOUSE. Madam Speaker, I thank Mr. Keller for reminding us that these policies and decisions have impacts not just domestically but truly impact our relationships and our position of strength throughout the world, and especially in the situation we find ourselves in today.

Next, I yield to the gentlewoman from Washington (Mrs. Rodgers), a good friend and colleague, the ranking member on the Energy and Commerce Committee, someone I have served with for a long time, not only in the statehouse in Washington State but here in the people's House in Washington, D.C.

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Mr. NEWHOUSE. Madam Speaker, I thank the gentlewoman very much for helping to bring home the impact this is going to have on Americans, on families, on people just trying to get to work every day and having to fill up their gas tanks. These policies have consequences, and we need to understand that.

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Mr. NEWHOUSE. We do absolutely.

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Mr. NEWHOUSE. Madam Speaker, I yield to the gentlewoman from Iowa (Mrs. Miller-Meeks), one of our great Members who has truly been a champion in helping to reduce red tape and improve the regulatory picture for people throughout this country.

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Mr. NEWHOUSE. Madam Speaker, I appreciate the gentlewoman's work on WOTUS and the navigable waters issue. I think I have heard her say something like those things, WOTUS, is truly the most--the worst regulatory overreach in our Nation's history and it is something we have to stop. I thank the gentlewoman for her work on that.

I would like to go just a little bit south from the State of Washington to another State that adjoins my State, and the good gentleman from Oregon, in his first term in Congress, but just doing an excellent job; and I am just delighted to have him as part of this effort.

Madam Speaker, I yield to the gentleman from Oregon (Mr. Bentz).

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Mr. NEWHOUSE. Madam Speaker, I thank the gentleman for focusing on a very important issue for us in the West. Every summer we hear the West is burning. We have got to change our policies in order to prevent the loss of property, loss of life, the detriment to our environment.

I would like to turn the floor over now to someone who is--you know, we are the Western Caucus, right? But we have members from all over the country. And one of our members represents almost the furthest east in our caucus. The good gentleman from the great State of Georgia.

Madam Speaker, I yield to the gentleman from the great State of Georgia and the beautiful community of Savannah (Mr. Carter).

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Mr. NEWHOUSE. Madam Speaker, I thank the gentleman for helping illustrate the impact that this has on local communities, the costs, not only in dollars, of the long permitting process, but the delay to communities for these much-needed projects.

Now, this could probably come under saving the best for last. The great Representative from the great State of California, I would like to say is was one of the premier members of the new freshman class. I appreciate Mr. Valadao, a fellow farmer, a fellow West Coaster, being here being part of this Special Order to talk about some very important issues here.

Madam Speaker, I yield to the gentleman from California (Mr. Valadao).

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Mr. NEWHOUSE. Madam Speaker, the gentleman is right. What is more precious than water? And those of us in the West understand that very well.

So, Madam Speaker, let me just say I am very grateful to have colleagues from across this great country join me tonight to talk about these issues, and to discuss our efforts in the Western Caucus as it relates to permitting month.

As you have heard, the broken processes surrounding permitting throughout the Federal Government have truly kneecapped our rural communities. This has slowed progress and has cost millions and millions of dollars.

In order to truly unleash American potential, we have to reform this process, and we will. Between the Western Caucus and those of us in Congress, we will continue to advocate for commonsense policies that are going to do just that.

Madam Speaker, I am grateful for the Special Order opportunity this evening, and I yield back the balance of my time.

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