Recovering America's Wildlife Act of 2021

Floor Speech

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Mr. TIFFANY. Mr. Speaker, I thank the gentleman for yielding.

Regrettably, I will not be able to support this bill either. It is another $1.4 billion of mandatory spending--no offsets, no sunset. This is another case of the runaway Biden inflation train gaining speed. The only question at this point to the American people is how spectacular the crack-up is going to be, and the American people know that.

When I go out and talk to them, I hear about two things: energy prices and inflation.

Well, here we have got another $1.4 billion that are going to be poured into the tinderbox of the train to send it careening down the rails even faster. The only question is how spectacular the crack-up is going to be. Unfortunately, the American people are going to suffer the consequences.

The author of this bill just said that she would like to take some species off the endangered species list. There is one that can come off right now--right now--that has recovered.

Representative Boebert and I proposed an amendment to de-list the gray wolf. It has recovered. The gray wolf is in the ESA ``Hotel California.'' They can enter, but they never leave.

Twenty-five wildlife scientists from the upper Midwest a decade ago said, you need to de-list the wolf. We put together an amendment for this bill, and it was not considered.

Terribly unfortunate, because it is time for the Endangered Species Act to either be used properly and de-list a species like the gray wolf that is fully recovered, according to wildlife scientists, or else the ESA itself has to be reformed.

Those scientists, when you read their document that they wrote, specifically said, the Endangered Species Act is endangered because it is not being used properly.

Also, there is no language in this bill that prohibits funds from going to acquiring new Federal lands. Think about it this way: If you have a neighbor that doesn't repair their roof, it is leaking into their house, and they say we are going to go buy that lot next door. That, in effect, is what this bill will allow the Federal Government to do.

We are seeing across America, including in my district, that the Federal Government is not taking care of their lands appropriately. The Federal Government is becoming America's slumlord.

This bill has grant programs that even the most extreme environmental groups can apply for. Every time some taxpayer-funded, so-called corporate green group runs an ad, and you are going to see a lot of them here in 2022, claiming the sky is falling, just remember: You may have paid for it, and you may pay twice because you will get hit with inflation as a result of spending that the American people cannot afford.

I thank the gentleman for the opportunity to be able to testify on this bill. Unfortunately, I will not be able to support it, and I hope in the future that we can do better.

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Mr. TIFFANY. Mr. Speaker, on that I demand the yeas and nays.

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Mr. TIFFANY. Madam Speaker, I thank the ranking member for saying it quite well. The least we can do here is make sure that with these funds we try to have some oversight and responsibility in terms of how they are going to be spent. I thank the author for including this amendment in the bill.

If there is no pay-for, then there must be some measure of accountability for the expenditure of these funds ensuring the Department of the Interior Inspector General's office has the proper resources to monitor this spending.

Unfortunately, the bill in its current form has no sunset on the mandatory spending of $1.4 billion, so I thank the gentlewoman for including this in the package.

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