Providing for Congressional Disapproval Under Chapter 8 of Title United States Code, of the Rule Submitted By the United States Fish and Wildlife Service Relating to ``Endangered and Threatened Wildlife and Plants; Lesser Prairie-Chicken; Threatened Status with Section 4(D) Rule for the Northern Distinct Population Segment and Endangered Status for the Southern Distinct Population Segment''

Floor Speech

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Mrs. CAPITO. Madam President, I rise today to talk on a subject that is of great importance to me and of great importance to employers, workers, consumers, and--really--everyone across this country; and that is, the need for substantive reform of our country's Federal environmental review and permitting process.

Now, this is a subject I have talked about a lot. I have championed efforts to make sure that our environment and economy benefit from a functional Federal environmental review and permitting process, and I am now and once again leading environmental review and permitting reform efforts through the Environment and Public Works Committee, and I am working with my fellow Republican Senator, who is the ranking member over on Energy and Natural Resources, Senator Barrasso from Wyoming, and we are working across the aisle with our counterparts.

Permitting reform is much more than just legislative text. It is more than just updates to laws that have been on the books for years or about replacing counterproductive measures implemented by the Biden administration. It is an essential element in giving our Nation what we need to be successful in the future.

Without permitting reform, American energy will continue to be stalled, jeopardizing our security here at home as well as for our allies abroad. Without permitting reform, communities across America will struggle as they are denied access to the good-paying jobs that they need and are capable of doing.

Without permitting reform, America will not build at all. The same country that mined the coal, that made the steel, and that built the democracy and led the way for industry across the world will be held back by endless review processes, continuous and continuing court challenges, and crippling regulations that limit our ability to be the world leader that we know we are.

In my State of West Virginia, which is synonymous with energy generation, we have long seen the negative effects created by a permitting process that is designed to stall rather than to produce or create. There are multiple real-world examples of how our broken environmental review and permitting process is holding up my State of West Virginia's ability to move forward, and it is impacting multiple sectors important not only to the people of my State but also to our national economy.

In the transportation sector in West Virginia there is Corridor H. Corridor H is a critically important highway that West Virginia needs to help commerce flow and to jump-start the economy in the central part of our State and to encourage our growing tourism industry.

In the manufacturing sector, there is Nucor Steel, an innovative, cutting-edge steel and steel products company that can't, as yet, build their plant as quickly as the Biden administration keeps creating new emissions guidelines.

And, in the energy sector, there is the Mountain Valley Pipeline, a 304-mile-long natural gas pipeline that is on the brink of completion-- over 90 percent completed. Yet it is unable to deliver its needed contribution to American energy independence due to the regulatory burdens and endless legal challenges that have gone on longer than the actual construction of the pipeline itself.

These are just three examples in the State of West Virginia. Think about the national impact created by outdated permitting processes, the damage inflicted on our communities and our economy, and the opportunities we are losing because of an administration that champions redtape, feeds frivolous lawsuits, and whose Agencies celebrate delays that lead to the total abandonment of critical--critical--projects.

It just doesn't make sense, quite simply. Even the renewable energy projects and manufacturing efforts central to the Biden administration's Agencies are being held up in permitting purgatory.

President Biden has long pledged that he will build our country back better. Well, news flash, Mr. President. You can't ``build back better'' if you can't build at all.

The fallout created by a broken environmental review and permitting process further strains our sputtering economy, drives up energy prices for consumers, negates good-paying jobs for hard-working Americans, and, really, jeopardizes our ability to build into the future.

Now, as my constituents in West Virginia would say, well, what are you going to do about it?

Well, from conversations we have already started in the EPW Committee, I will soon be introducing legislation, in tandem with my colleague Senator Barrasso, that delivers on the environmental review and permitting process reform that our country needs. This legislation will benefit all projects--renewable, conventional, surface transportation, manufacturing, all of the above.

This legislation will mandate enforceable timelines with clear time limits and predictable schedules for environmental review and consequences when Agencies fail to reach these decisions in a timely fashion.

This legislation will fashion guidelines that process and decide legal challenges to projects expeditiously, instead of creating a sea of endless litigation.

The legislation will actually amend the Clean Air Act, the Clean Water Act, and NEPA, and fix the obstacles holding our country back from the prosperity we deserve, while maintaining--of course, maintaining--environmental protections.

I will emphasize, as I have many times in the past, that any tangible, lasting environmental review and permitting solutions must be accomplished through regular order.

Backroom deals will not cut it. In fact, they will only lead to confusion among the American public and buyer's remorse among the participants.

We have forged the blueprint for bipartisan compromise through the EPW Committee time and time again, and this process should be no different.

I encourage my colleagues in both Chambers, on both sides of the aisle, as well as President Biden, to heed the calls from communities across the country on the urgent need for environmental review and permitting reform and to join in our efforts to deliver the modifications that America's employers, workers, and consumers need.

I look forward to the continued debate on environmental review and permitting reform, while always maintaining our shared goal of moving America forward.

Oppressed people cannot remain oppressed forever. The yearning for freedom eventually manifests itself, and that is what has happened to the American Negro. Something within has reminded him of his birthright of freedom, and something without has reminded him that it can be gained. Consciously or unconsciously, he has been caught up by the Zeitgeist, and with his black brothers of Africa and his brown and yellow brothers of Asia, South America and the Caribbean, the United States Negro is moving with a sense of great urgency toward the promised land of racial justice. If one recognizes this vital urge that has engulfed the Negro community, one should readily understand why public demonstrations are taking place. The Negro has many pent up resentments and latent frustrations, and he must release them. So let him march; let him make prayer pilgrimages to the city hall; let him go on freedom rides--and try to understand why he must do so. If his repressed emotions are not released in nonviolent ways, they will seek expression through violence; this is not a threat but a fact of history. So I have not said to my people: ``Get rid of your discontent.'' Rather, I have tried to say that this normal and healthy discontent can be channeled into the creative outlet of nonviolent direct action. And now this approach is being termed extremist. But though I was initially disappointed at being categorized as an extremist, as I continued to think about the matter I gradually gained a measure of satisfaction from the label. Was not Jesus an extremist for love: ``Love your enemies, bless them that curse you, do good to them that hate you, and pray for them which despitefully use you, and persecute you.'' Was not Amos an extremist for justice: ``Let justice roll down like waters and righteousness like an ever flowing stream.'' Was not Paul an extremist for the Christian gospel: ``I bear in my body the marks of the Lord Jesus.'' Was not Martin Luther an extremist: ``Here I stand; I cannot do otherwise, so help me God.'' And John Bunyan: ``I will stay in jail to the end of my days before I make a butchery of my conscience.'' And Abraham Lincoln: ``This nation cannot survive half slave and half free.'' And Thomas Jefferson: ``We hold these truths to be self evident, that all men are created equal . . . `` So the question is not whether we will be extremists, but what kind of extremists we will be. Will we be extremists for hate or for love? Will we be extremists for the preservation of injustice or for the extension of justice? In that dramatic scene on Calvary's hill three men were crucified. We must never forget that all three were crucified for the same crime--the crime of extremism. Two were extremists for immorality, and thus fell below their environment. The other, Jesus Christ, was an extremist for love, truth and goodness, and thereby rose above his environment. Perhaps the South, the nation and the world are in dire need of creative extremists.

I had hoped that the white moderate would see this need. Perhaps I was too optimistic; perhaps I expected too much. I suppose I should have realized that few members of the oppressor race can understand the deep groans and passionate yearnings of the oppressed race, and still fewer have the vision to see that injustice must be rooted out by strong, persistent and determined action. I am thankful, however, that some of our white brothers in the South have grasped the meaning of this social revolution and committed themselves to it. They are still all too few in quantity, but they are big in quality. Some--such as Ralph McGill, Lillian Smith, Harry Golden, James McBride Dabbs, Ann Braden and Sarah Patton Boyle--have written about our struggle in eloquent and prophetic terms. Others have marched with us down nameless streets of the South. They have languished in filthy, roach infested jails, suffering the abuse and brutality of policemen who view them as ``dirty nigger-lovers.'' Unlike so many of their moderate brothers and sisters, they have recognized the urgency of the moment and sensed the need for powerful ``action'' antidotes to combat the disease of segregation. Let me take note of my other major disappointment. I have been so greatly disappointed with the white church and its leadership. Of course, there are some notable exceptions. I am not unmindful of the fact that each of you has taken some significant stands on this issue. I commend you, Reverend Stallings, for your Christian stand on this past Sunday, in welcoming Negroes to your worship service on a nonsegregated basis. I commend the Catholic leaders of this state for integrating Spring Hill College several years ago.

But despite these notable exceptions, I must honestly reiterate that I have been disappointed with the church. I do not say this as one of those negative critics who can always find something wrong with the church. I say this as a minister of the gospel, who loves the church; who was nurtured in its bosom; who has been sustained by its spiritual blessings and who will remain true to it as long as the cord of life shall lengthen.

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