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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Mr. SULLIVAN. Madam President, I want to thank Senator Capito and Senator Barrasso for their leadership on an issue that matters to every single American. This is one of those issues where the Congress of the United States should be coming together in a bipartisan way to make sure we have a permitting system that enables us to build things--every kind of thing we need: roads, bridges, ports, energy, renewables, oil, and gas.

The system is broken. Everybody knows it.

I like to show this photo when I am talking about permitting reform. Why am I showing this very iconic photo of some men here building the Empire State Building? Because we all know that one of the great things about America is that we used to be able to build things--big things-- on time: 410 days to build the Empire State Building. The Hoover Dam took less than 5 years to build. A little closer to home to me, the 1,700-mile Alaska-Canada Highway, what we call the ALCAN Highway, through some of the world's most rugged terrain--11 months.

This was the great thing about America. With the best workers in the world, we built huge things, on time, on budget--but not anymore, not anymore.

I don't want to be too partisan here, but one of the things that we all know we need is permitting. It is permitting. I am obsessed with this issue.

But I will tell you this. Every time--and it is probably going to happen again--we have a big permitting opportunity, a big permitting bill on the floor, what happens? It usually is a battle between the men and women who build stuff. The unions who build things, they want permitting reform. They want to be back in action, like these men decades ago.

The men and women who build things want it. The radical, far-left environmental groups hate it because they want to block building anything in America. They want to block producing any energy in America.

Unfortunately, when it is a choice between the men and women who build stuff and the far-left radical enviros on permitting, my Democratic colleagues almost every single time go with the radical left, not the men and women who build things. I hope it doesn't happen again, but it happens all the time.

Here is the thing: As I mentioned, our country used to build incredible things on time. Now we are a country that is tangled up in redtape. A simple highway in the United States can now take as long as 19 years to permit and build. In Alaska, we are ground zero for these kinds of projects where the permitting is delayed, far-left lower 48 environmental groups sue to stop, and they take advantage of NEPA.

Let me give an example. We had a gold mine in Alaska called the Kensington Mine. If you include the litigation from the far-left environmental groups, it took 20 years to permit--20 years. How does that help the country? How does that help my State? How does that help workers? It doesn't. The only people who like that are the far-left environmental groups and Xi Jinping and Putin, who want to make sure America can't produce.

So what has happened is the National Environmental Policy Act--NEPA, as we call it--has been abused. It was a great idea when it was passed in the late 1960s. It required builders to engage with the public, consider the environmental impacts of important projects. But back then, it was usually a couple of hundred pages, a NEPA review that would take about a year. Now that is several thousand pages. It takes several years for the NEPA process to move forward.

We have, again, some of our great leaders in our building trades. This is James Callahan, general president of the International Operating Engineers. Here is what he said recently on a piece of legislation that I moved forward last year, a CRA on a permitting issues:

Since its modest beginning, NEPA has evolved into a massive edifice, capable of destroying project after project--

Destroying, not helping--

job after job, in virtually every sector of the economy.

Whether it is the permitting bill that Senator Capito and Senator Barrasso have done such a great job in leading; whether it is my Rebuild America Now Act, which is a major reform of the NEPA process-- by the way, the vast majority of the building trades in America, the men and women who build things, support my legislation.

We need permitting reform. It is that simple. When you talk to a Governor in pretty much any State, whether they are Democrat or Republican; when you talk to a mayor, Democrat or Republican--it doesn't matter--they say: We have to fix our broken permitting system.

We had a hearing on airport infrastructure in the Commerce Committee several years ago. The head of the Seattle-Tacoma Airport was testifying. They had just built a new runway at Sea-Tac.

I asked him: How long did it take to build that runway?

In the hearing, he said: Three to four years.

I said: Well, that seems a little long, but I am not in construction, so I don't know exactly, but it seems a little long to build a new runway. How long did it take you to get the permits from the Federal Government to build that runway?

I didn't know the answer, but I am obsessed with this topic because it is killing our country. It is really hurting working men and women, like James Callahan, one of our great union leaders.

This witness looked at me--the head of the Sea-Tac Airport--when I asked him: How long did it take to get the permits?

He said: Senator Sullivan, 15 years.

Fifteen years to get a permit to build a new runway. You could hear the entire hearing room just kind of collectively groan because everybody knows it is bad for America.

Then he said: Senator, with the time it took to build the new runway--4 years--and the time it took to get the permits--15 years-- almost 20 years.

The ancient Egyptians would have built the Pyramids by then. This is killing us. Everybody knows it. This should be a bipartisan issue.

I will end with this: Last year, I was proud to lead the efforts on what is called a Congressional Review Act, CRA. What it was for was--we passed the bipartisan infrastructure bill. We got some OK permitting reform in there--not as much as I wanted, but it was not bad. So that was good. I voted for the bill. It wasn't perfect. But then the Biden administration White House, at the behest of the far-left radical enviros, issued rules on permitting that were undermining its own bipartisan infrastructure bill. The CEQ put out rules that would make it much harder to build things in America--not just energy projects, all projects. It was crazy.

So I introduced a Congressional Review Act resolution to rescind the Biden rule driven by the far-left radical enviros. Here is the good news: My CRA passed in a bipartisan way on the floor of the U.S. Senate. Over 40 groups--you name them--farmers, ranchers, people who build things, all the building trades in America, all the unions--this collective group of over 40 groups representing millions of Americans who build stuff, who farm things, who grow things, all came and said: We support the Sullivan Congressional Review Act.

That is what we should be doing now. The Barrasso-Capito bill; Senator Manchin introduced his permitting legislation--we all know it is the right thing to do.

To my Democratic colleagues: Listen to the men and women who build stuff. Listen to the men and women who grow things. Don't listen to the far-left radical enviros who don't want any permitting reform because they love to crush projects. Be courageous. Vote with us on the permitting reform that everybody in America knows we need.

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