Department of the Interior, Environment, and Related Agencies Appropriations Act, 2024

Floor Speech

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Mr. HIGGINS of Louisiana. Mr. Chair, the Biden administration has been quite focused on destroying the American energy industry. This entire insane focus on allegedly protecting a species of whale in the Gulf of Mexico has been used by the Biden administration to attempt to deeply restrict oil and gas actions in the Gulf of Mexico.

Whales, Mr. Chair. They wanted to stop vessels from moving at night. They wanted to stop vessels from moving over 10 knots. It is insane.

Americans are struggling. Inflation is crushing us. The American energy industry should be unleashed, not oppressed.

I rise in support of Representative Graves' amendment, and I urge all Members to support this amendment in support of an American energy industry that should be dominant worldwide.

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Mr. HIGGINS of Louisiana. Madam Chair, I rise in support of this amendment, and I thank my colleague for introducing it.

Madam Chair, our history is our history, all of it. We live in an era wherein my Democrat colleagues across the aisle seem to fail to recognize the simple fact that if you are rewriting history, you are rewriting history of this body, and the American people have lost all trust in any kind of sanity coming out of my Democrat colleagues.

From sea to shining sea, taking down statues. How is that working? How is that going, Madam Chair?

Do we have peace in our time? Is our border okay? Is the world not on fire? Do we have more or less racial problems in America today than we did 20 years ago?

It is insane, again, what my Democrat colleagues push.

The confederate soldiers buried in Arlington, shall you remove their bones?

Madam Chair, I support the amendment.

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Mr. HIGGINS of Louisiana. Mr. Chair, the EPA does not need armed agents loaded with attitude rolling up on American citizens trying to mind their own business. This is happening. It is stunning but it is happening. You have armed EPA agents rolling up on our farmers with no warrant. You have two agents emerge from an unmarked car to check the fuel in the saddlebag tanks of diesel trucks with their little strips and proceed to issue $10,000 fines.

Can you imagine, Mr. Chair, your city's code enforcement being pushed by armed agents with attitudes? This is happening in our EPA. It is happening in other alphabet agencies. It is wrong, and we are going to put a stop to it one way or another.

I support my friend's amendment, and I urge all colleagues to step up and push back against the weaponization of our Federal Government against the American people.

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