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

Floor Speech

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Mr. STAUBER. Mr. Chair, I rise to offer my amendment that prohibits any funds from being used to carry out the Biden administration's NEPA Phase 1 rule.

It is clear we have bipartisan consensus--our permitting system is broken. Our permitting system is holding up projects in every district, whether it is Republican or Democrat, and NEPA deserves a lot of this blame.

When NEPA was first passed in 1969, it was a five-page bill. Over the last 50 years, it has grown out of control thanks to executive actions and activist courts. Today, NEPA is an albatross, blocking everything from highway infrastructure projects that connect communities and enable commerce to energy projects that are necessary for securing our energy independence.

In 2020, the Trump administration enacted the first real NEPA reforms in a generation. It helped bring NEPA back to its original intent. Importantly, the Trump administration's reforms removed the requirement to consider ``cumulative impacts,'' that go far beyond a proposed project. This prevented opponents of important projects from abusing the NEPA process and pointing to outrageous, distant, so-called cumulative impacts a project could hypothetically pose.

The reforms also forced Federal agencies to build consistency in permitting reviews and ensured all Federal agencies follow the same standards and procedures. These reforms began to point us back in the right direction. The Biden administration's NEPA Phase 1 rule reversed the Trump-era reforms. It reinstated the cumulative impact requirements. It gave free rein back to Federal agencies to put up roadblocks for projects they didn't want.

The Phase 1 rule is just another part of the Biden administration's anywhere but America, any worker but American agenda.

Mr. Chair, the Biden administration's NEPA Phase 1 rule is a step in the wrong direction. It is important that we adopt my amendment and return some sanity to our broken permitting system.

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Mr. STAUBER. Mr. Chair, I think my colleagues on the other side of the aisle don't understand this.

This administration just last month removed NEPA for the Floyd Bennett Field to host migrants. The Biden administration completely took NEPA off the table for their agenda because of the open border. By the way, the IRA, the IIJA, and the CHIPS Act are not going to happen without permitting reforms and NEPA changes. Come hell or high water, it is not going to happen without the changes. I think both sides of the aisle understand that and agree with that.

We have the highest standard of living in the world because of our process. This administration continues to put up roadblocks for energy transmission, distribution, generation, mining projects, nuclear projects, road construction projects, dams, and forest management. Everything that the American people want to do in a reasonable fashion is held up in part because of NEPA. This is a very good amendment, and I urge adoption.

Mr. Chair, in closing, we can agree that our permitting process is broken. In the debt ceiling, we got a couple of permitting concerns addressed that were generational, hadn't been done in 40 years. We want to be able to make sure that the American worker, the American manufacturer, American technology, our natural resources in our country can be used responsibly.

Why are we putting agreements together with the Congo to mine our minerals that we have, for instance, in northern Minnesota, the biggest copper-nickel find in the world. Why are we doing that?

Why is this administration stopping the American worker, stopping the creativity that we have, stopping not only our energy independence but our national security by going to our adversaries and asking them for our critical minerals or asking them for their energy? We can do better.

Mr. Chair, I yield back the balance of my time.
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Mr. STAUBER. Mr. Chair, I rise to offer my amendment that prohibits any funds from being used to finalize or otherwise carry out the Biden administration's proposed NEPA Phase 2 rule.

Rather than working to fix our broken permitting system and working to address the incredible challenges and barriers NEPA poses, the Biden administration's proposed rule makes our already broken system even worse. This proposed rule expands the broken NEPA framework, adds additional requirements, and creates new tools for opponents to shut down good projects.

The NEPA Phase 2 rule would require Federal agencies not only to consider climate change but also add a new requirement to consider environmental justice during the NEPA review process, including environmental tree justice and tree equity. These new requirements are just another way that opponents of highway infrastructure projects, water infrastructure projects, critical mineral mining projects, renewable energy projects, transmission projects, oil and gas development projects get to a ``no.'' This administration does not want to do it here in the United States of America.

Additionally, the NEPA Phase 2 rule violates the reforms Congress has put forth to address our permitting woes. These reforms were part of the bipartisan Fiscal Responsibility Act that we passed earlier this year.

Trust me, the permitting provisions in the debt ceiling agreement did not solve all of our permitting problems, but they were an important step in the right direction. For example, it included strict page limits and review deadlines for an environmental assessment or an environmental impact statement.

Does the NEPA Phase 2 rule implement these reforms? Absolutely not.

This administration is not following the laws that Congress put forward. In fact, when CEQ chair Brenda Mallory, the Biden administration official tasked with fixing NEPA and our broken permitting system, testified before the Natural Resources Committee in June, she claimed the administration didn't need to change a thing.

She told Congress this administration would just follow and do business as usual.

She falsely claimed that this administration was already doing everything the debt ceiling agreement instructed it to do, and that is absolutely not true.

The NEPA Phase 2 rule is a blatant show of disregard for congressional intent and the law that this body passed and President Biden signed into law.

The NEPA Phase 2 rule is completely misguided. It is a step in the wrong direction, and it is important we vote today to prevent the administration from moving to finalize the rule.

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Mr. STAUBER. Mr. Chair, what this amendment does is that it allows American energy, American prosperity, American technology, and American workers to provide energy and critical minerals, transmission projects, highway and bridge projects, dams and rivers.

This allows us to do it here. This allows our communities to have a voice in what happens, not Federal three-letter agency bureaucrats telling the American people what they need and what is best in their communities because our local elected officials know better than Washington, D.C., and the bureaucrats.

These three-letter agencies are out of control. They are unelected. They are not accountable to anybody, and this administration is not following the laws that this body passed.

For years and years, administrations haven't followed what Congress and the Senate have put forward. It is about time we do that, and it can start today.

Mr. Chair, I urge adoption of my amendment, and I yield back the balance of my time.

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