Creating Confidence in Clean Water Permitting Act

Floor Speech

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Mr. MOOLENAAR. Mr. Chair, my amendment is straightforward.

It prohibits the EPA from issuing a water permit to a company that is based in a foreign country of concern as well as any of its subsidiaries.

The countries of concern are China, Russia, Iran, and North Korea. This is common sense.

As a member of the Select Committee on the Strategic Competition Between the United States and the Chinese Communist Party, I have seen firsthand how the CCP is trying to disrupt American leadership around the world and replace it with their own authoritarian regime.

Here at home, Americans feel like China is constantly taking advantage of our country and our freedoms. They are sick and tired of seeing the CCP fly spy balloons over our country, bribe our servicemembers to spy on us, hack our computer systems, poison our communities with fentanyl, and depress our children with secret social media algorithms based in Beijing.

Mr. Chair, if you talked to constituents in your hometown and asked them if we should allow CCP-affiliated companies to use 700,000 gallons of water a day, they would all say, of course not.

Unfortunately, in my district, the CCP-affiliated company called Gotion is trying to bully its way into town. The company was rejected in a recall election last November and now it is suing a rural township over its plans to build a factory and use 700,000 gallons of water a day.

The EPA should not be issuing permits to CCP-affiliated companies and their subsidiaries.

We cannot allow China to take advantage of our country's natural resources.

My amendment is necessary, and it is common sense.

Mr. Chair, I urge my colleagues to vote ``yes,'' and I reserve the balance of my time.

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Mr. MOOLENAAR. Mr. Chair, again, I would just restate for the Members that we are talking about countries of concern--China, Russia, Iran, and North Korea.

When we consider that China and the CCP have been flying spy balloons, bribing our servicemembers, poisoning our communities with fentanyl, and the malign activities that they are engaging in around the globe, why would we submit ourselves and our greatest natural resources? To me it is just common sense. When we are funding projects, when we are developing the future of our country, why would we further our dependence on our adversaries?

Mr. Chair, just in closing, I would ask our colleagues to vote ``yes,'' and I yield back the balance of my time.

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