Servicemember Quality of Life Improvement and National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2025

Floor Speech

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Mr. BEYER. Mr. Chair, I rise in opposition to the amendment.

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Mr. BEYER. Mr. Chair, before I address this amendment, as a 46-year automobile dealer no longer involved in the family business but still close to my family, I would like to point out that one in six new vehicles sold in America last year was an electric vehicle. Every one we get is sold right away, and I don't see any of the manufacturers having much problem with that.

There is a new statement out from the administration this morning that American consumers saved $1 billion in purchasing electric vehicles last year and are anticipated to save another $2 billion in maintenance costs and gasoline costs during the lifetime of the vehicle. We are moving in the right direction very swiftly, not as swiftly as we would like but still very swiftly.

Mr. Chair, as co-chair of the Congressional Endangered Species Act Caucus, I rise today in opposition to amendment No. 23 of the National Defense Authorization Act offered by Mr. Biggs of Arizona.

I am shocked that we are considering this unpopular amendment once again after it was brutally defeated on this House floor last year with bipartisan support. The widespread public support for the Endangered Species Act hasn't changed much in the last 11 months, but our current biodiversity crisis has surely worsened.

The scientific community is screaming from the rooftops that we face a biodiversity crisis. We should be discussing how to better protect our Nation's wildlife, and it is deeply unsettling that some folks here are attacking one of the most popular and effective bills ever to pass the U.S. Congress. This is surely a partisan distraction from an Endangered Species Act that poses absolutely no threat to our national security.

Look, the Department of Defense has not asked for this. They consider this a baseless attack on the Endangered Species Act. Once again, to quote my dear friend from Virginia, this is just another classic example of a solution in search of a problem, a problem which does not exist.

The Department of Defense already has a strong natural resources program. It has an efficient collaboration with Fish and Wildlife Services that has actually led to the delisting of previously endangered species.

In the midst of a biodiversity crisis, we need the ESA to remain strong. We need Federal agencies, including the Department of Defense, to continue to collaborate with each other to protect endangered wildlife.

Mr. Chair, I urge my colleagues to once more see clearly through this distraction and reject this unwanted, unnecessary amendment.

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Mr. BEYER. Mr. Chair, I yield to the gentleman from California (Mr. Huffman), one of the great champions of the environment who is not from Northern Virginia.
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Mr. BEYER. Mr. Chair, I demand a recorded vote.

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