Department of the Interior, Environment, and Related Agencies Appropriations Act, 2025
Floor Speech
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Ms. McCOLLUM. Madam Chair, I thank Ranking Member Pingree for the time, and I thank Chairman Simpson and the staff on both sides of the aisle for their work on the subcommittee, especially the work that they did on wildland fires and, when it comes to shared responsibilities to our Native-American brothers and sisters, for the great work done on the bill there.
As of today, I still have to strongly oppose the bill because it does not meet the needs of the American people.
This summer, our Nation has experienced dangerous levels of heat with records shattered across the West. We are seeing the impacts of a warming planet, increased severe weather events that cause devastating wildland fires, and extreme cycles of drought and floods, which I personally have witnessed in my district both on the Mississippi and St. Croix Rivers.
This bill ignores reality. It fails to confront climate change, and in doing so, it fails our communities and our constituents.
The Republican majority has made unacceptable cuts in this bill to the arts and humanities, our national parks, public lands, and the Environmental Protection Agency in part because of the allocation. I do think the allocation was raised a little bit when we went to our full markup.
The 20 percent cut to the EPA will increase the risk to all of our constituents who rely on the agency to safeguard their air, their water, to clean up harmful pollution, to test chemicals and consumer products, and respond to emergencies like last year's train derailment in East Palestine, Ohio, or when the EPA had to come out with their emergency team to clean up a disaster waiting to happen at a closed facility in my district. The MPCA and the St. Paul Fire Department were happy to have them there.
This also underscores harmful partisan riders in this bill. Most of these have nothing to do with the appropriations or even the jurisdiction of the committee. The Republican majority continues to use appropriations bills to advance discriminatory and harmful language and scores points with their extreme right political base, as we see in much of Project 2025. These riders promote the interests of corporate polluters. They target the rights of our fellow citizens, and they have no place in funding legislation.
Two of these poison pills are attempts to overturn protections put in place for the watershed that flows through the Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness and Voyageurs National Park. I submitted two amendments to strike these harmful provisions from this legislation, but the Republican majority in the Rules Committee did not make them in order, denying a vote on protecting the most pristine, priceless watershed in the United States and even in North America, I would say.
My hope is that we can work together in conference to improve this bill. As of this moment, the deep cuts and the poison pill policy riders it currently contains makes my vote a ``no'' on this bill.
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Ms. McCOLLUM. Madam Chair, I claim the time in opposition to this amendment.
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Ms. McCOLLUM. Madam Chair, I am very, very supportive of increasing funding in this important program, and I thank the chairman for his hard work, bipartisan work over the years in combating wildland fires.
However, I simply cannot support the offset proposed for this amendment. Funding for the EPA in the base bill was already cut $1.8 billion below the enacted level, and this reduction makes it impossible for the EPA to carry out its mission. We need the worker bees of the EPA to keep the EPA moving forward for the American public.
Madam Chair, I urge my colleagues to oppose this amendment, and I yield back the balance of my time.
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Ms. McCOLLUM. Madam Chair, I claim the time in opposition to this amendment.
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Ms. McCOLLUM. Madam Chair, to be clear, I fully support the oversight efforts and believe in the mission of the inspectors general offices across this government. It is vital.
When I was former chair of this committee, I supported their work. I supported their work as the former chair of the Defense Subcommittee and as ranking member, but I have to strongly disagree with the offset and the treatment of the EPA in this bill in general.
In the base bill, the EPA is cut by nearly 20 percent. Almost every single account is cut except for the Office of the Inspector General; so, quite frankly, the inspector general's office does pretty well under this bill being protected.
Cutting every single program at the EPA and seeking to increase funding for only one office, which happens to be the oversight office, is clearly an attempt by the majority to politicize the inspector general. That, to me, is just unacceptable, Madam Chair, so I oppose the amendment.
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Ms. McCOLLUM. Mr. Chair, I appreciate Chairman Simpson's remarks, but I would like to correct a point that was made earlier in the debate.
The bill already does include a provision to provide the IG with a percentage of funds from the IRA. It is on page 216, section 471.
The gentlewoman might want to double check before making such a broad statement, again, that it didn't include any funding that could be used from the IRA.
Mr. Chair, I still oppose the amendment, and I yield back the balance of my time.
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Ms. McCOLLUM. Mr. Chair, I rise in opposition to the amendment.
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Ms. McCOLLUM. Mr. Chair, first and foremost, I do not believe that the United States Government purchases oil from Russia. We have sanctions against them. We do not purchase oil from Iran.
Mr. Chair, this amendment is one more controversial poison pill rider that sadly shows extremist Republicans are not interested in bills that can gain bipartisan support and become law.
The fluid mineral lease and leasing program rules haven't been updated for years, and it is our responsibility to make sure taxpayers get a good return on our natural resources when they are put out to lease.
What this tries to do is just update these outdated fiscal terms on the offshore oil and gas leasing program, including bonding requirements to protect taxpayers, royalty rates, and minimum bids to make sure that U.S. taxpayers receive a fair amount for their public lands when they are used as lease materials.
The rule aims to increase returns to the American taxpayers. I can't say this enough. It is to make sure that taxpayers are getting a fair shake, that they are assured of a fair return from the extraction of natural resources on public lands, and to discourage speculators and improve responsible stewardship as directed by Congress.
We are here to protect the cultural and natural resources of our public lands for future generations, and that means when they go out to bid, we make sure that the royalty rates and the minimum bids serve the taxpayers well and bonding requirements to protect taxpayers are put into place.
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Ms. McCOLLUM. Mr. Chair, I want to state another fact for the record. When we extract oil and natural gas out of public lands, it is sold on a global market, so when it is sold, it is sold to other folks. If we are running into energy independence challenges as was pointed out, part of that is because it is sold on the global market.
I also want to point out for the record that it has been almost four decades since taxpayers have had bonding requirements, royalty rates, and minimum bids looked at to make sure they are protected.
Let me close with this: Once again, my Republican colleagues are disregarding the law and trying to circumvent the rigorous practices that are in place to update rules. Nullifying public comments also would happen with this amendment.
We can't close our eyes to the impacts of climate change that we are experiencing, as our economy, health, livelihoods, food security, and quality of life all depend upon a healthy ecosystem.
Mr. Chair, I urge my colleagues to reject this amendment and focus instead on addressing climate change and being good stewards of our public lands and resources for the benefit of future generations. That means refreshing and updating almost 40-year-old oil, gas, and mineral leasing.
Mr. Chair, I yield back the balance of my time.
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Ms. McCOLLUM. Mr. Chair, I rise in opposition to the amendment.
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Ms. McCOLLUM. Mr. Chair, I rise in the strongest opposition possible to this amendment.
One of our greatest strengths as a nation is we learn, we grow, and we change. That means diversity is a great strength in this country.
There was a time, Mr. Chair, when women couldn't vote. There was a time when juries were only men. There was a time when it was unthinkable for a woman to join a police department or a woman to be a doctor. Her place was to be a nurse. There was a time in our military in which women could be test pilots here at home during the war, but after the war, they were no longer allowed to be pilots in the sky flying commercially.
Diversity, equity, and inclusion is DEI. The American experience is not a singular experience, and diversity programs exist to recognize this.
I am going to give another example, Mr. Chair. When I was in the State legislature in Minnesota, we had a vibrant Hmong community that came here after the Lao war in Vietnam. It was a secret war in Laos. The Hmong people came here, and there were very outdoors people.
In understanding and making sure that they understood our natural resource laws, we decided we wanted to reach out and include that diversity. I was part of the legislation that was written. We asked our natural resources department to look for qualified people to hire--from Vietnam, Laos, Cambodia--to work with our wonderful diverse community in the Twin Cities and have them feel included and wanted because we wanted them to experience the great outdoors of Minnesota.
We did that. They were well qualified and well respected. Just this year, I was surprised that one of the fathers came up to me when I was doing my recruitment and acceptance for going into the military academies. He said: You don't remember me, but because of you, I felt like I could do this job, and I did it well.
He retired from the State of Minnesota working for the Department of Natural Resources, and I appointed his son to go to one of our military academies. That is the beauty of our country.
The fact is also that business leaders agree that having a diverse and inclusive workforce is critical to their overall performance. I was in sales for years. If you are selling to somebody, you better understand their culture, and you better understand their needs and their wants. The business community embraces this.
The attempt to defund or to block the implementation of these efforts only takes us back to a time in our Nation's diversity when women were not seen as an asset.
I oppose this amendment.
Mr. Chair, I am not going to speak on this any longer. This has been replayed over and over and over again. For me, it is hateful, it is hurtful, and it is harmful. We amended our Constitution numerous times to include diversity and inclusion.
Mr. Chair, I yield back the balance of my time.
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Ms. McCOLLUM. Mr. Chair, I claim the time in opposition to the amendment.
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Ms. McCOLLUM. Mr. Chair, the amendment would block the Department of the Interior's Bicycle Subsidy Benefit Program which encourages Federal employees to use bicycles to commute to the office.
We all know what the traffic is going to be like here tomorrow. Bikes would be handy.
The Department created this program in response to a 1993--this is not a new, President Biden-Vice President Harris program. It has been around since 1993. Congress authorized it, and Congress allowed each agency head to establish a program to encourage employees to use a means other than single-occupancy motor vehicles to commute to and from work. That could include taking the subway, taking the bus, or riding your bike.
This is a government-wide program, and the amendment unfairly targets the Department of the Interior employees. I urge my colleagues to treat all employees with fairness, and let's reject this amendment.
Let's also make sure that when we are talking about it, we have our facts accurate. In 1993, Congress made a law which authorized each agency to establish this program.
Mr. Chair, I yield back the balance of my time.
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