Department of the Interior, Environment, and Related Agencies Appropriations Act, 2025

Floor Speech

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Mr. STAUBER.

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Mr. STAUBER. Mr. Chair, amendment No. 88 to H.R. 8998 will ensure States and other cooperating entities that provide search-and-rescue services on Federal lands can receive reimbursement.

In northern Minnesota, the St. Louis County Rescue Squad assists people lost or injured in the Boundary Waters Canoe Area, which is Federal land in my district.

According to a Duluth News Tribune article, the squad's reported budget is about $450,000 per year. However, with the roughly 30,000 hours volunteer members dedicate to the cause each year, it is estimated that the squad provides about $3.5 million in free labor annually.

Recently, tragedy struck the BWCA. Two canoeists, Jesse Haugen of Cambridge and Reis Grams of Lino Lakes, fell over Curtain Falls. The St. Louis County Rescue Squad spent over 2 weeks on a search-and-rescue mission looking for these two individuals before they located their bodies. May these two souls rest in peace.

Of the 95 members of the St. Louis County Rescue Squad, 61 took part in the Curtain Falls mission. Combined, they worked almost 6,000 hours.

During a recent meeting I had with Squad Captain Rick Slatten, he estimated that the cost of the mission was around $150,000, over a quarter of their annual budget on one call.

As a former law enforcement officer, I know that rescue squads are critical to ensuring the safety of the constituencies and the many tourists that visit each year.

During a search-and-rescue mission, every second counts, and we need these crews to have the resources necessary to stay on top of their game or at a minimum know that they have the backing of the Federal Government to do what they can to save lives.

As the bill currently reads: The wildland fire management account can be used to reimburse States and other cooperating agencies for services provided in response to wildfire and other emergencies or disasters.

This amendment simply clarifies that search and rescue is a part of that reimbursement category. This will ensure that our search-and- rescue squads can continue to conduct these vital services in our communities.

Search-and-rescue volunteer rescue squads from small townships and small cities across America enter our Federal lands to rescue people that are in our Federal lands for enjoyment. It costs a lot of money to keep up equipment. It costs a lot of time and training, and these dollars will recognize them by saying that their rescue efforts are important to all of us.

Mr. Chair, I ask that this amendment be made in order, and I ask Members to be in support on the floor. 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 designate the Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness located within the Superior National Forest in northern Minnesota as a national monument under the Antiquities Act.

The Superior National Forest is a working industrial forest, and it should always remain one. Responsible mining and responsible timber harvesting are desired traits of the forest. Mining and timber harvesting are part of our way of life in northern Minnesota, and they exist hand in hand with recreation and conservation.

This amendment protects our way of life and protects against an activist administration here in Washington taking steps to change it. In December 2016, while they were on their way out of office, the Obama-Biden administration made a last-minute Antiquities Act designation for Bears Ears in southeastern Utah. The amendment before you today is an insurance policy to ensure that the Biden-Harris administration doesn't make a last-ditch effort to do the same and designate a new monument in northern Minnesota which would jeopardize desired responsible use of the Superior National Forest, again, a working industrial forest.

Contrary to what my colleagues on the other side of the aisle will likely argue, this amendment will not jeopardize any existing protections that the wilderness area already enjoys. This amendment does not expand mining or timber harvesting into the Boundary Waters. This amendment ensures we can continue to mine and harvest timber outside of the Boundary Waters.

Let me be clear. Mining will never take place in the Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness. That has been settled since 1978 when Congress passed the Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness Act. Back in 1978, my predecessor, then-Representative of the Eighth Congressional District, Democrat Jim Oberstar, stood here on the House floor and argued that our ability to responsibly mine and harvest timber in the Superior National Forest shall never be infringed.

This amendment is quite simple. It simply reaffirms Congress' intent when the 1978 wilderness act was passed. It simply protects against overreach from the executive branch, and, most importantly, it protects our way of life in northern Minnesota.

Mr. Chair, I urge all my colleagues to support this amendment, and I reserve the balance of my time.

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Mr. STAUBER. Mr. Chairman, I appreciate my good friend and colleague from Minnesota's comments. I will tell you that in 2016 on their way out the Obama-Biden administration, for purely political reasons, pulled mining leases for a company that wanted to mine critical minerals in northeastern Minnesota. The Biden- Harris administration went against the Supreme Court when the Supreme Court ruled that it is unconstitutional to pay off student loans, and they still did it.

What this says, Mr. Chair, is as the Biden-Harris administration is in their waning days here, they can't diminish our opportunities in northeastern Minnesota, period.

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Mr. STAUBER. Mr. Chairman, again, I do not trust the Biden-Harris administration on their way out. I do not trust them on their way out. This will ensure that the Superior National Forest and the Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness remains as it is and there are no antiquities put forth. I do not trust the Biden-Harris administration when it comes to mining. They are the most anti-mining administration in the history of the United States of America. They haven't opened one mine.

Mr. Chair, I yield back the balance of my time.
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Mr. STAUBER. Mr. Chairman, I rise to offer my amendment that prohibits any funds from being used to expand the Boundary Waters Canoe Wilderness Area within the Superior National Forest in northern Minnesota.

Mining and timber harvesting have played a significant role in the culture and the economy of northern Minnesota for well over a century. Mining and timber harvesting are our past, our present, and our future in northern Minnesota. We have proven we can mine and harvest timber responsibly all while still protecting and enjoying the beautiful area that we call home.

Antimining and antiforestry activists in this administration have taken step after step to attack our way of life in Minnesota. As my colleagues in this Chamber have heard me discuss time and time again, the Biden-Harris administration have used every tool to ban mining in northern Minnesota. They pulled the long-held leases for the Twin Metals project where copper was to be mined responsibly. Then they went even further and put into place a 20-year mineral withdrawal banning mining on 225,504 acres in the working industrial Superior National Forest.

What is next, Mr. Chairman?

What will they do next to attack our way of life and further stop mining in northern Minnesota?

My amendment will prevent the Biden-Harris administration from expanding the wilderness area while they are on their way out of the door later this year.

Just like my last amendment, this amendment does nothing to jeopardize existing protections for the Boundary Waters. This amendment does not expand mining or timber harvesting into the Boundary Waters. It simply ensures our ability to responsibly mine and harvest timber outside of the Boundary Waters. This amendment simply ensures this administration or any future administration cannot further attack our way of life in northeastern Minnesota.

Mr. Chair, I urge all my colleagues to support my amendment, and I reserve the balance of my time.

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Mr. STAUBER. Mr. Chair, we have to remember that as we speak, the U.S. Forest Service is looking to purchase 70,000 acres of the wilderness from the school trust fund. They are looking to expand the wilderness as we speak.

Again, what this does is it ensures that the Biden-Harris administration on their way out doesn't do anything to expand the wilderness area.

My good friend and colleague from Minnesota says that the executive branch can't. They will try, and what this does, Mr. Chairman, is it ensures them not even considering it because it is part of legislation now.

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Mr. STAUBER. Mr. Chairman, in closing, I offered three amendments. In the last two, I think I have said maybe three or four times now that as the Biden-Harris administration exits at the end of this year, I don't trust what they are going to do to our wilderness area, our mining, and our timber harvesting. They have proven it. The Obama-Biden administration took a run at northeastern Minnesota when they pulled the leases on their way out.

What this does, Mr. Chair, is ensures that this blocks them from the attempt. This blocks them from the attempt to devastate northeastern Minnesota more so than they have already done.

Mr. Chairman, I yield back the balance of my time.

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