License to Drill Act

Floor Speech

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Ms. STANSBURY. Mr. Speaker, I rise in support of H.R. 7831, the License to Drill Act.

This bill would reauthorize a commonsense permitting program, allowing the Bureau of Land Management to continue collecting fees with applications for permits to drill oil and gas wells.

These fees go into the Permit Processing Improvement Fund, which funds the expert staff responsible for processing drilling permits, conducting inspections, and ensuring compliance with environmental laws.

Studies have consistently found that understaffing at agencies is one of the most common causes of permitting delays. Funding expert agency staff, as the Permit Processing Improvement Fund does, is the simplest solution to speeding up permitting without cutting corners on safety.

Without this bill, BLM's authority to collect these fees will expire at the end of this year. Allowing this authority to expire would have serious consequences for staffing and permitting efficiency, especially given the devastating cuts to the Federal workforce that have been undertaken by this administration.

I urge support for this legislation, and I reserve the balance of my time.

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Ms. STANSBURY. Mr. Speaker, I have no further requests for time.

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Ms. STANSBURY. Mr. Speaker, I urge my colleagues to support this legislation, and I yield back the balance of my time.

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