Energy and Water Development and Related Agencies Approrpriations Act, 2016

Floor Speech

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Mr. Chairman, I rise to offer an amendment that will help prevent future floods, as well as protect valuable water storage and hydropower systems throughout the country.

Specifically, the Gosar-Newhouse amendment will prevent any funds in this bill from being used to remove any federally owned or operated dams. In recent years, extremist environmental groups have increased efforts to dismantle and remove Federal dams. These efforts defy common sense, particularly at a time of major water challenges across the West and with an increasing need for clean, renewable hydropower.

The gentleman from Washington has seen these attempts firsthand, and I am grateful for Congressman Newhouse's leadership in coleading this amendment.

Electricity generated from the Army Corps of Engineers and Bureau of Reclamation operated dams is utilized by millions of Americans every day and represents the largest source of renewable energy in this country.

These dams are multiuse facilities that provide navigation, hydropower, and important recreational benefits. Fringe efforts to remove these dams are not only misguided, but extremely dangerous. Many of these dams are essential components for flood controls, strategic water storage, and life-sustaining irrigation for millions of acres of American agriculture.

Tens of millions of Americans rely on these dams to supply their drinking water and to support their livelihoods. The vital water, energy, economic, and ecological benefits provided by these federally owned and operated dams must be protected.

Mr. Chairman, I urge my colleagues to support the Corps of Engineers infrastructure and to support this amendment. The Corps of Engineers and the Bureau of Reclamation have both indicated they have no plans to remove any dams in fiscal year 2016, and both agencies don't have any issues with this amendment.

Both committees of jurisdiction have also signed off on and support the amendment. Any emergency removals will be made by a different authorization or appropriation.

With one of the worst droughts in 100 years currently transpiring in the West, there is no logical reason to oppose the commonsense Gosar-Newhouse amendment.

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Mr. Chairman, I rise today to offer an amendment to save taxpayer money, help the Department of Energy avoid duplicative programs, and ensure the agency's limited resources are focused on programs directly related to its mission to ensure energy security for the United States.

This simple amendment would prohibit the use of funds to be used for the proposed Climate Model Development and Validation program within the Department of Energy. This exact same amendment passed this body by a voice vote last year, and this year, I am also proud again to offer this commonsense policy.

The duplicative and wasteful nature of this new program has been recognized by several outside spending watchdog groups. This amendment proposal has been supported in the past by the Council for Citizens Against Government Waste, The American Conservative Union, Eagle Forum, and the Taxpayers Protection Alliance.

Mr. Chairman, the House of Representatives already declined to fund the proposed climate model program in fiscal years 2014 and 2015. In previous years, the committee has proactively included language in the committee report to prohibit funding for this new program. However, such language does not exist in this year's report, making this amendment even more necessary.

Mr. Chairman, I feel strongly that the House of Representatives must continue its firm position that we should not be wasting precious taxpayer resources on new programs that compete with the private sector and are funded by private investment.

If funded, this program would be yet another new addition to the President's ever-growing list of duplicative global programs that have been instituted and funded all over the Federal Government in recent years.

The nonpartisan Congressional Research Service estimates this administration has already squandered $77 billion from fiscal year 2008 through fiscal year 2013 studying and trying to develop global climate change regulations.

While research and modeling of the Earth's climate and how and why Earth's climate is changing can be of value, it is not central to the Department's mission and is already being done by dozens of government, academic, business, and nonprofit organizations across the globe.

Considering the extensive work that is being done to research, model, and forecast climate change trends by other areas in the government, in the private sector, and internationally, funding for this specific piece of President Obama's climate agenda is not only redundant, but is also inefficient.

I thank the chairman, ranking member, and committee for their work on this bill. This amendment is about effective use of taxpayer money, and I ask my colleagues to support this commonsense amendment that passed this same body just last year.

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Mr. Chairman, I find it interesting that we have numerous universities already doing this duplicative study, like the University of Michigan, like the University of Colorado Boulder, like Harvard University, the University of Arizona, the University of Chicago, the University of California--Berkeley--hardly squandering research.

This is a duplicative problem and program, and that is exactly what we are doing. I want to find out exactly this climate model change that we have been seeing over and over with time, but it is best to be done by those universities and those who are already there.

We have also got a dire emergency in regards to the finances that we find this country in. Duplicative services from the Department of Energy should be on their mission statement, and that is dependable energy for this country.

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