'They Don't Have To Go Down This Road': Jared Huffman Decries GOP's Congressional Review Act Push

5 months ago

During debate on the House floor, Rep. Jared Huffman (D-CA) tore into House Republicans for using the Congressional Review Act to overturn Bureau of Land Management rules.

Transcript

00:00Thank you, Mr. Chair, and I thank the gentleman from Colorado.

00:03Mr. Chairman, I strongly oppose all three of these Congressional Review Act resolutions on the floor

00:09because the reality is these would overhaul years of public input.

00:16They would silence tribal voices, erase science-based planning,

00:20all so that this administration can hand millions of acres of our public lands over to the fossil fuel industry for extraction.

00:28Now, public lands should be our country's proudest legacy.

00:33They're our natural heritage, a national treasure, and the agencies responsible for stewarding them,

00:39like the Bureau of Land Management and the Forest Service, diligently manage these resources for the future

00:46through the development, the careful development, of these resource management plans and forest plans.

00:52The BLM plans, or the RMPs, are carefully crafted to establish safeguards for wildlife, recreation areas, watersheds,

01:03and to identify suitable areas for energy development as well.

01:07And that includes also grazing and logging and other commercial activities.

01:11They have to balance all of it in these RMPs.

01:15And it's based on a robust input from communities, stakeholders, the public,

01:21on government-to-government consultation with the impacted tribes as well.

01:26But the Republican majority has proven time and again that they don't want any of that public process.

01:32They simply want to hand things over to big oil and big coal, and this week they are right back at it.

01:40They're making us vote on legislation that would turn public lands, the management of public lands, upside down,

01:46throwing it into chaos and all to just score that quick win for their fossil fuel buddies

01:52because the existing plans don't give away the store the way they would like to do.

01:57And it doesn't matter that this might upend the system that grants land ownership to Alaska Native veterans of the Vietnam War,

02:06which is what one of these RMPs does, or that tribal governments have spent years working in good faith

02:14with the federal government to develop land management plans that both allow for energy development

02:20and protect subsistence hunting and fishing resources.

02:24That's what they're blowing up with these CRAs.

02:27Not to mention that if these CRAs are signed into law,

02:31the validity of every single permit, lease, and federal approval that's been issued based on one of these RMPs

02:38would suddenly be called into question and subject to litigation.

02:43So I will remind my colleagues once again, they don't have to go down this road.

02:48The gentleman from Colorado mentioned that the CRA has never been used to overturn a resource management plan.

02:55There are perfectly valid ways for achieving the same goals in the Federal Land Policy and Management Act.

03:02It's what the Biden administration did to update these plans.

03:05And it's what the Trump administration has already announced it intends to do.

03:10And so I certainly expect to disagree with the outcomes and the objectives

03:14of the Trump administration's efforts to amend these RMPs.

03:19If they followed the formal process at least, though, we would have a chance to make our case in that process,

03:27and it wouldn't imperil existing permits and leases.

03:31And most importantly, it would require community input and tribal consultation.

03:36So I strongly urge my colleagues, let's not continue this race to the bottom.

03:41You have already thrown so many norms out the window.

03:44You have already disregarded Democrats in all of your legislation.

03:48You've started this radical appropriations process where it's party-line, Republican-only.

03:54So many norms being trashed.

03:57And now, for the first time, you're going to do this using the CRA to resource management plans.

04:03Stop the race to the bottom.

04:05Vote against this CRA resolution package.

04:08I yield back.

04:09The gentleman yields back.

04:10Did you-

'They Don't Have To Go Down This Road': Jared Huffman Decries GOP's Congressional Review Act Push

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