Providing for Consideration of H.R. Department of State, Foreign Operations, and Related Programs Appropriations Act, 2021

Floor Speech

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Mr. GOSAR. Mr. Speaker, I rise in opposition to the rule and the underlying bill.

The underlying bill contains a wish list of provisions from far-left environmentalists that prevent job creation and energy development in rural communities.

One in particular is the proposed buffer zone around the Chaco Canyon national park. This provision is an assault on the private property rights of hundreds of Navajo allottees who own oil and gas rights in the area surrounding the park.

This buffer expansion in this bill would make these assets worthless, taking away valuable royalty payments from these impoverished communities. To put this in perspective, in 2015 alone, the Federal Indian Minerals Office distributed $96 million to 20,835 allottees around the country.

Instead of listening to all voices, the proponents of this provision have only listened to environmental groups who claim to represent all the relevant stakeholders on this matter but clearly do not. Allottees in the Chaco region have consistently expressed opposition to this proposed withdrawal.

Any uncertainty amongst the oil and gas industry when it comes to the ability to extract oil and gas from this region has negative consequences for them and the local economy.

In my role as the ranking member of the Natural Resources Subcommittee on Energy and Mineral Resources, I sent two of my staff to meet with Navajo allottees in New Mexico. The response from these allottees was overwhelming, as hundreds and hundreds of people showed up to express their opposition to a proposed buffer zone around Chaco Canyon national park.

The facts are, Mr. Speaker, there are already laws on the books to protect Chaco national park and the pristine artifacts that may lay outside of its borders. The oil and gas industry has both a legal and moral obligation to protect the artifacts of the Chaco people, as well as avoiding impacts on newly discovered artifacts, which has always been done.

This provision is clearly unnecessary, and I would urge that it be removed in conference if this bill is passed by the House.

It would also be remiss of me not to mention the equally egregious provision in the legislation that prevents copper, nickel, and iron mining in northern Minnesota. Copper, nickel, and iron mining is the historic lifeblood of the economy in northern Minnesota and has the potential to create thousands of good-paying jobs that can be done in an environmentally safe way.

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Mr. GOSAR. Mr. Speaker, we, as Congress, need to wake up and stop talking out of both sides of our mouth. In fact, we cannot continue to rely on foreign adversaries to take care of our mineral needs. We can take care of our own needs with our own domestic resources in the most environmentally safe way. We do it better than anyone in the world, and yes, we do it without slave child labor like they do in the Congo with cobalt as China does.

Mr. Speaker, I, once again, urge my colleagues to oppose the previous question, the rule, and the underlying bill.

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