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Floor Speech

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Mr. LEE. Mr. President, Americans are paying more and getting less for just about everything--more for energy, more for housing, more for the most basic necessities--and, frankly, they are tired of it.

Across the country, businesses are struggling with higher costs. Families are burdened by rising prices, and entire industries are stalling under the weight of heavyhanded regulations handed down from unelected bureaucrats in Washington, DC.

The Department of the Interior could and should be part of the solution. Instead, it has been part of the problem. In fact, in many instances, in countless respects, it is the problem. The worst part is that it didn't have to be this way.

Under Secretary Deb Haaland, the Biden administration had a choice. They had the tools at their disposal to alleviate the struggles of millions of Americans and to ensure affordable, reliable energy. Instead, it chose to abandon them. Instead, it chose to surrender to ideological zealotry and foreign powers that do not have our best interests at heart. Now Americans are paying the price.

The Department of the Interior is not an Agency of limited consequence. It governs nearly one-fifth of the land mass of the entire United States. It wields the power to dictate the fate of energy production, water rights, wildlife conservation, and the livelihoods of millions of Americans, especially in public land-rich States like my home State of Utah. And yet, for the last 4 years, Secretary Haaland stood idly by, doubling down on policies that throttled domestic production while begging foreign adversaries to fill the gap.

Governor Doug Burgum understands what Secretary Haaland apparently forgot--that abundant, affordable energy is a fundamental pillar of our national security as Americans. But Secretary Haaland's failures don't stop at energy. The Department of the Interior touches nearly every aspect of life in the West, from land management to water rights, often to the detriment of those who depend on it.

Now, for States like Utah, where two-thirds of the land is owned by the Federal Government, Washington's mismanagement is not an abstract or a theoretical debate. The consequences that we face as a result of decisions made at Interior affect us in a real and profound way. Expanding national monuments without local input and contrary to what local input was given, imposing suffocating land use restrictions, and burying--quite deliberately--resource development under an avalanche of redtape are not the actions of a government that serves them. They are the actions of a government that rules and lords over them.

The consequences of that mismanagement stretch higher than elevated prices at the pump. As wildfires ravaged the West, reducing homes to ash and livelihoods to memory, Secretary Haaland and President Biden condescendingly lectured the American people that climate change was to blame. Unfortunately, for them, the reality is far less convenient. Decades of Federal neglect have transformed our forests into kindling. Their refusal to engage in responsible forest management to clear the dead wood and to thin the overgrowth has created a veritable tinderbox of catastrophic proportions. And still, they offered nothing but platitudes and punitive regulations that all but ensured that the cycle of destruction would continue.

The West faces another government-made crisis--housing. Entire generations are locked out of homeownership as Federal mismanagement hoards vast swaths of land that could be used to alleviate the crisis. The Department of the Interior could be an instrument of relief, identifying underutilized Federal lands and unlocking them for development.

My bill, the HOUSES Act, shows how we can do this. But for the past 4 years, the government has lamented housing shortages while ensuring their permanence. It has drawn near to the plight of the American people with its lips, but its heart has been shown to be far from those they are supposed to serve.

Then, of course, there is water. The Colorado River, a lifeline of the West, is withering, strangled by indecision and regulatory paralysis. States plead for coordination to create a coherent strategy to preserve this resource for millions. What they receive, instead, are ditherings from an administration more interested in virtue-signaling than problem-solving.

DOI desperately needs a leader who will act. Governor Burgum is that leader. We need a leader who grasps that our national parks--America's crown jewels--have great potential to be economic engines, drawing millions and sustaining, in some cases, entire communities. Yet infrastructure crumbles, visitor access is restricted, and the Federal Government's response is as lethargic as it is incompetent.

Governor Burgum understands what is at stake. He has spent his entire career bringing people together to solve problems. He has earned the trust of Tribes, of businesses, conservationists, and working families alike. He understands that we cannot regulate our way into prosperity, nor can we regulate our way into abundance.

He understands that it is not just numbers on a balance sheet or reports gathering dust in Washington. It is real; and for many of us, it is deeply, deeply personal.

A rancher in Utah is watching his grazing rights disappear under arbitrary Federal decrees. A miner in West Virginia sees his livelihood strangled by regulations written by people who have never even set foot in a coal town. A small business in Arizona is struggling with soaring energy costs that make it harder to keep the lights on. A farmer in Wyoming is fighting for water that once flowed freely but is now trapped.

These are the people who suffer when the Department of the Interior forgets its mission. These are the families who pay the price when Washington prioritizes leftist ideology over reality.

Governor Doug Burgum's leadership offers a clear alternative: a future where the Department of the Interior serves the people rather than ruling over them; a future where energy abundance strengthens our economy and our national security; a future where public lands are managed with the input of those who depend on them, not dictated by unelected, unaccountable bureaucrats far off in Washington, DC; a future where housing is within reach, water is safeguarded, and natural resources are used responsibly to support the communities that rely on them; a future where Americans can depend on more than just serendipity; they can rely on sound policies designed to benefit them.

Americans can and should be getting more for their dollar. Governor Burgum understands that and has the experience and vision to make it happen.

It is time for us to confirm Governor Doug Burgum as the next Secretary of the Interior. It is time for us to move forward. It is time to accept that freedom is the destiny and birthright of the American people; that government exists to serve us, not the other way around.

I urge my colleagues, with all the urgency I am capable of communicating, to swiftly and resoundingly confirm Governor Doug Burgum.

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