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Floor Speech
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Mr. LEE. It has not received a legislative hearing, and it hasn't been marked up. And it hasn't been reported by the committee of jurisdiction. As a result, there has been no opportunity, with all of those stops along the legislative pathway having been skipped--there has been no opportunity--for Members of this body, for members of the Trump administration, for the two principal involved Agencies within the U.S. Department of the Interior, known as BOEM and BSEE, to provide their feedback or offer testimony on the implications of this legislation.
Now, look, the Senate's committee process exists, and it exists for a reason. It exists for exactly these sets of reasons. While it might have slightly different implications depending on the committee involved and depending on the type of legislation, there are reasons why these things are there, and almost regardless of which committee is affected, you can normally benefit from this. And, in fact, it is normally quite hazardous to just bypass all of this, because that is how we legislate, without making sure that we have gone through all the necessary steps.
This process that has evolved over the last, roughly, two and a half centuries allows legislation to be examined in a transparent and a deliberative way, with input from affected Agencies, from industries, from the President of the United States and members of his administration, and Senators on both sides of the aisle, including but not limited to the Senators of the States who might be behind the legislation in question.
Before legislation is advanced to the floor, it should be vetted through that process so that the Senate can fully understand and appreciate its scope, its effect, its legal posture, and whatever unintended or intended consequences the legislation might have.
I have made it clear, from the beginning, that I am willing to work with the Senator from Florida. In fact, I have offered to place it on the agenda for the next subcommittee hearing within the Energy Subcommittee of the Energy and Natural Resources Committee. That would provide the Trump administration with the opportunity to weigh in with its views and allow us to hear analysis from BOEM and BSEE and any other Agencies that are affected--consistent with how the committee has considered other legislation within its jurisdiction this year, and consistent with the way it has always done it in the 15 years I have been a U.S. Senator.
As chairman of the Energy and Natural Resources Committee, I have consistently stated that bills within the committee's jurisdiction should proceed through regular order. That process positions bills for successful consideration on the floor, consideration by the House, and, ultimately, enactment into law.
Skipping that process allows a bill to jump ahead of others that have followed the rules and respected the committee system.
So my objection today is not based on the merits of the underlying policy. It is based on the process. But the process is important to getting the policy right. That is why we don't skip it. That is why, in the absence of a compelling, overwhelming, urgent reason, we don't just ignore it, and I can't and won't ignore it here.
The Senate should not abandon its regular order by advancing legislation that has not been considered by the committee of jurisdiction.
I look forward to working with my friend and colleague the distinguished Senator from Florida to consider her bill in the Energy and Natural Resources Committee in a transparent matter.
Until that occurs, I must object and object now.
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Mr. LEE. Mr. President, I respect and deeply appreciate my friend and colleague the distinguished Senator from Florida. And I respect and admire her great devotion to protecting her State, its pristine beaches, and the many qualities that it enjoys. People from all over the United States of America and all over the world love going to Florida. No one wants to take that away.
I, nonetheless, take umbrage--great umbrage in fact--to a couple of characterizations to which I must now respond. First, as to what she characterizes as the ``long bureaucratic process,'' this process is itself quite short, especially in comparison to an actual bureaucratic process, which it is not. Make no mistake, this is not a bureau; this is not bureaucratic process; this is a legislative process. It is a legislative process that has endured for hundreds of years in this country, and it may not be perfect, but it is the best one we have got. It existed for many hundreds of years before that in our mother country, before we became our own country. There are reasons why these things develop. To call it a long bureaucratic process is neither fair nor accurate, and it misapprehends the nature of the legislative task, including the legislative task before us at this very moment.
Now, with regard to the suggestion that by not passing this today-- not passing it after leapfrogging over about 10 legislative steps that are essential to that process--we are somehow threatening Florida's pristine beaches and waters, this is simply not true. That couldn't be more untrue.
Let's remember what happened in 2020. President Trump issued a moratorium. That moratorium stays in place until 2032. Absent some other action taken pursuant to that, the status quo is to protect them.
What she is trying to do is to protect against President Trump doing anything consistent with his authority, consistent with that 2020 order. She is trying to tie his hands to prevent him from even figuring out what is there, to figure out whether there is a cost-benefit analysis on any of that.
Now, sure, the Senate can consider that from time to time. And perhaps after the legislative process--not the bureaucratic process. That is something different. That doesn't exist here. Nor is this simply a delay for the sake of delay. I pride myself in running the Energy and Natural Resources Committee and bringing forth these hearings as expeditiously as possible, and I have offered to put it on the next appropriate subcommittee hearing.
Now, if a mere delay of a few weeks or a few months, where it takes that time, isn't acceptable, I would like to know why. We have yet to hear a single reason, a single argument as to the parade of horribles of what could happen if we don't, as she would do here, tie President Trump's hands and bind further legislatively beyond what he has already bound himself to through his own 2020 Executive order.
So this is in place. It will remain in place. And there has yet to be a single reason articulated as to why we should treat this as an emergency. There is nobody going down there to drill right now. We still have got the Agencies that are looking at it. The least we can do in consideration of President Trump, his administration, and the affected Agencies, including those that I have mentioned earlier today--most particularly BOEM--is to hear them out first. In the absence of a compelling reason to leapfrog all of that, I must and will continue to object.
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