Floor Statements

Mr. Speaker, I rise today in support of my bill, H.R. 7332, that would transfer nearly 800 acres of Federal land to the State of Utah.

For nearly 20 years, the Utah Division of State Parks has managed the Castle Rock Campground by the Fremont Indian State Park in Sevier County in my district, but the land is owned by the Forest Service.

Ownership of this land by the Federal Government hinders the State's ability to effectively manage the campground for visitors to the park. It also prevents efficient and timely improvements to the campground's roads, trails, and utilities.

Utah is known for a long list of things, but two of the things that are at the top of that list are the Great Salt Lake and parks. Antelope Island State Park stands in the Great Salt Lake, and Wasatch Mountain State Park lies near Park City known for its ski resorts. Both of them are among the most visited State parks in Utah.

These two parks have something in common, which is a checkerboard of dozens of small parcels of Federal land inside the State park boundaries. These parcels are currently managed by the Federal Government, and the State has historically managed these lands under a permit.

Recently some of the permits were terminated, and the reason the Bureau of Land Management gave for not continuing with the permits was that they didn't have the resources to manage and oversee these parcels. They have been managed for years as part of the State parks, and they will continue to be managed as part of the State parks. It just makes sense for the State to take over management of these parcels.

H.R. 7332 would formally transfer these lands to the State to be managed under their thoughtful and diligent management in accordance with their management of the rest of the State parks.

Utah has some of the most beautiful and recognizable landscapes in the world, and this bill would help ensure that Americans, Utahns, and even visitors from abroad are able to access and enjoy these parks and the resources we enjoy.

Mr. Speaker, I ask for my colleagues' support of this legislation.

Mr. Chair, I rise to support the passage of H.R. 5403, the CBDC Anti-Surveillance State Act, which I cosponsor.

If improperly implemented, a CBDC can compete with private financial intermediaries, undermine long-term investment, invite more regulation into nearly every economic institution, and open the American people to Chinese-style government surveillance.

This is one of the reasons that the Utah Legislature this year passed a bill to block CBDC from being recognized as legal tender.

This is an issue that Americans are concerned about, particularly people in my State that I represent. We don't need to be more like China. Americans demand the right to participate in the economy without giving up our privacy.

We have to protect Americans' right to financial privacy. That is why this bill forbids the Federal Reserve from issuing CBDCs without specific congressional authorization. That is us protecting our own authority. It prohibits the Federal Reserve from using a CBDC as a tool to take full control of the U.S. economy through monetary policy, something Americans won't stand for. Finally, it protects the privacy of coins and bills, ensuring that

they remain open, permissionless, and private. Those three things are essential.

Rarely do the credit unions, banks, and Utah Legislature agree on anything. That is a sign that we should support this.

Mr. Speaker, I rise today to express gratitude and reverence for our law enforcement community. Self-governance, like what we have in this country, is a meaningless exercise without the enforcement of our laws. Enforcement of the law requires men and women who step forward, put their lives on the line, and serve as guardians over you, me, and our families. They do this never knowing when they might need to give their last measure of devotion for us.

I express my deepest condolences to those who loved Syracuse Police Officer Michael Jensen and Onondaga County Sheriff's Lieutenant Michael Hoosock, who died tragically in a shoot-out.

Over the weekend, as I prepared to rise in solidarity with my colleagues from New York and my colleagues who are veterans of law enforcement, I found out that we had a similar tragedy in Utah. Just yesterday, we lost one of our own officers.

Santaquin, Utah, Police Officer Sergeant Bill Hooser left behind a bride of 29 years, two daughters, a granddaughter, and a devastated Utah law enforcement community.

Sergeant Hooser's shift yesterday started like it did probably every day. He couldn't have known this was his last watch. He was tragically killed in the line of duty, the duty of protecting Utahns and our freedoms.

My deepest condolences and prayers to Sergeant Hooser's family. We are grateful for what he did in his life.

My good friend, Sheriff Curtis, of Sevier County, Utah, summed up some of my feelings. He said: When we lose someone who has made it their life's purpose to make a difference for good, we all lose a small piece of who we are as a community and as a Nation.

I rise today to make sure that families like the Hooser family in Utah, the family who is sitting in the gallery right now, know that America recognizes and appreciates their sacrifice. I thank you on behalf of Utah's Second Congressional District and make sure you know that you are not alone.

Mr. Speaker, I agree with everything my colleagues have said about this rule violating the intent of the Federal Land Policy and Management Act, FLPMA, of 1976. I intended to spend most of my time talking about that, but it was pretty well covered.

This is an inappropriate use of an administrative action to change the intent of a legislative action. As a Member of Congress, I rise to support everything they have said about why that is wrong.

I also want to talk about what role BLM lands play in Utah. I represent Utah, and so does John Curtis, my colleague, who introduced this bill.

The reason this is so important for those of us in Utah is that the Federal Government manages most of the land in our State. There are counties in my district that are more than 90 percent managed by the Federal Government. A lot of that is BLM land. We have a lot of experience with multiple use, with grazing, logging, ranching, recreation, fishing, all the things we just talked about, coexisting in the same BLM tracts in Utah.

The reason this rule is deeply unpopular in my State is that it comes in and makes one use trump all of the other uses on what should be multiple-use land managed for sustained yield.

The role that BLM lands play in our economy and our culture cannot be overstated. In some of the counties I represent, the majority of families get at least part of their livelihood from grazing on public land. If those livelihoods go away, it will have a big impact on our economy. It also has a big impact on our lifestyle, our culture.

That is why changes like this should be made by Congress. They should be debated by people who represent the people in Utah or in other western States who are facing the same drastic cultural livelihood changes from this kind of rule, instead of this coming from an administration where it is written by bureaucrats who, like the chairman, I can't identify with.

I don't know who wrote the rule. I don't know what input they took from people in my district, but I know that I hear from people in my district, and I represent them.

Mr. Speaker, I ask all of my colleagues to support this bill.

Mr. Chair, had I been present, I would have voted ``no'' on rollcall No. 117.

Amendment No. 6 Offered by Mr. Turner

Mr. Speaker, I rise today to lend my voice to the chorus of voices calling for the release of the hostages taken in Israel by Hamas terrorists on October 7.

Last week, I was in Israel, and I had the opportunity to hear from the parents of a young American who is being held hostage, Hersh Goldberg. His incredible parents, Jon and Rachel, with incredible poise and patience articulated to us what it is like to wake up for 180 days and know their son is being held hostage in a tunnel with no Red Cross access. They know he is missing an arm. They have had no medical updates, and now it has been 185 days.

Mr. Speaker, I will take this opportunity to join all freedom-loving people in the world in calling to bring them home. Let's not make it 186 or more days. The hostages need to be released. They need to be home with their families.

Mr. Speaker, I thank Chairman Williams for yielding me time. I also thank Ranking Member Velazquez for her support on this legislation.

Mr. Speaker, I rise today in support of my bill, The WOSB Integrity Act of 2024.

The purpose of this bill is to make sure that the businesses that are taking advantage of the WOSB program are, in fact, small businesses. They are certifying that they are women-owned, but they are self- certifying that they are small.

The SBA inspector general found that there is room for fraud in this program, so this is simply a commonsense solution to close a loophole to make sure this program is serving the purpose it was intended to serve, which is giving women-owned small businesses the opportunity to compete in Federal contracting. It encourages fair competition, levels the playing field in government contracting, and ensures the opportunities are awarded justly and contribute to a competitive small business sector.

We have a goal of awarding 5 percent of government contracts to women-owned small businesses. We have no way of knowing how well we are doing in meeting that goal if we don't have any way of certifying that these WOSBs are, in fact, small businesses.

Mr. Speaker, I encourage my colleagues to support this bill.

Mr. Speaker, it is an absolute honor and privilege to be here right now. It is very humbling. Since this was a special election, they let me have a few friends and family come in the gallery. I want everyone on the floor to notice how many people are up here to support me.

I have talked a lot on the campaign trail, and the media has talked a lot about how I went to college on a scholarship I won in an FFA soil judging contest. I was very involved in FFA in high school. In my freshman year, I memorized the FFA creed and then participated in a creed speaking contest where I totally lost.

I repeated one of the paragraphs three times, but in the first paragraph, which I had down pat, there is a sentence that says, ``I believe . . . in the promise of better days through better ways, even as the better things we now enjoy have come to us from the struggles of former years.''

I think that perfectly describes how I feel right now about being a Member of the United States House of Representatives. I believe in the promise of better days through better ways. I am excited to be here now, when there are really important conversations happening and when an individual can have a huge impact.

I also acknowledge the struggles of former years and that we live in an absolutely wonderful, great country because of the people who came before us and had important conversations and struggles and inched us ever closer to the ideal, the American Dream, the principles that are embodied in our Constitution and our Declaration of Independence.

Let me humbly say how excited I am to be here and how much it means to me to be representing the people in Utah's Second Congressional District. I don't take that title lightly. I want to make sure my constituents know that I am here to truly represent them and that I am optimistic, that I am excited to serve, and that I understand what a great honor and rare privilege it is to be standing here on the House floor right now giving a speech, so thank you.