Floor Statements

Offered By: Mrs. Lummis

Amendment No. 16: At the end of the bill (before the short

title), insert the following:

Sec. 508. None of the funds made available by this Act may

be used in contravention of section 3112(d)(2)(B) of the USEC

Privatization Act (42 U.S.C. 2297h-10(d)(2)(B)) and all

public notice and comment requirements under chapter 6 of

title 5, United States Code, that are applicable to carrying

out such section.

Mr. Chair, on rollcall No. 365, I inadvertently cast a no vote on Mr. Bishop of Utah's Amendment #8. I intended to vote yes on the amendment, which prohibits the Administration from retroactively canceling energy development leases based on information never considered during the public comment process.

Stated against:

Madam Speaker, today, I am honored to rise to recognize a pillar of the higher education community in Wyoming. Dr. Jo Anne McFarland is retiring as the president of Central Wyoming College after 40 years of service, and 25 years after she was named Wyoming's first woman college president.

Active nationally with the American Association of Community Colleges and with the Higher Learning Commission, Dr. McFarland has made great contributions to the development of community colleges nationwide.

Dr. McFarland started as an adjunct faculty member in 1970, shortly after the college was founded in Riverton. Under her leadership, Central Wyoming College has expanded its academic offerings and instituted distance learning programs. It has opened facilities in Jackson, Lander, Thermopolis, and on the Wind River Indian Reservation.

Notably, Dr. McFarland has created an atmosphere of courtesy, manners, and respect at Central Wyoming College unlike any I have seen on any college campus. The leader sets the tone for such a positive, respectful atmosphere. Jo Anne McFarland is in every way imaginable leadership personified.

Madam Speaker, the mascot of Central Wyoming College is the cattle rustler. As a cattle rancher, I have a bit of a dislike for rustlers, but this is one rustler I will be very sorry to see hang up her spurs. She earned those spurs, Madam Speaker.

Madam Speaker, I move to suspend the rules and pass the bill (H.R. 863) to establish the Commission to Study the Potential Creation of a National Women's History Museum, and for other purposes, as amended.

Madam Speaker, I ask unanimous consent that all Members may have 5 legislative days to revise and extend their remarks and include extraneous material on the bill under consideration.

Madam Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume.

H.R. 863 establishes a commission to study the potential creation of a National Women's History Museum.

The commission will prepare a report with key findings that include an evaluation of potential locations for the museum in Washington, D.C.; guidance on whether it should be part of the Smithsonian Institution; and cost estimates for constructing, operating, and maintaining the facility.

In terms of fiscal responsibility, H.R. 863 requires an independent review of the report to analyze the ability of the museum to operate without taxpayer funding.

With the information generated by the report, Congress will be able to evaluate the proposed museum. This legislation does not authorize the museum to be built or authorize spending of taxpayer dollars of any kind.

Madam Speaker, I reserve the balance of my time.

Madam Speaker, I yield 5 minutes to the gentlewoman from Minnesota (Mrs. Bachmann).

Madam Speaker, at this time, I would like to yield 7 minutes to the gentlelady from Tennessee (Mrs. Blackburn).

Madam Speaker, I reserve the balance of my time.

Madam Speaker, I reserve the balance of my time.

Madam Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume.

Madam Speaker, I want to congratulate the women who have participated in this debate today. These are dynamic American leaders. I want to thank each and every one of them, including the gentlelady from Minnesota, who expressed the views of those who have concerned about this bill. They were well articulated.

She is someone with whom I am proud to serve in Congress and was very proud to see in the dais, participating in lively, strident debates when she ran for President, seeking the Republican nomination in the last Presidential election. These are all very formidable, important women--gentlewomen, one and all.

I rise in support of the study and in support of the passage of this bill. I come from the Equality State, the State of Wyoming, the first government in the world to continuously grant women the right to vote, so I come by my point of view honestly.

I am very excited about the opportunity to study and to report back to this Congress the notion of having a museum of the history of American women. The contributions to our society of American women are so extraordinary and are sometimes underrepresented.

I particularly look forward to touting the opportunity to show the history of American women of the West, people like Cattle Kate. She was a criminal, a scoundrel, a cattle thief. She was the first woman hanged in Wyoming. She is a historical figure.

Sacagawea, who led the Lewis and Clark expedition across this great, vast country; Annie Oakley, who was portrayed as a model of the American West and freedom in Buffalo Bill Cody's Wild West show; and particularly, I would like to see Dale Evans recognized in this museum.

Let me tell you something about Dale Evans you may not know. Dale Evans was an actress, a songwriter, a mother, and she was the wife of Roy Rogers. They were the king of the cowboys and the queen of the cowgirls. Dale Evans and Roy Rogers had a special-needs child among their many children.

Back in Hollywood in the late 1940s and 1950s, there was a cultural condition in this country that was particularly prevalent in Hollywood, and that was people didn't want to see special-needs children in public. People didn't want to face the fact that not everyone in this country is born exactly the same.

Roy and Dale took their special-needs child with them everywhere they went, and they were ostracized, and they ceased to be invited to people's homes because they didn't want to see that child. It was a gutsy thing to do.

Roy Rogers and Dale Evans changed the way Americans viewed special- needs children. Now, when we see special-needs people in our society, it puts a smile on our faces. They are so integrated into our every day, and they are important members of our society.

When that child died, Dale Evans wrote the song ``Happy Trails'' to that child. She wrote, ``Happy trails to you, until we meet again,'' and in my heart, I believe they will meet again, Madam Speaker.

I think those are the kinds of women that we want to see portrayed in American history, and I am highly supportive of this study. I look forward to robust participation by Republican and Democrats and look forward to receiving the study, not knowing how it is going to turn out, but with great hope and expectation for something terrific, at least on paper, so we can determine at that point whether to move forward.

Mr. Speaker, I commend to this body's attention H.R. 863.

I yield back the balance of my time.

Mr. Speaker, I contend that, in the interest of protecting the constitutional rights of the hardworking taxpayers of this country from the behavior of the IRS, from Lois Lerner--herself a lawyer--who understands that you can waive your right to remain silent as to matters to which you chose to testify, and that she did that. She said: I have done nothing wrong, I have broken no laws.

Subsequently, we find out that she blamed the IRS employees in Cincinnati for wrongdoing that was going on here in Washington, D.C., that she was targeting conservative groups and only conservative groups, thereby violating their First Amendment constitutional rights.

The Oversight Committee needs to find the truth, and to that end, we need answers from Lois Lerner. The committee has sought these answers for more than a year. Lerner's refusal to truthfully answer these questions posed by the committee cannot be tolerated. I urge a ``yes'' vote and, following that, swift action by the Justice Department to ensure that Lois Lerner

provides answers on exactly what the IRS was up to.

Mr. Speaker, today the U.S. House of Representatives considered legislation important to improving the quality-of-life and opportunities for the millions of people living in sub-Saharan Africa. H.R. 2548, the Electrify Africa Act, would require the United States to develop a comprehensive strategy to improve access to electricity for the nearly 600 million people currently living without it in those countries.

Almost 70 percent of the population in sub-Saharan Africa lives in energy poverty, without access to even basic electricity services. The connection between energy poverty and economic poverty cannot be ignored. For those of us in the United States with access to reliable electricity, it is difficult to truly comprehend what life would be like without the services electricity provides: the ability to simply flip a light switch to have light at any hour of the day, or charge your cell phone; refrigeration of foods, medicines, and life-saving vaccines; indoor cooking; use of the Internet; advanced health care technology; clean water and sanitation services. The list goes on and on.

But consider how different our lives would be if we did not have access to affordable and reliable electricity--what it would be like if we had to travel miles each day to gather fuel sources to cook our food; had to rely only on daylight to accomplish tasks; had no access to clean water and other sanitation services; and no access to life- saving medical technology readily available in other parts of the world but that require electricity to work. That is the reality for the hundreds of millions of people in sub-Saharan Africa. They struggle each day to provide for their basic needs. Affordable and reliable access to electricity would transform these regions, providing opportunities for economic growth and a better quality-of-life.

What I consider especially important about H.R. 2548 is that this bill recognizes that a ``one-size-fits-all'' energy strategy will not benefit these countries and their populations. This legislation calls for an appropriate mix of energy options, non-renewable and renewable, to address the energy poverty endemic to these regions. In its report, the House Foreign Affairs Committee notes that coal, natural gas, and oil are all available potential energy sources to generate electricity in sub-Saharan Africa, as well as solar, hydropower, and geothermal.

An all-inclusive energy mix is vital to addressing energy accessibility and reliability in impoverished parts of the world. Regions and countries should responsibly generate power using the energy resources that are most readily available to them and that provide the most affordable and reliable option. If the energy source to generate the electricity is available but so expensive that people cannot afford to use it, then what good does it do? Similarly, an electricity supply too dependent on intermittent sources does not benefit a health care provider trying to perform a procedure using medical equipment reliant on a consistent source of electricity or administer vaccines that must be kept refrigerated.

The current Administration has unfortunately sought to dictate what sources of energy can be used in developing nations, promoting some and discriminating against others, namely cheap and abundant coal-fired power. This only does a disservice to the people who need the services and opportunities that electricity provides. H.R. 2548 reminds us of the consequences of not having access to affordable and reliable electricity, something I think many of us take for granted. It further reminds us about the importance of an all-of-the-above energy mix to our country's access to cheap and reliable electricity, economic stability, and quality-of-life. I am pleased that the Electrify Africa Act recognizes these realities, establishing a framework for countries in Sub-Saharan Africa to pursue the energy development that makes the most sense for them.

Madam Speaker, I rise in strong support of H.R. 2919, the Open Book on Equal Access to Justice Act. I want to thank the ranking member, Steve Cohen, for joining me in introducing this legislation. The gentleman from Tennessee was the person from whom I inherited the hallowed halls of Longworth 1004. Our staff shared duties, including each other's phone duties when meetings were being held in our offices. It was a great partnership and a wonderful bipartisan relationship that I have enjoyed ever since coming to Congress.

I deeply thank the gentleman from Tennessee for his friendship. He was instrumental in securing bipartisan support for passage of H.R. 2919 through the Judiciary Committee.

H.R. 2919 reinstates the tracking and reporting of attorneys fees paid out by the Federal Government under the Equal Access to Justice Act, also known as EAJA.

EAJA was first enacted in 1980, with the goal of protecting small businesses and other citizens facing unreasonable government action. It was meant to address the David and Goliath situation that exists when a citizen has to go to court against the Federal Government's vast financial and legal resources.

Consistent with this theme, EAJA was amended in 1985 to facilitate its application to Social Security claims. It was again amended in 1992 to include claims before the Court of Appeals for Veterans Claims.

EAJA has been subject to numerous reviews and revisions over the years to keep it up to date. Its requirement for agencies to track and report on attorneys' fees helped inform Congress in its past efforts to improve the law. This transparency was also a safeguard for the Federal taxpayers who finance the law.

Prior to 1995, EAJA payments trickled out at a rate of about $3 million annually. But since tracking and reporting requirements were eliminated in 1995, EAJA has operated in the dark.

As a Government Accountability Office report made clear, most agencies do not track payments--and won't--unless Congress gives them direction to do so. Madam Speaker, that is why we are here today.

As the gentleman from Ohio (Mr. Chabot), mentioned, we only have anecdotal evidence as to how much we are spending on attorney fees, which agencies pay out the fees, and for what types of claims. We need transparency to better monitor this law moving forward.

H.R. 2919 both reinstates transparency and improves it by requiring the information be posted online in a searchable database. We owe this to the small businesses, veterans, Social Security claimants, and others who rely on EAJA for their once-in-a-lifetime court battles with the Federal Government. And we owe it to the hardworking taxpayers who are financing this law.

I deeply appreciate it.

Madam Speaker, I urge my colleagues to support H.R. 2919.

Madam Speaker, in great appreciation and deference to the gentleman on the Judiciary Committee, and especially to my cosponsor, Mr. Cohen, I gratefully acknowledge his cosponsorship--he supported this bill--and the hard work of the House Judiciary Committee.

Madam Speaker, I come from the wild West. I come from a place of wide open opportunity. And women in the West want freedom and liberty and the ability to create their own business. Women want to expand the businesses they already have and play a bigger role in the American entrepreneurial dream.

But ObamaCare makes it more affordable for women entrepreneurs to keep their employee numbers below 50 and their employee hours below 30. This makes no one's life better--not women entrepreneurs and not for their women employees. In fact, two-thirds of those most at risk of losing work hours because of ObamaCare are women.

Let's fix this. Let's save American workers. Let's pass the Save American Workers Act.

Mr. Chairman, the State of Wyoming is exempt from the Antiquities Act. I don't know if you knew there is any State that is exempt from the Antiquities Act.

In 1950, when Grand Teton National Park and the Jackson Hole National Monument were combined, lawmakers and President Truman exempted Wyoming from further congressional designations. Now 48 percent of Wyoming is Federal land. We have the first national park, the first national forest, and the first national monument. We have nine total national forests and one national grassland within our State borders. Yet, without having to comply with the Antiquities Act, we created the national migratory bird refuge in Wyoming, which is a massive area that happened with local input.

You don't need the Antiquities Act as it exists to continue to create Federal designations. They can be done with local and State input, which is exactly what this bill will allow. If there are additional unique and special designations necessary, they should go through the congressional process and not be usurped by unilateral Presidential powers.

This is 2014. We are not back in the era when Presidents needed to designate areas that were at risk of being degraded. The ethic of a nation for conservation has come far beyond that. Let's adapt our laws to the morality and the ethics of the times. Let's pass this bill and give people involvement in decisions that are made in their States.

Madam Chair, this act reinforces our century-long system, working well in our States, where the States pass water law and administer State water law. State law is crucial in the West.

For example, take how a ski area permit is supposed to work. The Forest Service issues a permit for the use of the land, but the water is administered in accordance with State water law. The water does not belong to the Federal Government.

The headline here should be, ``Keep your mitts off our water.''

If the Federal Government wants water rights, it has to pay for them, or

get in line, just like other citizens and businesses. But now, instead of waiting its turn or paying fair value, the Forest Service is demanding water rights as a condition of ski area permits. They are demanding the full value of water rights it had no role in developing.

The Forest Service isn't just going after ski areas. It is targeting ranchers with grazing permits as well.

The Federal Government claims it needs the water rights because the Federal Government knows best how to manage water for ski recreation and grazing. The reality is the Federal Government doesn't know best at all, and that is why States are in control of water law.

Sound water management and conservation is necessary in the arid and semi-arid West, and the real work is done at the State and local level by individuals. These efforts will only be harmed if we let Federal agencies trample on State water law, substituting their judgment for those who live near water and depend on it for their well-being.

Madam Chair, I have spent thousands of hours of my life irrigating Wyoming's beautiful meadows.

Madam Chair, when you are still and you are out in a meadow, you can hear the water bubble into the ground, and I swear you can hear the grass grow. It is the most amazing, fulfilling thing, and some of the happiest hours I have spent in my entire life. This is personal with me.

Madam Chair, I urge my colleagues to support the Tipton bill.

I thank the gentlelady from New York and the gentlelady from Tennessee. Along with the gentlelady from Ohio, and someone we will hear from shortly, the gentlelady from Florida, it is an honor to be with you tonight.

I represent the State that is officially known as the ``Equality State,'' and that is for this reason: Wyoming is the first government in the world to continuously and fully grant women the right to vote.

Most people think that had to have been some State associated with the Eastern intelligentsia, but here is the real story.

In the Wyoming Territory, the legislature passed into law on December 10, 1869, a measure stating:

That every woman at the age of 21 years, residing in this

territory, may, at every election, to be holden under the

laws thereof, cast her vote.

This Suffrage Act granted women in the Wyoming Territory the right to vote with full civil and judicial equality with men.

The first woman to cast her ballot pursuant to those rights was Louisa Swain. She voted in Laramie on September 6, 1870, becoming the Nation's first woman voter under laws guaranteeing absolute political equality with men.

Now think about that. That is 1870. That is 50 years before the 19th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution. She was a 70-year-old woman.

Here is the account of her vote in the Laramie Daily Sentinel:

It is comforting to note that our first woman voter was

really a lady . . . of the

highest social standing in the community, universally beloved

and respected. The scene was in the highest degree

interesting and impressive. There was just too much good

sense in our community for any jeers or neers to be seen on

such an occasion.

And so it was. Wyoming became the inspiration for the rest of the country.

Wyoming didn't become a State until 1890, and that brought upon the codification of this suffrage right through the ratification of the new Wyoming State constitution.

The Congress of the United States--the very Congress in which we stand--threatened to withhold statehood from Wyoming because we had granted women the right to vote. The Territory's legislators replied with a telegram stating that Wyoming would remain out of the union a hundred years rather than join without women's suffrage.

So President Benjamin Harrison, deferring to the wiser Wyoming territorial legislature, on July 10, 1890, signed into law a bill admitting Wyoming into the union and recognizing it as the Nation's Equality State.

Once again, events of the first woman voter happened in Wyoming 50 years before every woman in this country received the same rights. Consequently, Wyoming has an exemplary early history.

We have the first woman elected to statewide office in the Nation in 1804. She was Wyoming's superintendent of public instruction, Estelle Reel.

Why does that matter? Because she died and her estate and her belongings are currently in a little tiny, neglected museum in a town in the district belonging to the chairman of the House Natural Resources Committee, Doc Hastings, giving our chairman, who is going to hold a hearing later in this Congress, pride and reason to help us support obtaining Estelle Reel's property for this museum.

In 1870, Esther Hobart Morris from South Pass, Wyoming, was the first woman to hold judicial office in the world.

The first women delegates to both the national Democratic and the national Republican convention came from Wyoming.

We had the first woman elected Governor in the United States in 1925. She became the first woman director of the U.S. Mint.

By the way, Estelle Reel later became the first woman national superintendent of Indian schools.

The list goes on and on. We had the first woman bailiff and the first woman grand juror.

Wyoming's history is illustrious. That is why we are called the Equality State. We want very much to share that history with the rest of the country, and thanks to the gentlewomen here tonight who are leading the effort to share women's history in this country, that may become a reality.

I want to thank and salute the gentlewomen from New York and Tennessee who are leading this Special Order tonight and are leading this effort to create a national women's history museum. Wyoming looks forward to being a proud contributor. I look forward to being at the ribbon-cutting. I want to send so much history to you and share it with the people of this country. I am so delighted that you are leading this effort.

I thank the gentlelady from Tennessee and New York.

The gentlelady from New York mentioned the name of a woman who, at The New York World, was a trailblazer for women journalists. Today, my daughter, a journalist, a graduate of Columbia's Pulitzer School of Journalism, is a journalist at The New York World; and without that kind of leadership on the part of women, we wouldn't have the opportunities for ourselves and our children to lead. That is why we need to memorialize what women have done, so women and young girls can envision themselves in these roles.

I was recently in Moscow, and we toured the Museum of the Cosmonauts there, and the efforts the United States has currently with Russia, Russia now leading the international space station, so we can continue those efforts. We met with an American woman astronaut and a Russian male cosmonaut. We were led on this tour, and you could see the little kids flock to them as heros. Well, women and girls need role models. The women in this room are role models.

All of us here this evening are at an age when we remember what it was

like not to have intermural women's sports in high school, what it was like to have to wear skirts to high school and to junior high and grade school, not even having the opportunity to wear pants. I remember when I applied for my first job, I was told that we are not going to hire a woman to be an agricultural loan officer because men don't like to ask women for money--and it was legal. It was legal for them to say that to me in a job interview, and they hired the man instead of me.

Well, it just made me mad, and it made me determined. I know by looking at the ages of my colleagues here this evening that you each had similar experiences somewhere in your careers. Our own daughters can't even imagine being told that. This is recent history. These are the kinds of stories that we need to be able to share, what we even went through.

It is a recent history, and it is a long-fought battle. That is why I am so proud, so proud, A, to serve with these wonderful women Members of Congress today who are leading this effort, so proud to be a woman Member of this institution, and, B, so proud that you are going to leave this legacy that will create and memorialize the history of women in the United States in order to provide an exemplary and visionary picture for our own daughters, granddaughters, and Americans long after we are gone.

Thank you so much to the gentlelady from Tennessee, to the gentlelady from New York, to the wonderful woman from Ohio with whom I served on the House Appropriations Committee. You are fine leaders, exemplary women. I have great respect for the work you are doing this evening.

Mr. Speaker, on March 21, the Neil Simpson coal-fired power plant unit in Gillette, Wyoming, is going to shut down 10 years before its useful life is up. And it is shutting down because the EPA created this rule called Boiler MACT. That stands for ``maximum attainable control technology.''

If it was attainable control technology, the company wouldn't shut it down 10 years before its useful life is up. It is being shut down because it is not attainable. The EPA did not tell the truth when they told people this can be attained. And now that plant will be disassembled, taken to another country and put back up and be burning coal there.

This is not wise policy, Mr. Speaker.

Mr. Speaker, I thank the gentleman from California, the Chairman of the Foreign Affairs Committee, Mr. Royce, for yielding me time.

And I thank the gentlewoman from Florida, Ms. Ros-Lehtinen, for her work on this bill.

H.R. 938 recognizes the longstanding relationship between the United States and Israel and bolsters our cooperation in the area of offshore resources.

This bipartisan legislation expands the scope of an existing grant program to promote research and development for conventional and unconventional natural gas, water desalination, wastewater treatment and reclamation, and other water treatment technologies.

It establishes an Energy Cooperation Working Group with the Israeli government on energy activities. Furthering our dialogue and collaboration on academic innovation and technology advancement will help both our nations leverage energy development.

I commend Energy and Commerce Committee Chairman Fred Upton and Ranking Member Henry Waxman for their sponsorship of H.R. 3677, which has been incorporated into this bill, and for their leadership on this measure.

Both Republicans and Democrats support the United States' partnership with Israel and expanding our cooperation on energy efficiency and development. H.R. 938 would not only help our efforts to achieve energy independence, but also helps the Israeli people achieve stronger national security.

I urge my colleagues to support this bill.

Mr. Speaker, later this month, in the State of Wyoming, a coal-fired power unit is going to shut down production for the very last time. This is going to happen 10 years before its useful life has diminished.

This is happening because of Federal regulations. This is inexpensive, abundant, coal-fired power which serves the

people of this country being cut down 10 years before the useful life of this plant is spent. This is a travesty of Federal regulation which will cost the American people more than it should for their own power.

You are going to be hearing more about this later this month from me, Mr. Speaker. This is not the last word.