Floor Statements

Mr. Speaker, California has suffered from water shortages for a few years, partly due to low rainfall and snowpack annually, but in big part due to the poor management of the water we do receive.

Our lakes were basically full in 2019 and also in 2017, when you may recall the Oroville Dam spillway incident.

Our water systems, both State and Federal, are designed to withstand 5 years of drought. It doesn't work when government regulators let all the water out for dubious fish and environmental purposes.

Lake Oroville, in 2021, which was less than 2 years after being full, had its lowest level in its history, so low it wasn't even making hydroelectric power--this in a State that wants to electrify all of our cars and appliances.

So, what are we going to do? Hundreds of thousands of acres of ag land also have been idle with these crops that all of America depends on, not just California. It is not just California farmers. These crops are used widely across our whole country. Yet, they are not being grown because they are wasting our water.

Rain season is now upon us. I hope we can get our Federal and State regulators to be much wiser about saving our water and keeping it stored so we don't run short of food and electricity due to their bad management.

Madam Speaker, why would President Biden rather meet our energy needs by negotiating with Saudi Arabia and Venezuela, nations that regularly imprison political dissidents and engage in torture and execution, than mobilize our own American energy sector and economy?

Why should we support the economies of these brutal dictatorships while destroying our domestic oil production, which could supply all the energy we would ever need, plus our friends across the sea?

Instead, burdensome regulations and disincentives to invest in it are what we get.

At this moment, millions of Uyghurs are suffering horrifically in concentration camps. Thousands of Chinese protesters are reacting against these brutal, harsh zero-COVID policies in China, yet America continues to be dependent on China's supply chains.

To seriously challenge China's atrocious human rights record, we must expand U.S. manufacturing and assert our own economic competitiveness and also stop our overdependence on Chinese products.

As we enter a new year and new Congress, we must get started to make America dependent upon ourselves.

Madam Speaker, as I watch my home State of California go down in flames, literally, as we watch how we are running out of electricity, we are running out of water, our store shelves are having less and less food varieties available, our farmers being pushed out of business, our farmworkers being pushed out of business, as we see all of these things happen with mandates coming down the pike, requiring more and more electricity has to be renewable, what is the answer in California?

Let's tear down some hydroelectric dams in my district and Mr. Bentz' district; let's tear them down.

We are going to lose green power. We are doing it over the objections of the people who live there, who have objected by over 70 percent to removal of these dams, all for an unproven environmental benefit.

So enjoy even less electricity. Enjoy even less food grown in my district and Mr. Bentz' district. Enjoy even more of the crisis that is facing us in rural California, rural America, and on our store shelves and in our electrical wires due to even more unfounded environmental rules being forced upon us to tear down perfectly good hydroelectric dams. Thanks one hell of a lot.

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

Madam Speaker, S. 3092, the FIRE Act, makes changes to increase congressional oversight, garner further insight into FEMA's process for wildfire disasters, and enacts reforms related to disaster assistance.

Specifically, this bill directs FEMA to report to Congress on cost- effective housing solutions and challenges or inconsistencies in the application of assistance in the wake of wildfires.

The FIRE Act also takes the first steps to improve the use of forecasts and weather alerts, such as red flag warnings, within the disaster declaration process so FEMA can be better prepared earlier to provide wildfire assistance.

Lastly, this bill engages the GAO to investigate gaps in FEMA's current wildfire policies and recommend ways to streamline the distribution of assistance to our constituents and the State and local governments facing these fires head-on.

I am glad to be able to work with Senator Padilla and my colleague, Zoe Lofgren, on this as California has suffered so much, as has the West, with wildfire, including a million-acre fire in my own district last year and repeated wildfires that have affected so many and displaced so many.

I will add that working with FEMA has worked well, but we do need to continue to improve the process as FEMA has primarily, up until the advent of such large fires, dealt mostly with hurricanes and floods of that nature. We have all had to adapt until we can actually get better forest management and other tools that will help us prevent fire, and so, engaging FEMA, we appreciate them, and we want to work to have an even better process.

Madam Speaker, I reserve the balance of my time.

Madam Speaker, I yield myself the balance of my time to close.

The FIRE Act does increase oversight related to wildfire assistance and requires FEMA to report information to Congress so we can continue working--in the Transportation and Infrastructure Committee, on the floor, and across the aisle--to improve and streamline the disaster assistance process.

Again, we appreciate FEMA's efforts on all disasters around the country. We are just looking for a way to streamline and become even more efficient with that.

Madam Speaker, I urge support. I appreciate my colleagues--Ms. Lofgren, my colleague from Louisiana, and Senator Padilla--for the effort here today in building up to this.

Madam Speaker, I yield back the balance of my time.

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

Madam Speaker, H.R. 8416, Disaster Survivors Fairness Act, makes a series of changes to FEMA's Individuals and Households Programs.

Federal disaster assistance programs will be accessed through a new, universal application that cuts through the bureaucracy and red tape survivors face when seeking disaster assistance.

In my own district, we have had so much suffering from wildfire. The Camp fire destroyed the town of Paradise and displaced so many, as well as the Dixie fire last year. We just lost folks in a community called Klamath River, as well as Beckwourth and Happy Camp. I could name many others.

But, Madam Speaker, when a disaster hits you and when it hits a family, they need solutions, and they need them soon because they are going to live in a hotel or a motel. They are going to live with friends. They are going to live on someone's couch. They are going to have to leave the State. So when we can more immediately get them the assistance they need, it is more humane. It certainly allays a lot of suffering for folks who have already suffered too much already.

So with a streamlined application process we will update an existing website to view that application through disasterAssistance.gov, an interagency information-sharing system between FEMA and other Federal agencies involved in disaster recovery. This will serve a dual purpose of increased coordination and reduce waste, fraud and abuse.

The Disaster Survivors Fairness Act also opens up and clarifies FEMA's authority related to home rebuilding and repairs allowing commonsense solutions that prioritize the survivors' needs in returning home and mitigating for future disasters, as my constituents are dealing with in the town of Greenville in northern California. We would like to expedite that process and not have red tape slow down their ability to rebuild and come back home.

So, Madam Speaker, I urge support, and I reserve the balance of my time.

Madam Speaker, I yield 5 minutes to the gentleman from Louisiana (Mr. Graves), who is the lead Republican sponsor of this bill.

Madam Speaker, I yield 1 minute to the gentleman from Louisiana (Mr. Higgins).

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

Madam Speaker, whether you have, as a victim, endured a wildfire, flood, hurricane, earthquake, or any other calamity, and the different forms of government are there to assist, in earnest, in good faith, let's get them an easier process to do so.

One-stop shopping is much preferable to folks that have suffered disaster and are displaced, their families spread out, and they are struggling. Via this legislation, I appreciate my colleague from Nevada pushing this forward and recognizing that.

We struggle in my own district with the Camp fire and the Dixie fire and so much devastation there. Two entire towns disappeared with Paradise and Greenville, and another small town, Canyondam. These folks are displaced, and they are looking for answers.

With the programmatic changes that are available in H.R. 8416, it will indeed streamline the application process, via disasters, through the several Federal agencies to help them navigate what we are calling today the alphabet soup of agencies to get a faster recovery. That is what we all want.

Madam Speaker, I urge support for this bill, and I appreciate the efforts my colleagues have been able to bring forward. I yield back the balance of my time.

Madam Speaker, I rise today along with my colleague, Representative McClintock, to recognize the decade spanning work and now retirement of Placer County Supervisor Robert Weygandt. Since his election to the Board of Supervisors in 1995, Robert has been an integral part of Placer County Government and business development; from his work to establish business centers in the community, to creating a citizen focused county government center, to work on the Lincoln Highway 65 bypass linking residents from Northern California to Interstate 80. Robert has always put the interests of his community first.

Since the beginning of his public service, Robert has led the efforts to drive new business into Placer County. Working to establish the Sunset Area Plan in 1997, which would later become known as the Placer Ranch, has created a 400-acre business park including a satellite campus for California State University, various commercial and industrial developments, and residential housing units.

Robert has also worked to create innovative government solutions for Placer County, helping the everyday citizen navigate the governmental process. This includes working with the Placer County government center to form a vibrant place for residents to conveniently obtain services and conduct county business. Today, the government center is home to several state-of-the-art amenities including a new Health and Human Services facility that will open in 2024.

Robert has also been instrumental in developing business partnerships with the United Auburn Indian Community during their bid to develop Thunder Valley Casino in Lincoln. This partnership continues today with United Auburn committing to develop the first few miles of a bypass from Highway 65 to Highway 99 in Sutter County linking these busy corridors and benefiting many in the northern part of the state.

Robert was also instrumental in gathering support for the Lincoln Bypass, a throughfare for Highway 65 that opened in 2011. The bypass, which encompasses 11.7 miles and cost $325 million to construct, moves traffic around the City of Lincoln and improves regional connections between business and residential centers. This is just another example of Robert's tireless efforts to develop Placer County.

I am proud today to congratulate Robert on his numerous accomplishments and to thank him for his decade long commitment, dedication and service to the citizens of the United States and the residents of Placer County.

Madam Speaker, today I rise to recognize the three- decade spanning public service career of retiring Nevada County Supervisor Dan Miller. Supervisor Miller has served the people of Nevada County in many roles, from his time on the City Council of Grass Valley, to his recent time as a County Supervisor. His vision has always been to implement common sense solutions to local government issues. Dan is a policy guy, with a rich wealth of knowledge on nearly every issue topic.

Dan moved to Grass Valley, California with his family in 1962. He went on to graduate from Nevada Union High School, Sierra College, and earned a BA from California State University, Sacramento. Dan went into the insurance business. His community involvement included announcing Nevada Union High School football games on the local radio station, KNCO. I share Dan's passion for our local sports teams the San Francisco Giants and San Francisco 49ers, the ``correct California'' teams.

Dan served on the Grass Valley City Council for 16 years and two separate times as Mayor. He was a Grass Valley Planning Commissioner for four years and served on the Nevada Joint High School District Board of Trustees for four years. He was elected Nevada County Supervisor for eight years, serving as Chair three times. During his time as a Supervisor, Dan also served on the Regional Housing Authority (RHA), Nevada County's Local Area Formation Commission (LAFCo), and the Rural County Representatives of California (RCRC), where he has served as the 2022 Chair.

Throughout his many years of public service, Dan's proudest achievement was implementing the Dorsey Drive Freeway interchange, the modernization of the City's Fire Department, working to bring more than 200 units of affordable housing into Nevada County, and helping to ignite broadband expansion initiatives that will continue to benefit Nevada County residents into the future.

Dan and his wife Roxanne, have three children--Lisa, Sonia, and Brendon--and four grandchildren. Outside of his long career and his outstanding service to the community, he enjoys playing golf and traveling. I wish Dan well in his retirement to the great state of Arkansas, and thank him for his many years of dedicated public service and leadership in Nevada County. He will be missed.

Madam Speaker, residents in forested areas shouldn't have to be worried about catastrophic wildfires every single year.

Wildfires are part of California's landscape and have been for centuries, but they occur less frequently and are better mitigated with healthy forests. They are less bad.

Denouncing wildfires as solely a consequence of climate change is flat-out false. We are seeing more and more of these giant wildfires due to decades of policy failures that have allowed our forests to become built up with overgrown brush and dried-out, decaying wood, aka fire fuel.

On top of that, environmental regulations make it near impossible to clear that overgrowth, thin trees, or create bulldozer lines for fire breaks near towns or create large buffers around power lines and roads as needed.

So, instead, what do we get? The Los Angeles Times comes up to my district and basically says we shouldn't be there. People should not live in these rural forests because of climate change.

Well, I want to know who is going to do the work to bring you your wood products, your paper products; if nobody lives up there to do the work to thin the forest, to put the fire out, to make it where you can do tourism there?

Who is going to do that if you kick us out of rural areas and make us live in places like L.A. with all the trash and other things like that? Yeah, I wonder.

Mr. Speaker, thanks to President Biden's open-border policies, human smuggling is now a $20 billion business for criminal cartels. In barely 2 years, the Biden administration and House Democrats squandered the progress that had been made to secure our border and have enriched criminal cartels.

What is the Biden administration doing to correct this? Nothing.

Instead, when Republican Governors DeSantis from Florida and Abbott from Texas bused and flew a dozen illegal immigrants from their States to Democrats' so-called sanctuary cities like Washington, D.C., Chicago, New York, and even Martha's Vineyard, Democrats were outraged.

Some politicians who earlier claimed they would welcome illegal immigrants with open arms have threatened legal action against these Governors, accusing them, laughingly, of human trafficking.

Are they really trying to claim that a free ticket to Martha's Vineyard is human trafficking; but the criminal cartels smuggling people into our country is not?

Democrats don't seem to care that their policies are enabling criminal cartels to abuse women and children who are seeking a better life.

The humanitarian crisis we are seeing at the southern border is a direct result of President Biden's failed open-border policies. The negligence of this crisis by the Biden administration and House and Senate Democrats and their refusal to fix it is inconceivable.

Mr. Speaker, I am pointing to a map here showing the several fires we have had in Northern California. This is only a small snippet. There is much more besides that that I could show you.

This is mostly in my district, the First District of Northern California here over several years. The Dixie fire being the big one here last year, about a million acres. The Camp fire that a lot of people have heard about that consumed the town of Paradise back in 2018; but there are many others.

So what am I talking about here today? The idea that rural America isn't worth saving; isn't worth having. So as we contemplate fire after fire and the recovery from there, there are those who are questioning should we have rural towns anymore; should we have people living in them; should we help them recover?

I go back to the root of the problem. First, I think the answer is yes because we need rural towns. We need people out there that are the productive people that used to do amazing things before regulations and environmental groups shut them down; we would not have the products that come from these areas.

So, not only rebuild them, but let's do the things that help them to thrive. Because it isn't just about some jobs in a rural town, it is also about everybody in this country prospering from the products that come from there.

What am I talking about? In this area, timber, lumber products, paper products. Heaven knows, we use a lot of paper around here. Do we want that to come from the United States, from our workers, from our productive lands, or do we want to continue as the United States, for some reason, is the Number 2 importer of wood products in the world. And yet, we are burning millions of acres across the West every year. Why is that?

I could also say mining used to occur more heavily here and in other parts, anywhere from Minnesota all through the Western States, as well.

And farming, which is under attack. The water is being taken away from many of the farmers in my district and in California in general because it is going for environmental purposes.

So yes, rural America feels under attack. So a recent Los Angeles Times article comes out saying, should billions continue to be spent rebuilding burned towns? This is the case for calling it quits.

I appreciate the L.A. Times is covering the fires that affected California; most recently, the Dixie fire in the town of Greenville, which is 75 percent wiped out from that fire; the town of Paradise 4 years before, 90 percent wiped out.

But I wish they would tell the whole story. They didn't tell my part of the story. Yes, it is difficult to keep asking for money back in D.C. to come help, whether it is one of my disasters--I am sure my colleagues in the South like right now are dealing with in Florida. Do they enjoy having to come back to help get rebuild money for Florida after the hurricanes they are dealing with, or flood or what have you?

No, they don't enjoy that, and I don't think we want to have to ask taxpayers for it.

But fire is something we can manage. We can't manage the weather. We can't stop hurricanes. We can't stop other things like that. But do we have the ability to manage our forests in such a way that towns would not be subject so much to immediate wildfire; harvesting buffers around them; putting fire breaks up, things like that.

And then when you do rebuild the town, they are building them with newer, better materials for the housing and things like that. There are underground power lines, so it is not going to be the same town that went up a hundred years ago that started out as a timber town, as a mining town, or even an ag town.

So it does improve. It does get better. It is worth the value because, the bottom line is, even though we want to blame climate change and say that is the big problem, we have got to kick people out of rural areas; we have got to kick them out of these communities because of climate change.

Well, if the climate is changing, then what are we going to do about it? Are we going to not have timber products? Are we going to not ensure the safety of those areas? Because we still need these people out there producing these products. If you want to have electric cars, someone has got to do some mining somewhere, right?

And the mandate keeps coming down the pike in my own State and more and more around the country, and we are not going to have those products. We are not going to have wood and timber products, paper products coming from somewhere besides being imported; and you know what happens when we get too dependent on import. Ask anybody getting natural gas in Europe what that looks like.

Our food; everybody is seeing food prices skyrocketing at the shelves, and sometimes that very shelf is empty. With all the acres that got left out because the water got taken away this

year in California, food shelves are going to be even more empty and prices even higher.

Someone in rural America has to be producing something. So for people to say that well, climate change, times are changing, we have to shift in a new direction, and we don't need these people there, and we don't need these towns there, we do need these towns. We need them there, and we need to help them to thrive by letting them manage the timber to begin with.

Mr. Speaker, as Hurricane Ian barrels toward the Florida coast, residents are boarding up their homes, packing up their families, and rushing to evacuate.

Across the State, FEMA is unloading barrels of fuel from our Strategic Petroleum Reserve on evacuation routes to help those leaving to fuel up. That is the correct intent of our Strategic Petroleum Reserves, to help people in the event of a severe weather event or other disaster.

But there is reason to be concerned now that the SPR, as it is known, is now at its lowest point since 1984 because of President Biden's policy. For nearly 2 years he has been halting leases for domestic oil and gas production, paused pipeline development, and launched a regulatory assault on U.S. energy development and financing, all while releasing our strategic reserves in order to combat rising prices-- thinking that amount is really going to do so. They have been shipped overseas in some cases.

This is unconscionable. We are in the middle of a hurricane season. What will we do when our reserves are eventually depleted and people are actually stranded?

In my district in northern California we don't have hurricanes, but we are too familiar with natural disasters. Each summer residents are forced to flee due to catastrophic wildfires, and this winter they were even trapped in their homes without electricity due to snowstorms.

We need plentiful electricity: natural gas and oil. It is a matter of life and death for many, and SPRs need to be used properly.

Madam Speaker, with the 50th anniversary of the Clean Water Act, it is important to remind the Biden administration that Congress did not give the EPA jurisdiction over every puddle in America, despite what they are trying to claim.

The 2015 Waters of the United States rule was nothing short of a land and water grab that gave bureaucrats the ability to meddle in intermittent and ephemeral streams, such as the kind farmers use for draining and irrigation.

Under the 2015 WOTUS rule, the EPA could fine farmers thousands of dollars if they simply rotated from one crop to another on their own land without first gaining permission from a Government entity.

Then the Trump administration, through the Navigable Waters Protection Rule, eliminated the significant nexus standard set by the WOTUS rule which solved much of the overreach and uncertainty around it.

The Navigable Waters Protection Rule clearly identified WOTUS in six categories and made further clarifications of the definitions of tributaries and adjacent wetlands.

So I was very dismayed by the EPA's and U.S. Corps of Engineers' decision to reverse the 2020 Navigable Waters Protection Rule and restart the rulemaking process around the definition of what is a navigable water.

If President Biden were serious about helping farmers grow food to supply Americans and the world during this global food shortage, he would return to the Navigable Waters Protection Rule to give farmers certainty and then customers at the grocery store shelf certainty in price and availability of food.

Madam Speaker, September is National Rice Month, and even though the month is two-thirds over with, it is never not time to have rice for your next meal.

I want to pay a special tribute to the hardworking farmers, millers, merchants, suppliers, and the consumers who make rice not only such a nutritious product, but an important part of our economy.

My home State of California is the second largest rice-producing State with the Sacramento Valley home to 95 percent of California's production. It is an important part also of the Pacific Flyway. California primarily produces medium grain sticky rice, otherwise known as sushi rice.

America's rice industry contributes 125,000 good-paying jobs and an estimated $34 billion to our Nation's economy. Rice farmers take excellent care of their land, prioritizing resource conservation, nutrition, top yields worldwide, and product quality.

U.S. rice farmers produce more rice using less land, energy, and water than they did just 20 years ago, providing critical habitat for many species, which is really important, once again, to the Pacific Flyway as the ducks and geese move all the way from the north down to the south.

Unfortunately, drastic water cuts have taken half of the rice acreage out of California this year. We need to keep the industry going strong for all those good needs.

Mr. Speaker, I rise tonight to acknowledge the loss of a pillar of our community in northern California, Didar Singh Bains of Yuba City.

He lived a full life to the age of 84 and passed away peacefully at his home, surrounded by his family, on Tuesday, September 13.

He was born in 1938 in Nangal Khurd, Hoshiarpur District of Punjab, India, to a farming family. As a young man, he immigrated in 1958 to Sutter County, settling in Yuba City, because of the potential he saw in the land, soil, weather, and its likeness to Punjab, India.

Indeed, it worked out very well. Through his hard work and determination, he became the largest independent peach grower in the world, earning him the title of ``the Peach King.''

He was a deeply religious man, a leader in the Yuba-Sutter area, philanthropist, and active member of the Sikh Temple of Yuba City.

He played a critical role in founding Sikh institutions and festivals in the Yuba City area, as well as around the world.

In 1980, he started the Yuba Nagar Kirtan, called the Yuba Sikh Parade, which has now become an annual event and a staple to the area where people travel from all over the State, even all over North America, tens of thousands, to take part. I have had a chance to take part myself. It is indeed incredible.

When Sikhs faced hate crimes after the September 11 terrorist attacks due to misunderstanding, it was Didar who led a delegation of Sikhs to meet the U.S. President, George W. Bush, at the time.

He was a pillar of our community. His loss will be felt by Yuba City and indeed internationally.

Mr. Speaker, I rise today in memoriam of those who lost their lives in the horrific wildfires that have once again plagued Northern California this fire season.

In what is known as the McKinney fire in Siskiyou County, we lost four of our neighbors: Kathleen Shoopman, who was 73; Charles Kays, 79; Judith Kays, 82; and John Cogan, 76--all sadly lost their lives in this fire.

Yet, another fire, also in Siskiyou County, known as the Mill fire, two women, ages 66 and 73--whose names have not been publicly revealed yet--sadly lost their lives, as well.

Season after season, our constituents are subject to fire danger. Our prayers are with the families and the souls of those that we have lost this season.

Mr. Speaker, I would ask for a moment of silence from the House.