Garret Graves

Mr. Speaker, this legislation is common sense. Why does a patient not go through the same open heart surgery twice? Because you fixed it, you addressed the problem.

In this case, if you have someone that is a truck driver, someone that is a port worker, and they have to get a TWIC card, they have to go through a background check. If they also have to get a hazardous materials endorsement, they have to go through a background check, the same background check.

Einstein is often credited with the quote that the definition of insanity is expecting a different outcome from the same process. I know that a lot of people have said he didn't really say that, but accuracy has never ever prevented anyone on the House floor from saying something.

The reality is why would you do it twice? It costs additional money, and it takes additional time to do that.

In my home State of Louisiana, one in every five jobs are tied back to our waterways, one in every five. If you are going to delay these workers, the availability of workers, that impacts our supply chain by making them go through this same process twice, by delaying them months, by costing them additional dollars, it simply doesn't make sense.

I thank Chairman Mark Green for working with us on this. I thank Ranking Member Adam Smith. I thank Ms. Titus from Nevada, Mr. Carbajal, and many others that worked with us on a bipartisan basis to apply this commonsense legislation and fix this problem, help with government efficiency, and get our supply chain back in order.

Mr. Speaker, I urge adoption of the legislation.

Mr. Speaker, I thank Chairman Westerman for the recognition.

Mr. Speaker, the gentleman from California, Mr. Huffman, and I legislatively agree on approximately nothing. This is truly an anomaly. This legislation is something that he and I absolutely agree upon. We have worked together on it. I thank the other gentleman from California, Mr. Harder, for the introduction. We have worked together on this legislation for years.

Nutria are an unbelievably invasive species. Coastal Louisiana loses a football field of wetlands approximately every 90 minutes. A football field of land is lost, which is a result of wave action and it is a result of saltwater intrusion, a result of subsidence, a result of replumbing of coastal Louisiana in a destructive manner. Nutria absolutely contribute to that.

Mr. Speaker, what happened between probably the late 1950s to the early 1990s, there was a huge fur trade. Tens of millions of nutria were actually harvested to provide fur coats. That market declined. As a result, the population of nutria just absolutely exploded. In fact, one nutria can provide on average about 13 offspring a year.

You do the math very quickly. Mr. Chairman can do the math very quickly. Actually, I take that back. The gentleman is from Arkansas. I will do it for him.

They can proliferate very, very quickly and have a profound impact. They will burrow into levees. They found that they have made these 150- foot burrows that actually compromises flood protection infrastructure like levees. It actually puts our communities in jeopardy. They will eat the vegetation. They will eat all the way down to the roots, and the roots are actually what hold everything together, what hold our coastal landscape together.

What this legislation does is that it helps to put a bounty program, to ensure that we can come in and we can actually harvest and we can retrieve these nutria to prevent the proliferation that goes today from Maryland all the way to California, down to the coast of Louisiana, to prevent this impact to habitat that exacerbates our coastal resiliency and ecological productivity all across the United States.

I thank Mr. Harder, my friend from California, for working with us on this. This is a reauthorization bill. Members all across the political spectrum support this bill.

Mr. Speaker, I will say it again. My good friend, Mr. Huffman, from California and I rarely agree on legislation. We absolutely, absolutely agree on this one. I ask all Members to please support this. This is very helpful. It actually prevents disaster dollars. It improves ecological productivity and certainly will help with the resiliency of my home State of coastal Louisiana.

Mr. Speaker, as I close, the chairman commented on my attire. I want to remind him it is Christmastime. It is Christmastime, and these are colors that are festive and relevant to the time of year.

I think he might have noted that I resemble a nutria or something like that. Mr. Speaker, I have no idea what the gentleman from Arkansas is talking about. This is absolutely topflight attire for Christmas 2024.

While I respect my friend, the chairman of the committee, sometimes he is simply in error.

Mr. Speaker, I urge adoption of this legislation, and I thank my friend from California and my friend from Arkansas.

Mr. Speaker, before I start on the content of this legislation, I thank the gentlewoman from Colorado (Ms. Boebert), the sponsor of this legislation. I also thank Chairman Comer and Mr. Raskin for working together.

Mr. Speaker, that is the only nice thing I am going to say because I am frustrated that we are here. We have the greatest country in the world, and we can't even figure out how to do ZIP Codes. This is something the post office should just do on their own.

The fact that we have to do legislation to fix this is frustrating, but I do thank my friends because my friends have refused to let the bureaucracy sit here and stew, leaving these ridiculous conditions in place. They have come in and proposed a solution on a bipartisan basis.

Particularly in my district in south Louisiana, the community of Montz, in St. Charles Parish, has a mess of a ZIP Code, so this actually ensures that they are going to have their own ZIP Code.

Then, of course, the greatest university in the Nation--I will let it come to mind; that is right, LSU, and I hope you got it right-- Louisiana State University has a broken up, bifurcated ZIP Code system. This bill fixes that, as well.

Again, I thank the gentlewoman from Colorado (Ms. Boebert), Mr. Raskin, and Chairman Comer for working together. I thank them for fixing these issues.

Mr. Speaker, I will say it again: Post offices should be able to do this on their own. I hate that we have to spend time in Congress doing this. This is just red tape that should be able to be fixed on its own. I thank the sponsors of this bill for not putting up with it. I appreciate their leadership in working together.

Mr. Speaker, I urge adoption of the bill.