Floor Statements

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

(Mrs. NAPOLITANO asked and was given permission to revise and extend her remarks.)

Mr. Speaker, H.R. 1206 would allow the Secretary of the Interior to continue the sale of electronic duck stamps and also expands the program to include all of our 50 States.

The Migratory Bird Hunting and Conservation Stamp, commonly known and called the ``duck stamp,'' must be purchased and carried by all waterfowl hunters 16 years and older when hunting migratory waterfowl on both public and private land.

Ninety-eight cents of every dollar generated by the sales of these stamps go to purchase or lease wetland habitat for the National Wildlife Refuge system, which benefits waterfowl. In some rural areas, purchasing the duck stamp can be very difficult. Often, hunters have to wait a significant amount of time to receive their official duck stamp, so utilizing the system of electronic duck stamp producing would eliminate the wait by issuing an electronic stamp with a unique identifying number to serve as a proof of purchase. Hunters can hunt and use the electronic stamp for 45 days until the actual duck stamp arrives via the postal service.

This is a worthwhile piece of legislation, and I reserve the balance of my time.

No, sir, not on this bill.

I yield back the balance of my time, sir.

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

I rise in strong support of H.R. 885, the San Antonio Missions National Historical Park Boundary Expansion Act 2013. Being a born-and- raised Texan, this is a very dear to my heart issue.

I do want to thank Congressman Lloyd Doggett and the entire bipartisan San Antonio delegation for pushing this very important piece of legislation forward. This is the third time the House has considered legislation to expand the San Antonio Missions. Hopefully, the third time will be the charm.

Currently, there are 137 acres of land managed by the National Park Service that are not part of the existing San Antonio Missions National Historical Park. Expanding the boundaries of the park will ensure that these cultural and archaeological resources are protected.

Mr. Doggett has been involved with this legislation since the proposal first came before us several years ago--I'm not sure when. Though I know that he would have preferred a broader bill that included a study of the additional potential park areas, I thoroughly appreciate his efforts to work with our Republican colleagues to obtain a bill that they can support.

It's a very unique place, and I can appreciate Mr. Doggett's commitment to getting this legislation approved, and I look forward to working with him on this.

Again, this is a very important bill for Texans, and I urge your support.

I reserve the balance of my time.

Mr. Speaker, I yield as much time as he may consume to the sponsor of this piece of legislation, the gentleman from Texas (Mr. Lloyd Doggett).

Mr. Speaker, how much time is left?

I yield 3 minutes to the gentleman from Texas (Mr. Gallego).

I yield 3 minutes to the gentleman from Texas (Mr. Cuellar).

I do urge my colleagues to support this legislation. It is critical to help Texas preserve such a national treasure that all of us have seen in the movies and heard about and read about.

I yield back the balance of my time.

Mr. Speaker, May is Mental Health Month--has been and will continue to be. It is an opportunity to raise awareness and encourage others to get help and to recognize the symptoms and warning signs of mental health issues.

There is a lot of stigma. We must accept it as an illness. We've got to reduce that stigma. We must expand mental health services and give it the parity needed because it does not know boundaries. It affects everybody in every segment of our communities.

It is all right. It's okay to ask for help and learn to recognize the symptoms and to learn about the service providers in your area. We must expand more mental health services to our community. We need it for the military, because one in five suffer from major depression or PTSD.

Youth--suicide, the third leading cause of death; second for college students. School-based mental health services are greatly needed for early intervention. Minority communities--Native Americans highest ethnicity for suicide.

Mental health services must be provided in languages also.

Thank you to the mental health professionals, the 500,000 licensed certified professional counselors that work for us and throughout the United States. Thank you, President Obama, first U.S. President to declare May Mental Health Month.

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

The pending measure was introduced in the Senate on May 16 of this year, 2013, and passed the very same day. While the bill is apparently a Senate-revised version of the legislation introduced in February of 2013, no committee hearings or markups were held on either bill.

Since 1996, the Army Corps of Engineers has been required to establish restricted areas for hazardous waters upstream and downstream of all Corps dams. As written, S. 982 would revise the current agency policy and would also prohibit the Army Corps of Engineers from establishing any restricted areas in hazardous waters at dams and other structures in the Cumberland River basin for a period of 2 years, and also require them to remove any physical barriers that already exist to prevent access to the hazardous areas. If after the 2-year moratorium, the Corps decided to implement new restricted areas around these dams and other structures, it would continue to be prohibited from erecting any physical barriers to prevent people from entering hazardous areas.

Mr. Speaker, I have serious concerns over this legislation because it does pose risks for public safety and national security. Currently, the Corps restricts access to certain areas above and below the dams of the Cumberland River basin in order to keep people from being sucked into the spill waste or from having their boats swamped or sunk by unplanned releases from the hydropower units, which are very much un-timed. The reason they do this is very simple: to prevent people from drowning and to restrict access to Federal dams that would be targets for terrorism or destruction. Without full-time law enforcement patrols, areas above and below dams are not constantly monitored, and the Corps has not been able to alert and rescue people who get into trouble. They have to base it on people who are in boats nearby to help effect a rescue. Fourteen people drowned in the last few years, and there have been 20 near misses where there is no Corps staff to help.

In fact, according to a report by WRCB-TV in Chattanooga, Tennessee, there have been three fatalities in the hazardous waters immediately downstream of those dams on the Cumberland River. The waters are so hazardous at these locations that wearing a life jacket is ineffective. And I repeat: ineffective.

To legislatively preclude a Federal agency from protecting public health and national security seems a very unwise course of action, and I have significant concerns about the precedent that would be set by this legislation.

Mr. Speaker, I reserve the balance of my time.

Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I might consume to say it'd be nice to know why the Army Corps has not really been effective in getting back to the parties that have asked for information and working with them; and it would be very much interesting to know whether or not it's because of sequestration or budget or whatever, but we might delve into it later.

I yield 3 minutes to the gentleman from Tennessee, Congressman Cooper.

Mr. Speaker, I yield myself the balance of the time.

I really appreciate the information from my colleagues on the other side. It is only for 2 years, which is time enough to be able to have the Corps and the individual participants be able to come to some agreement.

The fact that there is, according to my colleague, no fishing, I think it's only in certain areas, which would be at the lip of the dam and below the

dam where the spill is where there is danger of boats getting swamped, and so it is something that we need to look forward and see what happens.

With that, Mr. Speaker, I yield back the balance of my time.

Mr. Speaker, I ask unanimous consent to insert my statement into the Record opposing the GOP's shameful Mother's Day gift--more work and less pay for working moms. Happy Mother's Day.

Mr. Chairman, I yield myself 5 minutes.

Mr. Chairman, I rise in support of the general premise of this bill but oppose the legislation as is due to the inclusion of the NEPA waiver.

Today we are debating H.R. 678, a bill that should be noncontroversial. In fact, it should have already been enacted into law. We all agree that adding small conduit hydropower projects is a great idea--no, it's really a wonderful idea--and H.R. 678 could have easily been passed through the House with overwhelming bipartisan support. But, unfortunately, my esteemed colleagues on the other side have chosen to turn this noncontroversial bill into a partisan fight over ideology by waiving compliance with the National Environmental Policy Act, NEPA, for Federal conduit projects.

As my colleague from Washington indicated, it means jobs. It means the addition of clean energy. It means all of those things, but to the exclusion of NEPA. As the gentleman mentioned, H.R. 678 would amend the Reclamation Project Act of 1939 and, thus, would facilitate and expand the private development of small conduit hydropower at the Bureau of Reclamation facilities. The legislation seeks to accomplish several goals, the most important of which is authorizing reclamation to develop and increase power at most of those facilities.

H.R. 678 also includes a provision that waives NEPA for all conduit projects generating less than 5 megawatts. The bill waives NEPA, which is on page 4, lines 14 to 18, even though the Bureau of Reclamation has implemented a categorical exclusion on their own accord to apply to small conduit projects. You may call it theoretical, but it has only been there 6 months, and it takes government a long time to get the word out to those parties. The waiver of NEPA in this bill is unnecessary, since Reclamation has already implemented this guidance through this categorical exclusion. The legislation seeks to solve a NEPA problem that does not exist. Unfortunately, some Members on the other side of the aisle have characterized the waiver of NEPA as ``the main purpose of this legislation.''

The waiver in this bill is the exact same waiver that Republicans put into the nearly identical bill last Congress. Just like the last time, the Senate will not pass it, and the bill will again expire in the Senate. This is totally unnecessary. This is not what anyone on this side of the aisle wants to see happen, and we would support the bill without the NEPA waiver.

Mr. Chairman, I oppose this legislation and ask my colleagues to do the same.

I reserve the balance of my time.

Mr. Chairman, I yield 5 minutes to the gentleman from California (Mr. Costa).

Madam Chair, I agree with my colleague, except some of those projects were built in 1902 and through the 1970s. I think we do need NEPA protection.

I yield 5 minutes to the gentleman from California (Mr. Swalwell).

May I inquire as to how much time I have remaining?

I yield 5 minutes to the gentleman from California (Mr. Cardenas).

Madam Chairman, I am glad that there are some visual effects here. It is important. But I don't know how all the canal and for the release, were there any levee issues. So it is important to have a NEPA review.

I would now like to yield 5 minutes to my colleague, the gentleman from California, Congressman Takano.

Madam Chair, I reserve the balance of my time.

Madam Chair, may I inquire how many minutes we have remaining?

May I inquire of my colleague how many other speakers he has?

I am. I thank the gentleman.

Madam Chair, as I've said before, this is a good bill with one bad provision in it, and that is the NEPA waiver that is not needed. It is not good environmental policy, and it is not good energy policy.

NEPA is not just red tape. It is a chance for the Federal Government to consider alternatives, to listen to not only the opponent, but get input from everybody impacted and to consider any possible impacts to the area.

At the appropriate time, I will offer an amendment to fit the one flaw in this bill. I hope my amendment is adopted and we'll send this to the Senate for passage.

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

I rise in opposition to this amendment.

Madam Chair, I rise in opposition to Tipton amendment No. 3 for the Congressional Record.

We are glad to see the author of the legislation recognizes that in developing conduit hydropower projects, NEPA is not the problem and that the flat NEPA waiver included in the base bill is not good policy.

We also welcome the apparent realization that insisting on an unwarranted and unwise NEPA waiver has been the anchor that has held this bill back and prohibited this largely noncontroversial measure from becoming law.

But to be clear, this amendment only tweaks language that should be removed from the bill entirely. The Tipton amendment circles around the edge of the problem while my amendment, which I'll offer in a few minutes, solves the problem by removing the waiver completely so we can move forward and support the bill.

Better yet, if the waiver is removed, there is no need for the artificially low cap on the size of these projects contained in the base bill, which is why my amendment will increase the cap from 5 to 15 megawatts. The Tipton amendment does nothing to raise the cap on these projects.

The Tipton amendment is a significant step in the right direction for the bill's sponsor, and we will not oppose it and will work with the sponsor and Senate to perfect the language. However, my amendment, which we'll see momentarily, is better energy policy and better environmental policy. The amendment is a start, this particular amendment, but I urge my colleagues to vote ``yes'' on my amendment to really fix this legislation.

With that, I yield back the balance of my time.

Madam Chair, I rise to offer the Napolitano amendment identified as amendment No. 1 in the Congressional Record.

Madam Chair, my amendment is very simple. It would strike the NEPA, known as the National Environmental Policy Act, waiver and give the Secretary of the Interior, acting through the Bureau of Reclamation, the authority to apply Reclamation's directives and standards for lease of power privilege projects, which is known as

Madam Chair, I demand a recorded vote.

Madam Chairwoman, I move to strike the last word.

The gentleman's amendment makes technical changes that staff has brought to our attention, and it addresses a few of the administration's concerns.

The amendment clarifies that the projects already permitted under FERC would not see any regulatory uncertainty with this bill's passage. We are also in agreement with the amendment changes that require greater consultation with irrigation districts and water user associations prior to the approval of the Lease of Power Privilege.

We have no objections to this technical amendment, and I yield back the balance of my time.

Offered By: Mrs. Napolitano

Amendment No. 1: Page 4, strike lines 14 through 18 (and

redesignate subsequent provisions accordingly).

Page 7, line 13, strike ``5'' and insert ``15''.

Mr. Speaker, on Thursday, March 14, 2013, I was absent during rollcall vote No. 70 due to being sick. Had I been present, I would have voted ``nay'' on ordering the previous question on H. Res. 113--``Providing for consideration of the bill (H.R. 803) to reform and strengthen the workforce investment system of the Nation to put Americans back to work and make the United States more competitive in the 21st century.''

Mr. Speaker, on Thursday, March 14, 2013, I was absent during rollcall vote No. 71 due to being sick. Had I been present, I would have voted ``nay'' on H. Res. 113--``Providing for consideration of the bill (H.R. 803) to reform and strengthen the workforce investment system of the Nation to put

Americans back to work and make the United States more competitive in the 21st century.''

Thank you, Gentlelady Speier, for being our lead on the gun prevention, gun violence prevention.

One of the things we don't talk about is a mental health component on which Congress has got to act. We've got to make sure that we bring it to the forefront. We've got to fund the programs to be able to help our communities deal with the mental health issues, elevate it to the level of other illnesses such as cancer, diabetes, heart issues.

We need to destigmatize it. It will not solve itself. We need to end the school tragedies, the government office attacks. Mental illness is an invisible illness. We don't talk about it, we don't listen to it, and we don't want to share it because of the stigma. We need to educate our public.

Children at a young level can be identified when they're beginning to have emotional disorders that can be addressed at a very early age. Now, that's not to say--there's many reasons why we need to go, and the time does not allow me to go into it, but when you hear that 2,000 people are killed, how many are maimed? What is the cost to society and the cost to our business, to the law enforcement? And, as you say, they are very much in favor of controlling the guns on the street, the high- capacity, the assault weapons.

And women are highly in favor. As you can tell, most of your speakers are women who understand this is our children, our grandchildren, our neighbors, our friends who are impacted. And we need to be able to fund mental health services at the local level so it can be addressed and help can be found for them.

I've introduced the Mental Health in Schools Act, H.R. 628, which was a companion to Senator Franken's Senate bill 195. But I must ask that the public has got to raise their voice. Email, fax, mail, phone your Member of Congress, and tell them we need to pass reform.

Mr. Speaker, on Tuesday, January 15, 2013, I was absent during rollcall vote No. 23 due to a death in my family. Had I been present, I would have voted ``yea'' on Final Passage of H.R. 152-- Disaster Relief Appropriations Act, 2013.

Mr. Speaker, on Tuesday, January 15, 2013, I was absent during rollcall vote No. 13 due to a death in my family. Had I been present, I would have voted ``no'' on the motion to adjourn.

Madam Chair, on Tuesday, January 15, 2013, I was absent during rollcall vote No. 14 due to a death in my family. Had I been present, I would have voted ``no'' on the Mulvaney Amendment.

Madam Chair, on Tuesday, January 15, 2013, I was absent during rollcall vote No. 15 due to a death in my family. Had I been present, I would have voted ``yea'' on the Rogers Amendment.

Amendment No. 1 Offered by Mr. Frelinghuysen

Mr. Chair, on Tuesday, January 15, 2013, I was absent during rollcall vote No. 16 due to a death in my family. Had I been present, I would have voted ``no'' on the Flores Amendment.

Mr. Chair, on Tuesday, January 15, 2013, I was absent during rollcall vote No. 17 due to a death in my family. Had I been present, I would have voted ``no'' on the Broun Amendment.

Amendment No. 5 Offered by Mr. Duncan of South Carolina

Mr. Chair, on Tuesday, January 15, 2013, I was absent during rollcall vote No. 18 due to a death in my family. Had I been present, I would have voted ``no'' on the Duncan (SC) Amendment.

Amendment No. 9, as Modified, Offered by Mr. Fleming

Mr. Chair, on Tuesday, January 15, 2013, I was absent during rollcall vote No. 19 due to a death in my family. Had I been present, I would have voted ``no'' on the Fleming Amendment.

Amendment No. 10 Offered by Mr. Benishek

Mr. Chair, on Tuesday, January 15, 2013, I was absent during rollcall vote No. 20 due to a death in my family. Had I been present, I would have voted ``no'' on the Benishek Amendment.

Amendment No. 11 Offered by Mr. Bishop of Utah

Mr. Chair, on Tuesday, January 15, 2013, I was absent during rollcall vote No. 22 due to a death in my family. Had I been present, I would have voted ``no'' on the Bishop (UT) Amendment.

Mr. Chair, on Tuesday, January 15, 2013, I was absent during rollcall vote No. 22 due to a death in my family. Had I been present, I would have voted ``no'' on the Frelinghuysen Amendment.

Mr. Speaker, on Tuesday, January 15, 2013, I was absent during rollcall vote No. 11 due to a death in my family. Had I been present, I would have voted ``nay'' on ordering the previous question on H. Res. 23, providing for consideration of the bill (H.R. 152) making supplemental appropriations for the fiscal year ending September 30, 2013, and for other purposes.

Madam Speaker, on Tuesday, January 15, 2013, I was absent during rollcall vote No. 12 due to a death in my family. Had I been present, I would have voted ``nay'' on agreeing to the resolution H. Res. 23, providing for consideration of the bill (H.R. 152) making supplemental appropriations for the fiscal year ending September 30, 2013, and for other purposes.

Madam Speaker, on Monday, January 14, 2013, I was absent during rollcall vote No. 8 due to a death in my family. Had I been present, I would have voted ``yea'' on H.R. 219--The Sandy Recovery Improvement Act of 2013.

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

Mr. Speaker, I rise in support of S. 3311. It's a bill to designate the courthouse in Billings, Montana, as the

James F. Battin United States Courthouse.

As my colleague has so aptly stated, in 1969, President Nixon appointed James Battin to the Federal bench in Billings, Montana, where he continued his 40 years of public service to the citizens of that State. In 1978, Judge Battin was appointed chief judge and served in that position for 12 years. He remained active in judicial affairs until his death in September of 1996.

Prior to his judicial appointment, Judge Battin served, as was mentioned, in the House of Representatives, representing eastern Montana from 1960 to 1969, when he resigned to receive his judicial appointment. While in this Congress, Judge Battin served on the Judiciary Committee, the Foreign Affairs Committee, and the Ways and Means Committee.

Judge Battin was also a World War II Navy veteran, a member of the Montana State Legislature, and also Billings city attorney and general counsel for the Billings planning board.

It is fitting to honor the contributions Judge Battin, a great hero to Montana, has made to public service with the designation of the U.S. courthouse in Billings, Montana, as the James F. Battin United States Courthouse.

I urge support of S. 3311 and urge my colleagues to also support the bill.

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