Jefferson Shreve

Mr. Speaker, Indiana is the Crossroads of America. This National Truck Driver Appreciation Week, and I thank the professional drivers who deliver what our farms grow, our factories make, and our families need.

They work long hours, they miss time with their families, and they take seriously the responsibility that comes with driving a big rig.

Last month, I hosted our Nation's top trucking safety official in Indiana to hear directly from our Hoosier drivers and trucking businesses.

Truckers who follow the rules of the road shouldn't have to compete with operators who cut corners, and the families traveling beside them deserve to know that every commercial driver is properly trained, licensed, and qualified.

Whether someone is behind the wheel of a semi or riding in the family car, they deserve to get home safely. To the drivers who make that their business every day, I thank you.

Mr. Speaker, had I been present, I would have voted YEA on Roll Call No. 284, S. 307 and YEA on Roll Call No. 285, S. 32.

Mr. Speaker, I appreciate the House's consideration of my bill, the Protecting Domestic Mining Act.

The purpose is straightforward: Qualified American mining and mineral processing projects should have access to a coordinated, transparent, and timely Federal permitting process.

That is what FAST-41 provides. It brings Federal agencies together. It establishes a public timetable, and it holds the government accountable for reaching decisions.

No environmental law is waived. No project is rubber-stamped. FAST-41 simply ensures that our Federal Government conducts its reviews efficiently and reaches a decision.

Mining was added as an eligible FAST-41 sector back in 2021. It was the right decision. In my home State of Indiana, we build things. We build cars, engines, aerospace systems, defense equipment, and the infrastructure that powers communities.

All of these depend upon reliable access to minerals and processed materials. Copper carries electricity. Iron ore and other inputs become the steel used in our vehicles, bridges, and buildings. Critical minerals support our military and advanced-manufacturing base, in Indiana and across our country.

Yet in 2023, the Biden administration proposed narrowing the mining projects eligible for FAST-41. Under that proposed rule, a company could invest millions of dollars developing an American project, only to learn that a shifting Federal definition had made it ineligible for that coordinated review. It creates uncertainty, discourages investment, and pushes mining and mineral processing abroad, often to supply chains dominated by China.

We should not make the United States more dependent upon a strategic competitor for minerals essential to our economy and our national security.

My bill does two things. First, it writes mining and mineral processing directly into the FAST-41 statute. Second, it prevents implementation of the 2023 proposed rule that would narrow the sector's eligibility.

America can maintain high environmental standards and still build. We can conduct thorough reviews without accepting needless delays, and we can produce more of the materials we need here at home, under American laws, with American workers, and in support of American national security.

I thank Chairman Westerman for his leadership and Congressman Blake Moore for partnering with me on this legislation.

I urge my colleagues to support the Protecting Domestic Mining Act.