Mike Kennedy

Mr. Speaker, I rise today to recognize a landmark moment in the history of my home State of Utah as we open the doors next April through October for the public open house of the renovated Salt Lake Temple of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.

For generations, this iconic structure has stood as a beacon over Salt Lake City and a symbol of faith recognized around the globe. To stand here today and witness its restoration is to stand at the intersection of our rich history, modern ingenuity, and enduring spiritual devotion.

We cannot fully appreciate what we see today without looking back to where it began. In 1853, Brigham Young stood on that very ground, struck his cane into the earth, and declared that this would be the spot where they would build a temple.

What followed was 40 years of staggering sacrifice. Early pioneers quarried massive granite blocks from Little Cottonwood Canyon and hauled those multi-ton stones 4 days across rough terrain by ox team. When times were lean and hardship was near constant, those faithful men and women gave their labor, their meager savings, and their very lives to complete that house of the Lord.

They did not build for comfort or temporary convenience. They built for eternity.

Today, Mr. Speaker, we pay tribute to a new generation of pioneers: the incredible work crews, engineers, artisans, and tradespeople who have labored on this project over these past several years. Restoring a historic granite structure while seismically retrofitting it with state-of-the-art base isolators deep beneath the earth is an absolute engineering marvel. It required thousands of skilled hands--masons, carpenters, electricians, steelworkers, and historic preservationists-- working with absolute dedication.

Every man and woman who wore a hardhat on that site worked not just with extraordinary skill but with deep reverence. They have ensured that this foundation will stand firm for generations to come.

Over the coming months, the temple will be open so that millions of people from every State in our Union and every corner of the world may pass through these open doors. They will come from all walks of life, representing diverse faiths, cultures, and backgrounds.

I advise every visitor wanting to take these free tours to go online and order tickets right away. For those who will be coming, we welcome them with open arms.

This open house is more than an architectural showcase. It is an invitation to peace. It offers our neighbors and friends a rare opportunity to experience the beauty, order, and serenity that reside inside those walls.

For faithful members of the church, a temple is not merely a place of Sunday worship, nor is it a simple monument. It is literally the house of the Lord, the most sacred place on Earth. Only the home can compare in sacredness. Inside those holy rooms, individuals step away from the noise and anxiety of the world to make sacred promises with God. It is where families are connected in this life and beyond and where people find godly solace and guidance.

As this temple reopens its doors, it stands renewed, strengthened against the elements, and preserved for the future. It serves as a testament to what can be accomplished when faith, hard work, and community come together. May this holy house continue to be a light unto the nations, a blessing to the State of Utah, and a sanctuary of peace for all who enter.

Mr. Speaker, I thank Mr. Westerman for the time to speak.

Our constituents know there is too often a gap between the rules Washington writes and the realities Americans face. Nowhere is that gap more apparent than in our healthcare system.

I know that reality well. I have been a doctor for 25 years and continue to see patients. I sit with families during some of the most difficult moments of their lives, and I see firsthand how frustrating paperwork and red tape can be when what matters most is getting someone the care that they need.

That experience is why I rise today in support of my bill, H.R. 8658, the Indian Health Service Emergency Claims Parity Act.

This bill is simple: Put patients before paperwork. Today, when an American Indian or Alaska Native patient receives emergency care outside the Indian Health Service, the IHS must be notified within 72 hours. When missed, a family can be left with the bill for care that should have been covered.

Mr. Speaker, that rule was written from behind a desk, not beside a hospital bed. Anyone who has worked in healthcare knows that 72 hours can pass in what feels like an instant. Families should be focused on their loved one's recovery, not on whether they met a Federal notification deadline.

H.R. 8658 extends that window to 15 days so families can take care of their loved ones first and the paperwork second.

This is what good government should look like. When a rule does not reflect the reality people face, we should fix it. When government bureaucracy gets in the way of common sense, we should cut through it. My congressional colleagues and I understand that. We need a government that is smarter, quicker, and more responsive to the people it serves. We need a government that is streamlined and close to home, not bloated and distant.

This is one practical, commonsense fix, and there are many more like it across our government and throughout our healthcare system.

I thank Chairman Westerman, my colleagues on the Natural Resources Committee, our outstanding staff on

the Committee as well as my staff, and my bipartisan colleagues for their work on this fix and their commitment to making government work for the people.

Mr. Speaker, I urge my colleagues to support H.R. 8658.

Mr. Speaker, I thank Chairman Westerman, Representative Shreve, and colleagues on the House Natural Resources Committee for their work on this important piece of legislation.

Every modern economy, every advanced technology, and every military capability depends on these kinds of minerals. Copper, iron, lithium, rare earths, and other minerals are essential to our power grid, our manufacturing base, our defense systems, and the technologies that will define our future.

Yet, we continue to rely heavily on foreign nations, including our geopolitical adversaries, for the minerals we need to manufacture these products. That is a national security vulnerability.

The problem is not that America lacks these resources. We certainly have them. The problem is that it has become easier to permit a mine almost anywhere else on Earth than here at home, so the mine is developed somewhere else; jobs go somewhere else; and the supply chain we depend on ends up running through countries that do not wish us well.

Endless permitting uncertainty does not protect anything. It simply hands our competitors the advantage over the industries that power our economy and national defense.

I represent Utah, and I have seen what responsible mineral development looks like. Utah has a proud history of it. Today, mining supports in our State more than 43,000 jobs and contributes billions of dollars to our economy.

The Protecting Domestic Mining Act takes an important step toward fixing that problem. It ensures that mining and mineral processing projects can benefit from a predictable and coordinated permitting process.

Republicans are cutting through Washington's red tape to give American producers the certainty that they need. Without it, nothing gets built. No one invests billions in a mine that takes a decade to complete if the rules might be rewritten in 4 years.

Mr. Speaker, this is about whether America can still build what it needs. I urge my colleagues to support this bill.