Floor Statements

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.

Mr. Speaker, I thank Congressman Moore for the opportunity to speak in this Special Order and also for the gentleman's advocacy for our outstanding State. I am proud to be with my friend and the congressional delegation from the great State of Utah.

Today, Mr. Speaker, I rise to speak on a principle that is as old as our Republic: Small government delivers big results.

Before I came to this Chamber, I spent my career as a family physician in Utah. Throughout those years, I saw firsthand what happens when Washington inserts regulations and when the bureaucracy inserts themselves between people and their lives.

As an example, I wanted to bring up an experience that I had as a doctor years ago with an individual with whom I spent a significant period of time in the room trying to understand the symptoms that this person described and trying to help them move forward in their health and well-being.

In that circumstance, some of the symptoms that this person described worried me or had me concerned about a possible cardiac condition, some problem with their heart. I ordered a stress test, which is an expensive test. It is a test to look at the function of the heart to see if there are any blood flow issues or aspects of the heart that would threaten for a heart attack.

I ordered that test, and, Mr. Speaker, I waited for days, ultimately 13 days, for the insurance determination as to whether they would pay for that test. On day 13, I received notification from this person's insurance that they would not pay for the heart test. Come to find out, the very next day this individual suffered from a heart attack.

The insurance in this case thought it was beneficial to their bottom line to reject the judgment that I had as a professional to determine that this person needed a preventative heart evaluation to make sure that they wouldn't have a heart attack. Instead, they denied my efforts to diagnose this problem before it became a critical problem, saving themselves a few thousand dollars potentially on a heart test and subsequently threatening the life of this patient, as well as spending tens of thousands of dollars.

Ultimately, the person went through the heart symptoms that they had. They went to the emergency department and were admitted to the hospital. They had a coronary artery bypass graft, the procedure that was done saving this person's life, but after serious debility associated with that--and also this person's life was threatened. Subsequently, the insurance company spent tens of thousands of dollars instead of a few thousand dollars on that person.

Excessive government has built a great deal of bureaucracy between a doctor and that doctor's patients. There are rules. We have approvals. We have requirements and determinations that are made somewhere far away by someone who has never met the patient and never sat with them or their family. In many cases, these individuals have no medical training at all, yet that person or those systems can still override the judgment of the professionals or the people.

Nearly every one of those barriers began with someone's good intention, someone who is trying to fix a real problem and believed that another rule, another program, or some other layer of government was going to be the answer to the problem.

Unfortunately, Mr. Speaker, good intentions are where Big Government contributions end. That is because when those ideas are put into practice, Americans are too often left with a government that is slow, a government that is costlier, and a government that is more obstructive than is needed.

For too long, Washington has operated under the flawed assumption that the size of the program measures its success and that the more money Federal agencies spend, the more the American people will benefit. Progress does not come from expanding bureaucratic power in this way. Progress comes from individuals, from their dreams, and from their aspirations and their inspiration.

Nowhere is that principle more clearly demonstrated than in the tangible benefits that Americans are already seeing through the working families tax cuts. When we passed that landmark legislation, we made simple promises to the American people: They should keep more of what they earn, and we, Congress, would rein in Federal overreach, eliminate wasteful spending, and return resources to the people who worked to earn them.

Today, those promises are producing real results in Utah and across the country.

Mr. Speaker, the government cannot create lasting prosperity. The American people are who create lasting prosperity. When Washington steps back, American families will step forward.

Mr. Speaker, I thank my colleague from Utah (Mr. Moore). I am grateful

for the opportunity to address this issue.

Mr. Speaker, last week Meta reached a $12.2 billion settlement and agreed to implement new safety guardrails in youth protections.

We have all witnessed the harms caused by an unchecked social media algorithm: anxiety and depression, lost sleep, and even a lost childhood. An entire generation of young people are struggling under the weight of a technology engineered to capture their attention and hold it for as long as possible.

I thank Utah Attorney General Derek Brown for helping to lead us in this fight. This is a landmark win, but its reach is limited. It is one company. It does not cover the next platform. It does not cover the next algorithm. Most importantly, it does not guarantee protection for the next child.

Congress needs to act to implement lasting changes. Congress has a responsibility to set one clear standard that applies to every platform before the harm happens.

That is what my Algorithm Accountability Act does. It strips section 230 immunity from platforms that violate a clear duty of care to their users, and it gives families, not just State attorneys general, the ability to hold these companies accountable in Federal court.

It is time for Congress to act.

Mr. Speaker, I rise today alongside my fellow Utahns to mourn and celebrate the life and sudden passing of Captain Spencer Long of Provo Fire & Rescue; his wife, Katrina; and three sons, Reid, Thayne and Gage.

They were lost on Friday, July 17, 2026, near Sunglow Campground in Wayne County, Utah, about 165 miles south of Salt Lake City. We are all struggling to deal with the passing of the Long family in such an unexpected and tragic manner.

We are granted each day with no guarantee of the next. Thus, I have come to believe that the highest measure of a life is not found in how long it was lived but in the depth of love, service, and devotion given to others along the way.

By this measurement, the Long family was extraordinarily successful. Captain Spencer Long spent his life answering the call when others were in peril. As a leader with Provo Fire & Rescue, his courage, calm demeanor, and steadfast brotherhood protected countless families across Utah. When disaster struck, Captain Long was always among the first to run toward the danger.

Alongside him stood Katrina, a dedicated mother, a community leader, former Mona city councilmember, and an entrepreneur whose kindness and vibrant spirit enriched every life she touched.

Together, Spencer and Katrina built a home grounded in warmth, service, and adventure. Reid, Thayne, and Gage inherited that same joy for life.

To Lydia, their surviving daughter, please know that you do not carry this unimaginable loss alone. The fire department, your neighbors, and a grieving State surround you with our love, our prayers, and an enduring promise to stand by your side in the days and the years ahead. I am heartened to see the generosity of so many who donated to the fund for your needs going forward. This is just a small token of our long- term commitment to watch over you and provide for your care. I know these many donations are deeply appreciated.

Though this wonderful family was taken from us far too soon, their legacy of selfless service, love, and devotion remains an example to us all. May we honor them by serving one another with the same dedication they showed every day, and may peace rest upon their memories.

Mr. Speaker, right now as we stand in this Chamber, devastating wildfires are tearing across our lands. I thank the brave crews who are working around the clock on the front lines. Their courage is keeping our communities standing. Our prayers are with them.

We especially hold in our hearts the families of the brave firefighters who we recently lost along the Utah-Colorado border, including Emily Barker, Nick Hutcherson, and Sydney Watson.

These individuals made the ultimate sacrifice, and we owe them a debt of gratitude we can never truly repay. Possibly the most frustrating part is that, in many cases, we already have the solutions to deal with these wildfires. We know how to thin overgrown brush. We know how to clear hazardous fuels. We know how to restore health to our forest through proactive management. The obstacle isn't a lack of knowledge. It is bureaucracy.

Decades of bloated regulation delay critical mitigation work for years, but a wildfire does not wait for a multiyear environmental review. The flames do not pause for paperwork.

That is why we passed the Fix Our Forests Act. That is why I introduced the Utah Wildfire Research Institute Act. Our communities cannot afford another year of congressional inaction.

Mr. Speaker, I urge my colleagues to cut the red tape, pass commonsense and often lifesaving legislation, and protect our lands.

Mr. Speaker, this week America turns 250 years old.

A birthday like that invites reflection. I have found myself considering what a privilege it is to be an American, on what it actually means to be one, and on the history that all of us get to claim as our own.

I reflect, too, on my own State and on its place in history. I think about the pioneers of Utah. We often gather in Utah to recite their deeds. We praise their determination, and we tell their stories. We are tempted to believe that because their story is great, we have become great by inheritance.

Mr. Speaker, I rise today to say that idea is only half true. The great stories of the past are not what make us great. The great stories of the past are what we measure ourselves by. The founders and the pioneers and the ideas that animate them do not belong only to the past. They belong in this room, forcing us to ask what we have done with what they have built, and shaping what we should do next.

In 1856, a stonecutter from England named John Rowe Moyle crossed an ocean and walked the plains to Utah. When work began on the Salt Lake Temple, he answered the call to help build it.

Every Monday John woke at 2 in the morning. He walked 22 miles to reach his post. He worked all week. On Friday night he walked 22 miles home in the dark. He did this year after year.

Then a family cow kicked him in the leg. His leg could not be saved. His family strapped him to a door and took the leg off with a common bucksaw. Most men would have stopped there.

John Rowe Moyle did not stop. He carved himself a leg out of wood. He walked on it through the pain, and he continued to walk to the temple. Standing on that wooden peg, with his own hands, he carved the words: ``Holiness to the Lord'' into the granite.

He would not live to see that temple finished. He knew that would be the case, yet he spent years of his life dedicated to the task anyway.

Mr. Speaker, John Rowe Moyle did not do this for praise. He did it because he wanted to leave something for those who came after him.

That temple still stands, and in our time its care was handed to us. The Salt Lake Temple is emerging from the largest restoration in its history. For years it stood wrapped in scaffolding. This year the scaffolding came down, and it will open again. All of you are invited next year between April and October to tour this remarkable and sacred building.

We did not simply admire what the pioneers built. Utahns restored it. Crews built the new foundation built to carry it through an earthquake that the pioneers never could have imagined. They preserved the old craftsmanship, and they made it strong enough to stand for generations we will never meet.

That is the whole lesson, Mr. Speaker, in one building. A great thing was handed to us Utahns, and we did not take it for granted. We did the hard and unseen work to make it last, and we will pass it on stronger than we found it.

Here is the difficult question. It is the test of this generation, the test of this body, and the test of this people. When something great is handed to us, are we the kind of people who only stand back and admire it, or are we the kind who will do the quiet and difficult work and pass it on better than we found it?

That is what the pioneers in Utah did. That is what the Founders did 250 years ago. They did the hard work and got up a steep road for a reward many of them would never collect.

This Republic is that same kind of inheritance. It was built for us. It is now ours to strengthen, not simply to live off of.

Mr. Speaker, let us be worthy of the people who built before us. Let us carry our own burden. Let us leave behind something that stands.

Mr. Speaker, 4 years ago this week, the Supreme Court ruled in Dobbs that the Constitution contains no right to an abortion.

The Court returned this question to the people and their elected representatives. That was the right decision.

I came to Congress after years as a physician. Firsthand, I have seen the heartbeat of an infant on an ultrasound. I have placed newborns in the arms of their mothers. Protecting life was my job, and I take that same duty with me onto this floor.

Because of the Dobbs decision, the States and all of us are made free to uphold our duty and protect the sanctity of life.

There are children in my home State of Utah and across this country, as well as my family, who are growing up today because of those who fought for them. They are the future of this country, and we are better for having them in it.

Mr. Speaker, we owe every mother and child a country that welcomes and continues to protect life.

Mr. Speaker, I rise today to recognize an inspiring small business owner from Utah, Chelsea Beutler, whose work reminds us of the beauty that can bring people together, even in divided times.

Chelsea, the founder of Sunnyside Urban Flower Farm, has been selected as a floral designer for the 113th annual First Lady's Luncheon in Washington, D.C., a century-old bipartisan tradition hosted by the Congressional Club Museum and Foundation that supports charitable causes and celebrates community service.

Chelsea's journey is one of resilience and creativity. During the COVID pandemic, as her family faced personal challenges, Chelsea transformed her approach to farming, turning from vegetables to flowers and, in doing so, cultivated not just crops but connection. Through workshops and community events, she has helped people to reconnect, heal, and find joy.

In a world that often feels divided, her work is a reminder that something as simple as a flower can bridge gaps, uplift spirits, and bring us closer together.

I am proud to recognize Chelsea Beutler for her achievement and for representing Utah on the national stage.

Mr. Speaker, I rise today in strong support of H.R. 7726, the Stop Child Care Scams Act of 2026.

Before I came to Congress, I spent my career as a physician in Utah caring for working families. In medicine, you learn to diagnose the root cause of an illness. If a treatment isn't working, you don't double down on a failing protocol. You do the obvious. You should change the treatment.

Unfortunately, Washington has a habit of ignoring the symptoms of our own broken system. While our Federal childcare programs serve a useful purpose, they are being systematically ruined by rampant fraud. We must be clear about who truly suffers when we allow this corruption to go unchecked.

Fraudsters who exploit these programs are stealing directly from the children and families who rely on these resources. This is a moral failure that should transcend party lines. Securing our Federal programs against fraud is Congress' job, and it shouldn't take committed citizens like Utah's own Nick Shirley to uncover these problems.

As the sponsor of the Stop Child Care Funding Fraud Act, I am glad to see similar policies reflected in this bill.

Mr. Speaker, today, we can protect the taxpayer, excise the rot of corruption, and make certain that every Federal dollar intended for America's children actually reaches them. Rooting out waste, fraud, and abuse should be every Member's priority for these people in this Chamber, and I urge my colleagues to support this bill.

Mr. Speaker, I thank Chair Westerman and his outstanding staff for their help in getting this bill to the floor.

Mr. Speaker, I rise today in support of my legislation, the License to Drill Act. This bill ensures the Federal Government has the operational resources to process energy permits efficiently without unnecessary delay.

Every American takes part in an electrified economy, whether they choose to or not, and right now that economy is facing a critical point. We are heading toward a severe energy deficit.

We possess the most dynamic economy in the world, but every single engine of that economy runs on power. We need more of it every year to build, manufacture, and to put people to work, yet much of our existing generating capacity is at the end of its useful life. As those plants go offline, our energy deficit worsens.

We cannot close an energy gap this massive with wishful thinking. We must take practical steps to meet demand because meeting demand is how we keep energy affordable for working families.

The answer isn't to bet everything on a single source. The answer is an all-of-the-above energy strategy. We have already proven that this works. Just last year, the United States produced more energy than at any point in its history, hitting record highs in oil, natural gas, and renewables simultaneously, but when one source is choked off, everyday Americans pay the price.

Producing that energy requires the capacity to efficiently permit it. Right now, a single permit can sit for months, not because the technology or industry isn't ready, but because the Federal Government often lacks the ability to keep up.

Let's be clear: Cutting red tape is not about cutting corners on safety. It is about speeding up our bureaucracy. We can maintain rigorous oversight without ensuring years of needless delay. Every day a permit sits idly on a bureaucrat's desk is a day that costs American jobs, drives up utility bills, and hands global leverage to our adversaries.

My License to Drill Act will extend a proven, bipartisan program that has successfully cleared permit backlogs since 2004. By utilizing an industry-funded fee model, energy companies foot the bill for the administrative costs of these reviews. This means faster approvals, smaller backlogs, and more American energy, all without costing the taxpayers a single dollar.

The License to Drill Act is a commonsense step in the right direction. Let's keep American energy moving forward. I urge my colleagues to support this bill.

Mr. Speaker, today, we have an opportunity to unlock one of America's greatest untapped energy resources and invest in our Nation's future.

Mr. Speaker, I rise in support of H.R. 5631, the Geothermal Energy Advancement Act.

First, I thank Representative Hurd, Chairman Westerman, and my colleagues on the Natural Resources Committee, and the staff, theirs and mine, who put the work in to build this historic geothermal package. I am proud that my own bill, the Geothermal Royalty Reform Act, is being passed as part of it, giving developers the regulatory certainty they need to build.

Geothermal is one of the most promising, untapped renewable energy resources on the planet, and no State is better positioned to lead the world into this frontier than the State of Utah, with more than 10 gigawatts of reliable power beneath it.

The Department of Energy projects that next-generation geothermal could provide 90 gigawatts of power nationwide by 2050, a 20 times increase, enough to power millions of homes while meeting our rising demand.

It is firm, baseload power, the kind that can keep the grid stable and energy affordable for working families. Energy costs are climbing, and families feel it every month. Geothermal can be part of the answer.

What is standing in the way? For too long, it was our own regulatory environment. Geothermal developers have been forced through a maze of outdated permitting and duplicative reviews. This bill will clear those obstacles instead of creating them.

Mr. Speaker, the resource is real, the technology is proven, and American industry is ready to build. The only thing holding us back now is Washington itself. This bill changes that and puts the clean power beneath our feet to work. Let's unlock American energy and deliver the reliable power this country runs on.

Mr. Speaker, with all politics aside, I think we can agree that despite war and other terrible situations, there are still good things in this world--things like courage, things like sacrifice, and fighting spirit. The decency people manage to hold onto when everything gives every reason not to is commendable.

A family member of mine told me about a friend of theirs named Teodor Myndziv. Teo served in an air assault brigade and badly wounded, enough to be discharged with a permanent disability. He is just one man with one story out of many, but I am grateful for his friendship to my family.

Policy arguments aside, that spirit of decency is worth a moment this Chamber's time to recognize.

Mr. Speaker, I thank Chair Westerman for the opportunity to speak on this bill, and I also thank Ranking Member Huffman and my colleague Congresswoman Elfreth for their willingness to hear this bill on the House floor today.

Mr. Speaker, it should not take an act of Congress to fly an American flag on a mountain, but here we are, as we often are, in Congress.

In 2000, a constituent of mine, Scoutmaster Robert Collins, led a Scout troop on a hike to Kyhv Peak above Utah Valley in Provo to raise the American flag at its summit. What began as a patriotic gesture by the Scouts evolved into an annual tradition.

Each year, for over two decades, Robert Collins, joined by relatives, friends, and community members, hiked to the summit to continue the tradition.

The flag standing at the peak became a symbol of local pride and a recognizable landmark in my district.

However, in 2022, the U.S. Forest Service restricted the display. An act of patriotism, one that asked nothing of the Federal Government and cost the taxpayer nothing, was shut down by Washington bureaucracy.

For years, my community waited for answers, but the Forest Service was never able to remediate the situation.

That is why I introduced the Star-Spangled Summit Act. This bill directs the Forest Service to issue the permit. In short, it is simple. It does one thing well: lets Mr. Collins carry our flag up that mountain again.

Mr. Speaker, in the grand scheme of issues this body confronts, this may seem like a small fix, but I believe this bill represents a larger challenge. This story reflects the challenge familiar to Utah and to communities across the West.

In Utah, two-thirds of our land is managed from Washington, and too often, the decisions made about that land are disconnected from the people who actually live there. Local traditions get tangled in Federal processes. Common sense gives way to bureaucracy. Good people doing good things are left waiting for years.

Utahns know our lands, and we know our communities. It is my belief that Utahns should not be buried under layers of bureaucracy when making decisions about the place that they call home.

For 250 years, Americans have raised our flag. We have raised it at Yorktown and at Gettysburg. We have raised it at Iwo Jima and on the surface of the Moon. Yes, we even raised it over the mountain peaks of Provo.

We raise the flag because it stands for something larger than any one of us: the idea that a free people can govern themselves.

As we mark 250 years of American self-governance, we owe our communities a government that works with them. The Star-Spangled Summit Act restores a measure of balance that returns a small piece of decisionmaking to the community it belongs to, and it ensures the American flag can continue to wave.

Mr. Speaker, I urge my colleagues to join me in supporting H.R. 4684, the Star-Spangled Summit Act.