Raul Ruiz

Mr. Speaker, I rise today to honor Secretary Wade Crowfoot, a true partner to our communities and a friend to my office, on receiving the Minerva Hoyt California Desert Conservation Award from the Joshua Tree National Park Association.

Since 2019, Secretary Crowfoot has served as California's Natural Resources Secretary and as a member of Governor Newsom's cabinet. He leads an agency of more than 25,000 employees dedicated to protecting our forests, rivers, coast, and wildlife, and to advancing a clean energy future. He is driving California's commitment to conserve 30 percent of its land and coastal waters by 2030, and he has opened a new era of partnership with California Native American Tribes.

His commitment to the environment spans a career. He served in Governor Jerry Brown's administration, led the Water Foundation to build water resilience across the West, and helped shape California's landmark climate policies at the Environmental Defense Fund.

Secretary Crowfoot was a key partner in establishing the Chuckwalla National Monument. His leadership, alongside Tribal leaders and community organizations, helped protect lands of deep cultural and environmental value for generations to come.

He also worked with me as a state and federal partner on Salton Sea restoration. From the Species Conservation Habitat Project to its expansion, we joined together at the October 2024 groundbreaking to highlight new investment in restoration.

Secretary Crowfoot has supported a balanced approach to our desert: protecting culturally and environmentally significant lands while preserving room for renewable energy and transmission. That vision shaped the Chuckwalla effort and the Desert Renewable Energy Conservation Plan.

He visited our communities many times, listened, and showed up. Our Tribal leaders and community partners consider him a friend, and so do

Mr. Speaker, I rise today to honor Debbie Espinosa, president and CEO of FIND Food Bank, and her 8 years of extraordinary leadership.

Debbie and I have stood together through disaster response, through the darkest days of the pandemic, and in the fight to protect the Federal nutrition programs that many children and farmworker families depend on.

When I served as chair of the Congressional Hispanic Caucus, I invited Debbie to Washington to brief my colleagues on the unique food security challenges facing farmworkers in our valley, because their story deserved to be heard on the national stage.

She has also been a trusted partner to my office, helping provide food assistance to Federal employees and families during shutdowns and supporting community conversations on food insecurity.

Debbie never just simply distributed food. She built bridges, connecting Federal resources to local solutions, and ensuring no family in our district went without in moments of emergency or everyday hardship.

As she moves on to lead Harvesters, serving 27 counties across Missouri and Kansas, our valley's loss becomes the Nation's gain.

Mr. Speaker, I thank Debbie for her partnership, her compassion, and her unwavering commitment to the people in the Coachella Valley region and for her friendship. I am forever grateful.

Mr. Speaker, I rise today with an important message for the Trump administration: The Arctic National Wildlife Refuge is not for sale.

For the third time, they have tried to sell off the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge to Big Oil, and for the third time, it has flopped.

Last Friday's lease sale brought in less than 1 percent of projected revenue. Not one major oil company even showed up, and for good reason.

Last summer, I traveled to the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge. I fished its rivers, walked its Coastal Plain, and watched musk ox roam one of the last truly wild places on Earth.

Mr. Speaker, I can speak with firsthand experience when I say that this place is simply too special to drill, too important for the animal ecosystem and global bird migrations, and too critical for indigenous cultural preservation.

Our public lands belong to the American people, not to the highest bidder. When the highest bidder doesn't even show up, maybe it is time this administration got the message.