The reason its nonsense is because he doesnt know. Nobody knows. Thats why we have a policy we have a review of these procedures. Thats why we have nepa. Thats why the National Environmental policy act is in place. That many of my friends across the aisle view as the foundational environmental law. It requires federal agencies to evaluate the environmental impacts of projects before the project can be approved. The corps is in the process of doing that. I dont know if youre worried that the outcome might not be like you like. But if everything you said is true, then they certainly wont permit it. To be clear, im not advocating for or against this particular project. I dont know enough about it. But what i am saying is congress should stay out of the process of individual reviews. Setting the press dents of injecting political precedent of injecting political opinions into the nepa process means any project in the future will be subject to the whims of the Majority Party aft at the time. Such a scenario should be a concern for all members, republicans and democrats alike. Perhaps next time the interest will be in legislatively approving a specific project. This amendment would serve as a precedent. What im saying is let the process work. We have put in place the process. So all of the scenarios that you claim are going to be true, we dont know if thats true or not. Nobody knows yet. Theyre just opinions. I reserve the balance of my time. The chair the gentleman reserves the balance of his time. The gentleman from california is recognized. Mr. Huffman thank you. What we do know about this process is that the army corps itself has acknowledged serious data gaps. What we do know is that tribal input has not been seriously incorporated into this process. And we know that the National Marine fishery service, which is the agency that should be there at the table as a participating agency to protect this iconic fishery, is not participating in this process. So, what this amendment would do is stop this deeply flawed process. If the administration wants to try to start over and get it right, ive just identified some of the ways in which this terribly flawed process could be repaired and they could move forward in the next budget. But there are too many red flags waving. Bristol bay and its salmon are too important to the people of that region and to this country. The chair the gentlemans time has expired. The gentleman from idaho is recognized. Mr. Simpson those are flaws in the process, then im sure that a Court Challenge by the nrdc will actually bring those out. I would yield two minutes to my friend from alaska, mr. Young. The chair the gentleman is recognized. Mr. Young i thank the Ranking Member of the committee and i was interested listening to this conversation. I respectfully ask the member to respect the district of which i represent. Im not talking about the mine. Im talking about the process. This is state land. You gave it to us. The congress. State land. They put it up for discovery, it was discovered. Under the cause of discovery you have the right to exploration and under the right of exploration, you have the right for production if it is possible through the process. The chairman, the Ranking Member put it very clearly. Lets go through the process. What this gentleman from california is saying, were going to make a decision whats right for everything here, dont know a damn thing about it. Nothing. Because theyre promoting people saying this should be done. Theres no Science Behind it shouldnt be done. Theres no Science Behind it yet. Science is what you talk about all the time. Its the bedrock. Yet youre ignoring it, expecting this congress that doesnt know squat about the mining in alaska, and its our land, not your land. Its not federal land. Its our land. Im saying let the process work. Let the process go through. Thats what were here for. Not for us to make decisions. The Ranking Member put it very clearly. What are we going to do next time . You will not be in the majority forever and well have some things you wont want and well say, were going to do it. Youre ignoring the science. And you brag about the science all the time. Let the science prove us right or wrong. That should be your responsibility. Not saying youre for or against the mining and give all these doomsday things there. They may happen. If that happens it will not happen because we didnt issue the permits. I want everybody to think about this for a moment. Whats happening here tonight is for the interest of some environmental groups which you used to be the head of by the way, environmental groups to stop a project thats not any of their business until science has not been proven. Im saying lets look for it. Lets look at the science. That happens, then well do it. Pardon, maam . The chair the gentlemans time has expired. Mr. Young thats good. Thank you. The chair the gentleman from idaho is recognized. Mr. Simpson i yield the remainder of my time to the gentleman from arizona, mr. Gorse. The chair the gentleman from arizona is recognized. Mr. Gosar i thank the gentleman. Madam chairwoman, this amendment also makes a mockery of our laws that govern the permitting process for Mining Operations in complete violation of basic fairness. Specifically this amendment supersedes the democrats supposed flagship environmental regulatory law. Nepa. Unbelievable. Currently the army corps of engineers is doing exactly what congress intended it to do under nepa with regard to a proposed pebble mine project. Its analyzing the environmental and socioeconomic consequences of the proposed mine. A wonderful adage is, good process builds good policy builds good politics. We ought to embrace that. If we really want to put our nose in other places, maybe what we ought to do, as i challenge my good friend from california, that instead of focusing on this project, to look at his state in his own district. Maybe he ought to be focusing on the illegal marijuana farms in his district that are using pesticides and polluting local waters and damaging national forests. This is something that is pertinent to alaska, to the member from alaska, the tribes have been consulted. Its just that the one tribe wants no talking about process followed. But the people closest to us that are most involved have been for this mine. They want good process. The chair the gentlemans time has expired. Mr. Gosar i oppose the amendment. The chair ok, so the question is on the amendment offered by the gentleman from california. Those in favor say aye. Those opposed, no. In the opinion of the chair, the ayes have it. The amendment agreed to. I ask for the yeas and nays. The chair the gentleman asks for a recorded vote. Pursuant to clause 6 of rule 18, further proceedings on the amendment offered by the gentleman from california will be postponed. It is now in order to consider amendment number printed in 111. A of house report 116 for what purpose does the gentlewoman from ohio seek recognition . Ms. Kaptur madam chair, i rise as a designee of chairwoman lowey to strike the last word. The chair the gentlewomans recognized for five minutes. Ms. Kaptur i would like to yield two minutes to my Dear Colleague from california, congressman panetta. The chair the gentlewoman may not yield blocks of time. The gentleman from california is recognized. Pan pan thank you, ma mr. Panetta thank you, madam speaker. Tur. You, chairwoman kap the e for support of flooding in this bill. Included in this bill, thank goodness, is 15 million for the army corps of engineer projects in communities that have previously experienced devastating floods and where the per capita income is less than half of the state and national averages. This type of funding, as we can tell, is critical for economically disadvantaged communities across our country. To not only recover from, but prevent destructive and deadly floods. One of these areas is a valley in my district on the Central Coast of california. An area where flooding has consistently hit it for the past 25 years and caused millions of dollars of damage to the surrounding agriculture crops. But it has also displaced hundreds and hundreds of residents, many whom work in those fields. Thats why this bill is very important. Because it can provide important funding for projects to protect the people that need it the most, for businesses that need it the most, in my community and communities all across this country. Madam speaker, i urge my colleagues to support this nding bill and i thank chairwoman k dmb kaptur for this time. I thank you and i yield back. The chair the gentlewoman from ohio is recognized. Ms. Kaptur i yield back the balance of my time. The chair the gentlewoman yields back the balance of her ime. It is now in order to consider amendment number 91 printed in 111. A of house report 116 for what purpose does the gentleman from louisiana seek recognition . Mr. Graves i have an amendment at the desk. The clerk amendment number 91 printed in part a of house report 116111 offered by mr. Graves of louisiana. The chair pursuant to House Resolution 436, the gentleman from louisiana, mr. Graves, and a member opposed each will control five minutes. The chair recognizes the gentleman from louisiana. Mr. Graves thank you, madam chair. I want to thank you for the recognition and appreciate the opportunity to bring up this amendment today. This amendments pretty simple. In division e section 106 as a provision it says that no funds in this act or any other act may be used to carry out any activities that would include transferring or effectively modifieding modifying the mission of the u. S. Army corps of engineers. I understand that its pretty clear, plain language. Section 106, division e. The problem is this. If the performance of the agency were stellar, id understand that. Perhaps we would try and protect it. Let me throw out a few statistics, painting a picture of what it is that were dealing with. The u. S. Army corps of engineers today has a 100 billion backlog in authorized projects. 100 billion. These projects are projects like sustaining communities, resilience projects, flood protection, ecological restoration, deepening navigation channels. Let me tell but the performance of the u. S. Army corps of engineers, madam chair. You can look at ports in other countries, they have been able to facilitate the larger vessels. In the United States, were years or decades behind where we should be. Putting our ports at a disadvantage. Resulting in our consumers paying higher prices for those goods that are being shipped. In regard to ecological restoration in my home state of louisiana, weve lost 2,000 square miles of our coastal wetlands. Have billions of dollars of restoration prongs authorized, and none of them are projects authorized, and none of them are moving forward, hardly starting in many cases. We have hurricane and flood protection projects. I dont have to remind anyone here. Hurricane harvey, irma, maria, michael. North carolina, south carolina, florida, georgia, texas, louisiana, puerto rico, virgin islands. These places were pounded, people died because of the lack of resilience, the lack of these projects being carried out. Lastly, madam chair, my home state of louisiana. Going back to 2005, i heard a little while ago, someone talking about hurricane katrina. What people dont realize or dont understand, the project that was designed to stop that flooding, that devastation, the loss of 1,200 to 1,500 might have brothers, sisters, friends, relatives, neighbors, fellow louisianans, that project was authorized, dates back to the 1970s, and it wasnt finished. It wasnt finished in 2005. Im not asking to move the corps, im asking, lets look at how to improve, how to modify this. Lets look at a better result to where were not spending as we have in recent years 1. 7 trillion, responding to countless disasters across this country. Thank have cost our nation over 1 billion a pop. Ill reserve. The chair the gentleman reserves the balance of his time. The gentlewoman from ohio is recognized. Ms. Kaptur i rise to claim time in opposition. The chair the gentlewoman is recognized for five minutes. Ms. Kaptur i rise in strong opposition to this amendment and i share the gentlemans frustration, but id like to say that i think the answer is that so many projects within the corps have never had the infrastructure funding that they needed to move forward. Our bill does provide a leap forward in that direction. I think its an understatement to say that the army corps today has its hands full. I dont think we need to add any confusion by trying to tinker around a bureaucratic breaking up agencies and so forth at this moment. Section 106 of the underlying bill was included in the bill after the Administration Proposed breaking up the army corps and transferring parts of it, arms, legs, heads, to other federal agencies. I dont really think thats in the nations interest. That plan was met with wide bipartisan opposition from both sides of the capitol. Such a plan would require legislation to authorize that proposal, but of course the Administration Never presented congress with draft legislation. Nevertheless, the administration doubled down on its shortsighted and misguided plan and was set to begin Planning Efforts until congress stepped in last fall. Fits cal year 2019 the fiscal year 2019 energy and water bill authored by my colleagues from across the aisle included this very same provision which enjoyed bipartisan, bicameral support. The corps responsible for the management of complex, multipurpose projects, some vast, requiring expertise in many areas. Instead of trying to break up and fragment the many responsibilities, i suggest we focus on how to make the corps successful in its current organizational structure, including deferring to the technical judgment of the corps insthofede constant interference for o. From o. M. B. Bureaucrats who have never laid spillway. R made a the army corps holds the lives and communs of the American People in its jurisdiction. Let them do their job. If theyre listening, theyre cheering around this country. I strongly oppose this amendment and urge my colleagues to do the same thing and i yield to my esteemed Ranking Member, mr. Simpson. Mr. Simpson i appreciate mr. Simpson i appreciate the gentlewoman for yielding and appreciate my friend from louisianas passion. Saying the corps has a backlog, thats not their fault, its our fall. The bush administration, the obama administration, and the Trump Administration always propose a budget that slashes and burns the corps budget, its the energy and Water Committee that wont let them do that. Last year the office of management and budget offered a plan for reorganization of federal agencies that included a Civil Works Program through army corps of engineers yet few details were provided to congress and congress was not consulted when those statutory changes were enacted. Yet some took steps to try to begin implemented the reorganization proposal. Thats why the listening wadge was put in last years act and this years act. I will tell you we have had this discussion many times with the general, she a go get em guy. When hes given a mission hell do whatever it takes to get that mission accomplished. I like what hes doing. I wouldnt want to go with o. M. B. And say were going to reorganize the corps and not know what theyre going to do and congress have no input, but i appreciate the passion the gentleman has for this. I think its better placed on the Transportation Committee seeing if there are reorganizations that can be done within the corps and done legislatively that make sense. I urge my colleagues to oppose this amendment and i would yield back my time to the gentlelady from ohio. The chair the gentlewoman from ohio. Ms. Kaptur i would like to thank the gentleman for those remarks and to say that i share your deep concern about the way hat o. M. B. In particular has a tennis match with congress when it comes to the army corps of engineers. Theres no more important Infrastructure Agency at this moment in our country than the army corps. The administration said it was going to come forward with an infrastructure bill. If they cant do whatever theyre calling an infrastructure bill, this is the infrastructure bill nor country at this time. The needs are enormous. I cant imagine we have eight divisions and 38 districts, i want to thank every single individual out there, sworn to protect and defend the American People, who work for the army corps of engineers an give their lives to this profession. Across this country. General the general is a great patriot and his as were his predecessor. We need to have more attention devoted to corps funding by various administrations that sit over there in the executive branch and underfund these projects around the country. Thats why louisiana had so much trouble and thats why other places in the country have so much trouble. So i do not support the gentlemans amendment and urge opposition and yield back my remaining time. The chair the gentleman is recognized. Madam chair, i heard comments, folks saying Congress Needs to step in, the Transportation Committee should look at this and act and promise propose reorganization legislation. I hate to bring this up but congress did just that. Let me say it again. Congress did just that. Ection 1102 of the Water ResourcesDevelopment Act of 201 which you both supported included language which actually says that the National Academies and the corps of engineers should enter into an agreement to look at more efficient delivery of corps of engineers projects. This amendment doesnt move the corps of engineers out. What it does is says clearly theres a problem. If the problem is congress and the funding then thats what the study will determine. Let them go. Let them do the analysis like we did on a bipartisan basis. Congresswoman esty and i offered the bipartisan amendment. It was snams unanimously accepted, passed through the house twice and is law today. Im baffled that folks are afraid of informati