Interior, Environment, and Related Agencies

Mr. Speaker, I rise today in opposition to the Senate Amendment to H.R. 6833, a short-term continuing resolution extending government funding through December 16th.

I oppose this CR for several reasons.

First, we should be here addressing the border crisis, the energy crisis, and the inflation crisis. This bill does nothing to fix any of these issues.

In fact, this bill actually bails out the Biden Administration for their failures and provides additional appropriations to put a band-aid on some of these problems for a few more months.

Madam Chair, thank you for yielding.

The revised allocations presented today do not change the spending levels that were adopted on a party-line vote last week. Because there are no substantive changes, I must once again oppose them.

It is unacceptable to Members on my side of the aisle to underfund our national defense while giving significant increases to the same social programs that received trillions of dollars over the last year. I hope we can find common ground as these bills move to the floor.

We will need to restore important language from prior bills, agree to remove controversial policy riders, and set responsible funding levels so that bills can get to the president's desk and be signed into law. I urge a no vote and yield back my time.

Madam Chair, thank you for yielding.

First, I want to thank Chair Pingree and Ranking Member Joyce for their work on the fiscal year 2023 Interior and Environment Appropriations bill.

I also want to acknowledge the committee staff for all of their efforts.

I appreciate that this bill addresses priorities of Members on both sides of the aisle.

It prioritizes funding to maintain our national parks and supports efforts to stop the trafficking of endangered species.

Thank you for yielding, Madam Chair.

I am pleased to be here with my colleagues today to consider the fiscal year 2023 Interior, Environment, and Related Agencies Appropriations bill.

I want to thank Chair DeLauro and Ranking Member Granger for their continued leadership on the committee. I appreciate the work, dedication, and collaboration it has taken to get to this important step in the process.

I also want to recognize my friend and colleague, Chair Pingree. Chair Pingree has been a fair and trusted leader, and I thank her for the work she has done on the many bipartisan priorities in this bill, and to her staff for their tireless efforts as well, as well as our staff.