I first want to thank Chairman Bishop, Ranking Member Grijalva, Congressmen Labrador, Duffy, and Pierluisi, and many others who worked tirelessly on this legislation. Mr. Chairman, the island of Puerto Rico with a population of under 4…

This amendment makes it clear: as affirmed by the Supreme Court today and mentioned by the committee chairman, Puerto Rico is different from a State, and the Supreme Court affirmed that today. It is not a State. It is a territory of the…

The Federal Government is causing the problems, from an economic and from an environmental perspective.

Why in the world would we want to bring the Federal Government and their record of success into an area that actually has an excellent record of managing resources for energy development, commercial and recreational fishing, and multiple…

The Federal Government, through the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers--their actions in regard to the management of the river system in south Louisiana has largely resulted in the loss of about 1,900 square miles of coastal wetlands.

As Congressman Duncan mentioned, the largest dead zone in North America is off the coast of Louisiana.

6 years ago on April 20, 2010, the Deepwater Horizon exploded and resulted in the loss of 11 lives, destroying or disrupting many families, businesses, restaurants, and livelihoods of south Louisiana, which is known as the Sportsman's…

Louisiana is known as the Sportsmen's Paradise. We don't have snow skiing, we don't have rock climbing, and we don't have white-water kayaking in Louisiana, but we do have our bayous, we have our alligators, and we have our oysters. We are…

In recent months, Livingston Parish has lost two important leaders. On October 26 of last year, Jeff McHugh David passed away. Earlier this month, on March 3, Michael Dowty also passed away. Jeff was the longest serving owner/publisher in…

Why is Alaska more important than the Gulf Coast, and why are the western states more important than the Gulf Coast?

I want to thank the gentleman for yielding. Mr. Speaker, the reality, as the gentleman from Indiana noted earlier, is that we are going to have disasters and we are going to spend funds responding to those disasters. The problem with the…

You are taking funds from energy production off the coast of Louisiana and other Gulf states.

Is that because the offshore energy production does not affect our coast?

the whole issue on balancing autonomy with proper fiscal reform and oversight is going to be an interesting balance.

Earlier this week, the President submitted a budget request to the Congress. That budget request increases spending by approximately $2.5 trillion over the next 10 years. It raises taxes by $3.4 trillion over the next 10 years. And I will…

Last month Washington, D.C. was home to the March for Life, and thousands of Americans came from all across the country to attend it. The State of Louisiana was disproportionately represented with hundreds of folks from our State…

I just want to encourage you. You know, the Navy obviously, as the chairman pointed out, has some acquisition strategies that may be applicable in this case, but most importantly we have got to get this equipment out there as quickly as we…

We are here today because the Supreme Court in 2001 and again in 2006 determined that the EPA and the Corps of Engineers' definition of waters of the United States was too broad, and it directed them to narrow that rule, that definition…

43 years ago the Roe v. Wade decision resulted in the death of 57 million Americans; 57 million unborn children lost their lives, over a million children per year. It is an amazing statistic. Louisiana has traditionally ranked as one of…

I thank the gentleman for yielding. Mr. Chairman, since 2008, the term of the current administration, for the first time since records have been kept, we have a net reduction in small businesses, according to the National Federation of…

On Friday evening this past Friday, the 5A Division 1 playoffs occurred in high school football in Louisiana, and my high school alma mater of Catholic High in Baton Rouge played against our distinguished majority whip's Catholic high…

I appreciate the opportunity to be here today. This is a historic event. For 10 years now, we have been doing patches and temporarily providing funding for our roadways. It costs taxpayers money to do that, to do these temporary…

I send to the desk a privileged concurrent resolution and ask for its immediate consideration. The Clerk read the concurrent resolution, as follows: H. Con. Res. 95 Resolved by the House of Representatives (the Senate concurring), That…

The Land and Water Conservation Fund was first authorized in 1965. There was some type of compromise that was reached at that time whereby this proliferation of offshore energy production would occur. At the same time, there was a concern…

The United States military began active engagement in Syria back in September of 2014 when the United States-led coalition began its ongoing airstrike campaign, along with Bahrain, Jordan, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, and the UAE. During this…