Political Quotes

“Mr. Chair, I rise to offer my amendment that prohibits any funds from being used to carry out the Biden administration's NEPA Phase 1 rule. It is clear we have bipartisan consensus--our permitting system is broken. Our permitting system is holding up projects in every district, whether it is Republican or Democrat, and NEPA deserves a lot of this blame. When NEPA was first passed in 1969, it was a five-page bill. Over the last 50 years, it has grown out of control thanks to executive actions and activist courts. Today, NEPA is an albatross, blocking everything from highway infrastructure projects that connect communities and enable commerce to energy projects that are necessary for securing our energy independence. In 2020, the Trump administration enacted the first real NEPA reforms in a generation. It helped bring NEPA back to its original intent. Importantly, the Trump administration's reforms removed the requirement to consider ``cumulative impacts,'' that go far beyond a proposed project. This prevented opponents of important projects from abusing the NEPA process and pointing to outrageous, distant, so-called cumulative impacts a project could hypothetically pose. The reforms also forced Federal agencies to build consistency in permitting reviews and ensured all Federal agencies follow the same standards and procedures. These reforms began to point us back in the right direction. The Biden administration's NEPA Phase 1 rule reversed the Trump-era reforms.…”