Doc Hastings

The Administration is deepening America's dependence on unstable and hostile foreign countries

The government has withheld valuable water from communities, prioritizing the needs of a three-inch fish over thousands of American workers and their families

I understand why my good friend from Nevada is offering this; he's representing what he thinks is right for his constituents, and I commend him for that. But the fact of the matter is this is the law of the country, this is the repository…

While understanding these concerns, I kept, and am keeping, an open mind on the recommendations of the President's Commission.

I have stressed from day one the need to have all the facts and information surrounding the cause of this incident before there is a rush to judgment . . . or a rush to legislate.

Every barrel that we don't produce from the Gulf means more lost revenue to the Federal Government, more lost jobs, and an additional transfer of American wealth to hostile nations.

The response to this event could be the difference between making offshore drilling the safest in the world or locking up our resources.

The oil spill was a terrible tragedy and the effects are still being felt today.

And my colleagues, I am very pleased to make a very important announcement: today, a new Republican was born. Our colleague, Cathy McMorris Rodgers, delivered a baby girl this morning at 12:20. The baby weighed nearly 8rac{1}{2} pounds…

I find it remarkable that the remedy we are trying to pursue is prolonging an increase in the minimum wage.

However, it seems to me that the mere evidence of the remedy that we are proposing here is aimed at the minimum wage, which was passed in 2007, and the remedy addressing the minimum wage would certainly indicate to me that, at least in the…

Mr. Speaker, generations ago water and power visionaries came up with the idea of making the West bloom by harnessing our rivers. The Hoover Dam is a legendary example of that vision. When completed in 1935, it was the tallest dam and the…

Yes, it clarifies, but it adds a very important part. It allows land acquisition.

Mr. Speaker, the adoption of a constitution by the U.S. Virgin Islands will provide additional autonomy for that territory. However, any constitution that is adopted should not be in conflict with the U.S. Constitution, as noted by the…

I think everybody understands that and supports that. But we need to do the three things that I had mentioned earlier. And that is to cap the well, to clean up all of the oil that has spilled out, and to hold BP accountable. Those things I…

If it becomes association, then what do we do? I just want to say that I think the gentleman makes a good point because the bottom line in all of this is there are too many unanswered questions on a process where we are blessing an outcome…

This bill has Congress blessing statehood before Puerto Rico even expresses its will. This bill isn't needed for Puerto Rico to hold a self-determination vote on what they desire of their future political plans. Puerto Rico can conduct a…

The identical bills introduced by Representative Doc Hastings and Senator Maria Cantwell, beginning in the 108th Congress

Let me just make reference to the 1959 vote. The vote was not whether you accept statehood--because if they had voted no, they could not have been a State--the question is whether they wanted statehood. Over 94 percent said yes, they want…

Mr. Speaker, I am simply pointing this out because this is evolving into a process, and who is being left out of this process happens to be the elected Governor of the State of Hawaii. And to me that is regretful.

I again urge my colleagues to vote ``no'' on this. We are simply saying that there is a procedure that this Congress set up. That procedure was a study. Taxpayer dollars funded that study in order to see if this project actually merits…

I will make the point we did have a hearing on H.R. 3538, the measure sponsored by Mr. Simpson. We have not had a hearing, however, on H.R. 4474 which is before us today sponsored by Mr. Minnick. I just wanted to point that out because we…

Mr. Speaker, once again this is the third of three settlement bills. The arguments that I had made on the first two bills are applicable to this one. I will just add one other point. And that is that these three bills have a cost to the…

Mr. Speaker, that the issue here is not the benefits of these settlements. We think those settlements are good. The one element that we have a question on is what is the cost to the taxpayer? I think that is a very, very legitimate issue…

Reclaiming my time, Mr. Speaker, the question I asked the gentleman was about a statement that he made that it would be more costly to go through litigation than to settlement. I asked the gentleman very specifically if he has…