National Strategic and Critical Minerals Production Act

Floor Speech

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Mr. PEARCE. Mr. Chair, just in answer to the gentleman's question, I
would point out that what happens right now is that the EAJA is
actually gamed. People can put in 15 or 20 frivolous claims, but if
they have a finding on one substantial thing--and always, those
lawsuits have a multitude of claims, but then one thing will be tucked
in that is simply procedural that the agency forgot the deadline, it
didn't have a meeting--and if the judge finds on one, then all are paid
for. So they are allowed to bring frivolous actions with one
substantiating claim, and it is those frivolous things that tie up and
hold up development.

No one objects to the fact that sometimes the agencies are wrong.
People do object to the fact that frivolous lawsuits come under the
cover of one thing that is just almost inane in the whole discussion.

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Mr. PEARCE. Mr. Chair, in the Permian Basin, which the Second
District of New Mexico falls just in the corner of that, two or three counties
have tremendous assets. It is home to some of the most prolific and
purest forms of potash, which is used for fertilizer, and then it also
has significant oil and gas.

When I was elected to Congress in 2002, one of the first things that
next year that we began to discover is that the oil and gas and potash
industries have had an approximately 50-year running battle against
each other. We began to try to sort through the differing opinions,
working with the agency, the Interior Department, and over the next 10
approximate years, worked out an agreement with the Secretary of the
Interior and the two different industries on how to both get along in
the same area. That was a significant undertaking. It was a significant
finding by the Interior Department and, again, took almost 10 years of
very delicate negotiations. So my amendment to this bill, H.R. 1937, is
simply to clarify that nothing in the bill overturns that agreement
that has been reached.

Again, this agreement came under the Obama administration but dated
back through the Bush administration, so it has been pretty well looked
at by both sides, both parties, and has been functioning very well.

It is my desire to simply get the clarifying language that nothing in
the bill is going to change that Secretarial order, and, likewise, the
amendment does nothing to change the language in the bill. It is just
clarifying that this is what we are going to do.

It is extremely important for New Mexico, but also for the Nation,
because the potash provides the fertilizer for food sources across the
Nation; but also, the oil and gas industry is providing much of the oil
and gas that is coming into America's supply right now and driving down
the price. The discoveries in that particular region will produce more
oil and gas in one county than has been produced in the entire State
for its entire history. So it is not as if these questions are
insignificant.

Again, my amendment is very straightforward. It just seeks to clarify
that nothing is going to affect that Secretarial order.

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