Department of the Interior, Environment, and Related Agencies Appropriations Act, 2024
Floor Speech
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Mr. COLLINS. Mr. Chair, the job description of a Member of Congress is real short. It is to take care of your constituents and have oversight of the Federal Government.
This amendment deals with the oversight portion. It is oversight of an unauthorized Federal agency, of which we have over 1,200 unauthorized agencies. An unauthorized agency is one that was simply not approved by Congress.
In this case, the agency was approved through the executive branch to help with overseeing the implementation of NEPA back during the Nixon administration. Since then, it has become one of the rogue, woke, climate control warriors for the Biden administration, pushing rules and regulations. As a matter of fact, the budget for this unauthorized agency was around $3.75 million. It happened to grow during the Democrats' Inflation Reduction Act to over $62 million.
Now, the Council on Environmental Quality is just one of a long list of unauthorized agencies in this Federal Government.
During recent oversight hearings, on four occasions, Director Brenda Mallory was requested to come and testify. Now, she only showed up one time. During that time, she decided that she would refuse to answer questions. She didn't have to answer our questions on any subject.
Let me make that even clearer. She wasn't refusing to answer my questions or the committee's questions. She was refusing to answer to the American people, the very taxpayers that foot the bill for that agency. You see, they have gotten to where, like other agencies, like the one that was just mentioned, they feel they don't have to answer to us. They don't have to answer to the American people. They are beyond that. It is beneath them to have to explain what they do.
This amendment does one simple thing. $3.75 million is their annual budget. It simply takes that from this woke, climate-change-warrior- style agency, and it moves it over to the national parks to their construction fund, and what that does is that is going to help, Mr. Chairman, with the backlog of deferred maintenance that is in the national parks.
The national parks are running a deferred maintenance because of Members from the other side of the aisle using their funds on the national parks for pet projects.
Mr. Chair, I urge the passage of this amendment, and I reserve the balance of my time.
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Mr. COLLINS. Mr. Chairman, this is a prime example of another rogue, unauthorized agency out there that is implementing rules and regulations for which they were not set up. It also is an agency that was issued $62 million through the Democrats' Inflation Reduction Act. Therefore, they have plenty of cash over there. This simply takes $3.75 million and moves it over to help with the deferred maintenance in the national parks.
Mr. Chair, I yield back the balance of my time.
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Mr. COLLINS. Mr. Chairman, I believe that $62.5 million was given to this agency in the Inflation Reduction Act, which was passed into law. Any bill that is out there that rescinds that money has not been signed. Therefore, it is still there.
I am simply saying, take the $3.75 million, which is our duty as Members of Congress to have oversight, especially over an agency that was never authorized by Congress. I don't care which administration it is. Wrong is wrong. This agency is not authorized by this body. Therefore, I am asking for the funds to be moved over to the national parks for their deferred maintenance. I yield back the balance of my time.
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