Department of the Interior, Environment, and Related Agencies Appropriations Act, 2024

Floor Speech

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Mr. GOSAR. Mr. Chair, I rise in support of my amendment 91, which prohibits funds to finalize, implement, or enforce the proposed rule by the EPA titled: ``Reconsideration of the National Ambient Air Quality Standards for Particulate Matter.''

The EPA's proposed rule will lower the particulate matter or PM standards to a level Maricopa County and other counties in Arizona could never meet. The PM present in Arizona is not due to manufacturing. It is naturally occurring. There is no way to lower the PM in the desert.

Approximately 50 percent of Arizona is a desert. As a desert, it is prone to accumulations of frequent dust, including frequent dust storms. Maricopa County, for example, records one to three massive dust storms called haboobs every year. The current ambient air quality in southern Arizona rarely meets the EPA PM 2.5 standards due to the widespread naturally occurring dust particulate matter throughout the area. During a dust storm, the PM levels increase dramatically. Over 100 times the non-dust storm days, and it is well-documented by the National Weather Service.

The proposed rule is unreasonable, incomprehensible, and it is not based on environmental science. The proposed rule would have substantial impacts on large swaths of the Western United States, not just Arizona.

For example, if the standard were set to the proposed levels, populated areas of Utah, Colorado, Idaho, Montana, Nevada, and New Mexico would be designated as nonattainment and subject to stringent regulatory requirements and penalties.

The Clean Air Scientific Advisory Committee, which made its recommendations to the EPA, failed to account for the naturally occurring and ambient PM concentrations throughout the Western United States.

The EPA must consider the world in its natural state. In Arizona, and even in Michigan, particulate matter in comparatively high levels exist in the natural state.

Without any contribution from mankind, there will be dust and particulate matter in Arizona that exceeds the proposed and current regulations adopted by the EPA.

How an agency that is supposed to be based on science can ignore the National Weather Service data and the data from Maricopa County is perplexing.

We expect better from our agencies, and we certainly expect an agency to reconsider the differences between a rainforest and a desert. For these reasons and more, I ask my colleagues to support Amendment 91 prohibiting funding to finalize or enforce the EPA's proposed rule titled, Reconsideration of the National Ambient Air Quality Standards for Particulate Matter.

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Mr. GOSAR. Yeah. Obviously, the young lady does not understand the desert. She hasn't been in the desert. You can't just water the desert. That is why it is the desert. Particulates are in the air. And so, if you are an asthmatic, if you have got problems breathing, you don't belong in the desert. But you can't lower those standards without going through extraordinary circumstances.

You know, we do a lot of watering in the desert anyway, but the particulates are in the air. It is naturally occurring. So I think this is just ridiculous that there would be opposition from anybody in regard to this. If you doubt me, come out to Arizona. I will be happy to show you a haboob, show you the ambient quality.

This is by far an amendment that we need to adopt. I implore my colleagues to adopt this amendment.

Mr. Chair, I yield back the balance of my time.
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Mr. GOSAR. Mr. Chair, I rise in support of my amendment 92, to prohibit the Biden administration from implementing, administering, or enforcing the recent Grand Canyon National Monument designation and corresponding mineral withdraw for almost a million acres.

The monument designation flies in the face of multiple-use doctrines for public land. Further, it creates no new revenue, and neither creates nor empowers any employment. Make no mistake, the Grand Canyon National Park is already protected under the Grand Canyon Protection Act, Clean Air Act, Clean Water Act, and multiple other regulations and laws.

Further, the roughly million acres of newly designated land is far outside the actual Grand Canyon, believe it or not.

I am also a proud sponsor of the Northern Arizona Protection Act, which nullifies Biden's designation of corresponding mineral withdrawal.

The almost million acres of designated land fall within my district and my colleague from Arizona, Mr. Crane's. But at no point were we consulted. And our constituents' opposition was ignored. Arizona already boasts more national monuments than any other State. We do not want any more monument designations.

The Federal Government already controls far too much land in Arizona, and this restriction is unacceptable.

Despite repeatedly expressed concerns and questions from my constituents, county supervisors, local groups, and the House Committee on Natural Resources, the Department of the Interior has refused to address any of them.

Instead, without consultation with my constituents or their Representative in Congress, Biden and Secretary Haaland have permanently withdrawn more than a million acres from its intended multiple-use doctrine.

Under House Rule X, the Committee on Natural Resources has general oversight of any matter relating to its jurisdiction, including the management of Federal lands and the development of mineral resources. As chairman of the Subcommittee on Oversight and Investigations, I have made repeated inquiries to the Secretary of the Interior regarding this proposed designation. Yet still, the Secretary of the Interior has not responded to repeated inquiries from my Subcommittee on Oversight and Investigations, further bypassing Congress and the legislative process. Biden's designation is nothing short of a full-scale attack on the livelihoods of many of my constituents. It sets back our Nation's national security and even strengthens Russia.

Biden's proclamation imposed a nearly million-acre land grab permanently banning mining in an area almost the size of Delaware. Some falsely frame the designation as an effort to protect the Grand Canyon, which of course is completely disingenuous. No one wants a mine within the Grand Canyon. The designated area is miles away from the boundaries of the buffer area--let me repeat that--the buffer area of the Grand Canyon National Park. The area in question is home to the highest grade and largest quantity of uranium deposits in the United States. So this amendment does not just effectively affect Arizona, it harms our national security for the entire country.

The designation plays right into the hands of Russia, who along with Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan are literally trying to corner the global uranium market.

China is also joining in on this game, buying up uranium mines in Africa. Everybody knows that in order to go green, you have to use nuclear. We better get on board.

There is no question this designation will hurt local revenues, kill jobs, and undermine American energy security. It does not protect the Grand Canyon. It is opposed by the people of my district, and I urge my colleagues to join me in opposition.

Mr. Chair, I urge my colleagues to adopt the amendment, and I reserve the balance of my time.

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Mr. GOSAR. Mr. Chair, you know, I love the fact that we have individuals from across this country, it is a beauty, but it is also detrimental to us here in this aspect. No one has taken an airplane over this general area. They don't know what they are talking about.

So number one, being ancestral, anything can be that way. Teddy Roosevelt set this thing up called public lands. And in due process, what he did is he established also at the same time the multiple-use doctrine, the Taylor Grazing Act requiring these lands to be not just used but to be improved and to be used for multiple purposes. That is mining. That is energy development. It is not conservation. Let me repeat, not conservation.

So when people start talking about these monuments, you got to come out to Arizona. We have got more than any other State combined. So let's get after this. But this is very important for national security, and this designation does not need to go through. I ask that people vote for this amendment.

Mr. Chair, I yield back the balance of my time.

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