▶ 0:16:45>> the committee will come to order. We will consider a series of 20 bills. I will encourage each of my colleagues to join me in supporting them. I will give my opening statement and then recognize senator heinrich for his opening statement.
▶ 0:17:02Given the number of bills that we are going to try to get to and the amendments where we will be voting, to accommodate our members' competing schedules in other committees, as soon as there is a voting broom, we will move to voting.
▶ 0:17:21After the voting and the statements, I will recognize any senator who may wish to speak on any legislation in today's hearing. Good bills that our constituents need need to move forward and are being held hostage.
▶ 0:17:44Across the committee, we work together across party lines to advance legislation that has no substantive opposition. Some of these bills passed unanimously in the last congress. Others have already received bipartisan approval from the committee.
▶ 0:18:04Many of these remains stalled because senate democrats are deliberately creating a backlog of noncontroversial bills to create a contrived justification for funneling them through a massive package including massive federal land grabs that could not independently pass on their own. I have said this before. I will say it again. That is not what we are going to do. The committee has done its work. These bills have been reported.
▶ 0:18:34They are ready to clear the senate. Time is running out in this congress. For these bills to sit idle makes it less likely to reach the president's desk. The best path to enactment in this chamber and the other chamber involves moving these bills through the senate individually or in reasonable bipartisan hearings.
▶ 0:18:59We do not need to hold dozens of local priorities hostage, especially when they are noncontroversial. We are waiting for a massive package that has never been introduced and voted on and has no chance of making it across the finish line. Last week, a committee reported another group of bills that faced no substantive opposition.
▶ 0:19:23I asked ranking member heinrich and every member of the committee to move these bills through the senate either separately or in a bipartisan fashion. I don't want members of the committee returning home to explain legislation their communities need failed to pass simply because those priorities became leverage in the negotiations. So let's pass bills on which we agree. Let's debate bills on which we disagree.
▶ 0:19:53Let's get measures through the house and ultimately to the president's desk. Turning to the legislation before us, I would like to highlight one bill that deserves the committee's support. The license to drill act re-authorizes the bureau of land management to collect fees for new applications for a permit to drill.
▶ 0:20:14The bureau of lynn management uses those fees to process applications, and reauthorizing this authority gives the agency the certainty and resources it needs to process permits on time without imposing additional costs on taxpayers. Energy producers should not have to wonder whether the permitting system will have the resources necessary to review their applications. They deserve a permitting process that is predictable and capable of doing its job.
▶ 0:20:46I encourage my colleagues to support this. More importantly, I hope we continue giving bills like this one the opportunity to succeed rather than allowing them to become bargaining chips for a package that is destined to fail. America is going to need a lot more energy in the years ahead, and we need to build it quickly.
▶ 0:21:07Last year, republicans on this committee advance the most significant energy legislation in decades, putting our country on a path toward american energy independence. But that was only part of the job. Now, we must reform our permitting system so that energy producers can get to work and build the projects that our nation needs.
▶ 0:21:30I am grateful to all of my colleagues for working with me and my team on this process, and I hope we can carry the same spirit of cooperation to the finish line. The chair recognizes the ranking member.
▶ 0:21:43Sen. Heinrich: There are a number of bills on this agenda that I am pleased to see for today, particularly the geothermal energy advancement act that modernizes the way the bureau of limit management processes geothermal energy permits on public land. Geothermal energy will be an increasingly important part of our energy mix in the future, and the blm needs an efficient permitting process to get those projects built.
▶ 0:22:11Sen. Heinrich: Unfortunately, this is yet another mark up in this committee where we are not conserving an additional acre of public land. We could be voting on the joshua tree national park expansion act, which would add more than 18,000 acres of land in joshua tree national park, permanently protecting that land for generations to come. Instead, we will vote to remove the 2000 acres of land from denali national park.
▶ 0:22:39Sen. Heinrich: Sometimes, national park boundaries need to change, and it is this committee's job to decide when that is appropriate or a good idea. That works cannot be one-sided. Only advancing bills that remove protections and not those that add them. For that reason, I will oppose when the committee considers it today. And I hope that soon we can advance legislation from members of this committee that conserves public land, so that we can have a reasonable balance of bills.
▶ 0:23:10Sen. Heinrich: I have one last comment on the gateway partnerships act. This bill will allow the gateway arch park foundation to host private events in gateway arch national park. While most national parks are frankly not appropriate venues for convention meetings and holiday parties, gateway arch is a unique unit of the park system, where such events are not inconsistent with the overall management of the park.
▶ 0:23:38Sen. Heinrich: Because of that unique character, I will support s2767 today. I want to be clear that I would not support similar proposals for other units. Thank you, Mr. chairman.
▶ 0:23:51Chair Lee: We will not proceed with today's business meeting. The committee will have voice votes on amendments to 10 bills, followed by a voice votes on the bills themselves, and then roll call votes. Afterwards, I will recognize any member of the committee that wishes to speak and the committee will vote on 10 amendments. If a member -- unless a member wishes to speak prior to voting, we will proceed to a voice vote.
▶ 0:24:22Chair Lee: The amendments are amendments 16 a, amendment 17 a, agenda item 17, 18 a, agenda item 18, amendment 22 a, amendment 23 a, amendment 26 a, amendment 27 a, amendment 28 a, amendment 209a, and amendment 31 a.
▶ 0:24:55Chair Lee: The committee will vote by voice en bloc on these amendments. Tell me what he left out. Once I can. Thanks. 16 a (I)? We are not voting on those. We are not voting on those.
▶ 0:25:32Chair Lee: Ok. Yeah. So the question is on those amendments I just identified, we will vote on them by voice. All those in favor? Opposed? The ayes have it. The amendments are agreed to. We will now proceed to the bills as amended.
▶ 0:25:56Chair Lee: Those bills are agenda items nine through 16, 25 through 39, 36, and 39. Those are respectively 2498, 2767, a house bill, 2801, 209 -- 2993, 3313 and its house
▶ 0:26:30Chair Lee: Companion, 3630 five, a house come -- a house companion. As 3720. -- s. 3722. S. 5039 and the house companion. And h.r. 5631.
▶ 0:27:04Chair Lee: The committee will vote on these 18 bills en bloc by voice. All those in fao all those in favor say aye. They ayes have it. Favorably to the senate.
▶ 0:27:24Chair Lee: With a voting quorum present, we will turn to roll call votes on agenda item 33, sponsored by senator murkowski. The clerk will call role. [roll call]
▶ 0:28:13Chair Lee: >> on this vote, the yays are 1 1. The nays are 9.
▶ 0:28:20Chair Lee: In that case, the bill will be reported favorably to the senate. Agenda item 34, sponsored by senator barrasso. Call the roll. [roll call]
▶ 0:29:03Chair Lee: >> on this vote, the yays are 11, the nays are 9.
▶ 0:29:13I -- Chair Lee: I will not recognize any senator who may want to be heard on the legislation today. Senator murkowski?
▶ 0:29:23Sen. Murkowski: Thank you and the rest of the committee here for advancing my bill, the geese house site conveyance act. I am pleased that we have been able to move it out of committee this morning, but I do find it somewhat disheartening to see that what should be a noncontroversial measure received a wholly partisan vote.
▶ 0:29:54Sen. Murkowski: From what I hear from the ranking member in initial comments, the concern is not so much on the substance of the matter, but that we have not paired taking lands out of the federal estate with other conservation matters. I understand the chairman's challenges to try to advance bills through this committee with a little bit of parity.
▶ 0:30:25Sen. Murkowski: I get that. And yet sometimes, as he has indicated, there are matters that are so very local, so very parochial, and maybe there is just more that accumulate on our side than on the others. That is obviously a discussion that the chairman and the ranking member have as you set agendas.
▶ 0:30:48Sen. Murkowski: I would like to share with colleagues who may feel that they have concerns based on substance as opposed to the construct of the measures that we worked to advance this morning. This is not something that is new.
▶ 0:31:07Sen. Murkowski: Once again, we are seeking to address failures within the alaska native claims settlement act that was passed back in 1971 to address aspects of that settlement that have not yet been fulfilled. So we are building -- this legislation is building on decades of work to fulfill their land entitlement.
▶ 0:31:35Sen. Murkowski: The sacred geese house site was a sacred site for the alaskan people who have called this land home for millennia. After the passage of the native claims settlement act in 1971, they initiated a pretty aggressive effort to help identify the significant sites and ensure conveyance of lands with historic and cultural importance.
▶ 0:32:04Sen. Murkowski: And it was through this process that the geese house site was identified. They formally filed the selection in 1978. So we are going back a long way. In 1980, we have the alaska national land conservation act that was passed by congress.
▶ 0:32:31Sen. Murkowski: And in that act, it established the boundaries of the denali national park reserve. So you have someone acting to complete their selection of sacred and historic sites. Anoka overlays on top of that. There has been a decades long effort to secure the geese house site.
▶ 0:32:59Sen. Murkowski: And then the last administration, the biden administration, the national park service determined that the conveyance was going to require an act of congress. Up to that point in time, there have been efforts to advance it to the administrative process. So here we are, nearly 50 years after the site was selected. Conveyance remains unfulfilled.
▶ 0:33:22Sen. Murkowski: To the merits of the selection itself, this bill would facilitate the transfer in the form of a parcel. As the ranking member hassan noted, it is a little shy of 22,000 acres. It fulfills the commitments that were established to provide for the conveyance of culturally significant and historic lands.
▶ 0:33:49Sen. Murkowski: And it was not that they just willy-nilly said we want this section. They worked with the parks service. They got feedback from the parks service. It allows for clear and manageable boundaries for the parks service to continue the administration of the lands across the whole preserve. It also establishes protection of cultural sites and ensures reasonable access to the site.
▶ 0:34:19Sen. Murkowski: We did this in consultation with local tribes, with communities, any of which are provided resolutions in support for the conveyance. We have had opportunities within this committee over the years to talk about the significance of what it means within these native lands to ensure that we are protecting sacred sites and culturally historic sites.
▶ 0:34:48Sen. Murkowski: We certainly saw that with the ranking member's passion when it came to chaco canyon in new mexico. There was at that time, working with the administration, withdrawing more than three under 36,000 acres surrounding chaco culture national historic park.
▶ 0:35:15Sen. Murkowski: That was an effort where I certainly respect of the ranking member's desire and what he sought to do with those protections for the cultural sites. Some have suggested that this 21,000 acres is too large and we need to narrow it down. Again, I am looking back to chaco. That was about 34,000 acres. Excuse me. That was three hunter 36,000 acres.
▶ 0:35:45Sen. Murkowski: -- 336,000 acres in an area that is only about 34,000. So the concern we are hearing is that this is too much. Again, as I related in the last committee markup, when we were moving the land list up, part of the challenge we have in alaska is that so much of our lands are held in the federal estate.
▶ 0:36:17Sen. Murkowski: Roughly 33 million acres of federal lands. When we need to try to make reasonable adjustments, we have to come to congress to do so. So when you put the conveyance into perspective, denali national park spans more than 6 million acres and the land we are talking about conveying is less than half of 1%. It is 0.36 percent, to be exact. We also strictly limit the conveyance by prohibiting mining.
▶ 0:36:47Sen. Murkowski: We protect the cultural significance. And we bar transfer of it to anyone other than the united states. What we are trying to do here is ensure the land that was faithfully stewarded by the area's native people for thousands of years, be managed by and for them.
▶ 0:37:07Sen. Murkowski: We would maintain that this is not excessive and it is deliberately sized to avoid revealing the exact sacred site in a public manner. I am again pleased that we have been able to move it out of committee, but I would hope that given the protections that we establish with this legislation, and work carried out to develop the selections, in coordination with the parks service and with good support and communities in
▶ 0:37:38Sen. Murkowski: The region, that we will be able to work together in a reasonable manner and find full agreement to return the geese house site to the people before the end of this congress. I am happy to work with anyone on this committee and both sides of the aisle to give further clarification and answer any questions or concerns. I am pleased we moved this this morning.
▶ 0:38:03Chair Lee: Senator mccormick, then senator heinrich, then senator padilla. Then senator hirono.
▶ 0:38:18Sen. Mccormick: Thank you for including my legislation to establish the national heritage area. Thank you for including that in last week's national park subcommittee hearing. This mountainous region encompasses susquehanna, bradford, and wyoming counties. It is known for scenic vistas, extensive trail networks, and great waterfalls.
▶ 0:38:43Sen. Mccormick: The region also includes abundant national resources, forests and parks. It is already designated a state heritage unit, but national designation would increase national visibility, attract more visitors, and unlock federal resources, and could generate three under $50 million in annual economic activity. This is a big deal for pennsylvania. I'm grateful to senator federman and congressman user for introducing a companion version in the house.
▶ 0:39:13Sen. Mccormick: I look forward to working with the committee to get this bill across the finish line here in the senate and bestow these mountains the national recognition deserved. I want to thank chairman lee and ranking member heinrich for including legislation introduced by my friend, the senior senator, the washington trail 1750 three national historic trail feasibility study.
▶ 0:39:39Sen. Mccormick: That would direct the secretary of the interior to conduct a feasibility test to designate washington's trail as a national historic trail. It follows george washington's path in 1753, appropriate for the 250th birthday, from fort leboeuf to erie county. The pennsylvania trail recognizes scenic markers, highways, major torque and historical destinations, the fort pitt museum, the fort leboeuf museum.
▶ 0:40:12Sen. Mccormick: In securing historic trails status for washington's trail, it is more than preservation. It is investment in pennsylvania's heritage. George washington was wounded in braddock, pennsylvania, in one of his first commands. This designation will turn a critical piece of our frontier history into a lasting educational and economic asset.
▶ 0:40:35Sen. Mccormick: These bills are great examples of how republicans and democrats can work together to advance the interest of the committee -- of the states we serve.
▶ 0:40:43Sen. Heinrich: As I said in my opening statement, there are cases where transfers of land out of the national parks is the right thing to do. I do have concerns with the size. This is a 600 acre archaeological site, a 22,000 acre transfer. I very much respect that the senator from -- respect the senator from alaska and look forward to continuing to work with you on this legislation.
▶ 0:41:13Sen. Heinrich: Given the chaco reference that you brought up, I want to be clear that in the chaco case, there was no land transfer. All of that land remained in public lands. There was a mineral withdrawal that was designed to protect thousands of individual archaeological and cultural sites. I would also make the point that right now this administration is stripping those protections away in an effort to facilitate oil and gas drilling.
▶ 0:41:43Sen. Heinrich: New mexico is no stranger to oil and gas drilling. We are the second largest producer of oil in the country. This particular area is incredibly important, and those protections were necessary to strike that balance. I know the senator from alaska knows about that. She has passed a lot of legislation out of this committee. And I think today unfortunately we are not finding that balance.
▶ 0:42:13Sen. Heinrich: We are not moving forward on legislation from many of my colleagues that would conserve public lands in their states in the way that their communities would like to see. I look forward to working with the senator to try to find that balance and move more legislation forward in this committee.
▶ 0:42:38Sen. Heinrich: To the issue of senator barrasso's legislation, I want to make the point that that bill is simply a subsidy to call companies. When the united states sells the right to mine publicly-owned coal, the company buys that right and agrees to pay a certain amount of money for the police. Under current law, the company has five years to pay back that amount, which means that if they pay at the end of five years, they are paying quite a bit less.
▶ 0:43:08Sen. Heinrich: This bill would give them 10 years to make that payment. As we all know, with inflation where it is under the trump administration, a dollar today is not worth a dollar next year, and it is certainly not worth a dollar 10 years from now. Coal companies already have five years to complete these payments, and giving them more time means less money to the american people. That is why I could not support that legislation.
▶ 0:43:36Sen. Padilla: I want to first speak to senator murkowski's goose house conveyance act. I think the sentiments of several of our colleagues on the side of the dais. Senator murkowski, I am so grateful for your work in the work of your team, along with my office, to advance legislation that returns land back to tribes in california.
▶ 0:44:05Sen. Padilla: In that spirit, I want to make clear I do not have any policy concerns with your bill. I believe we should allow tribes to play a more active role in comanaging our public lands, as they have been the stewards of these lands since time immemorial. However, my colleagues and I have said repeatedly through numerous markups that we would like to see more conservation bills considered by the committee. Let the members vote how they will. But have more conservation bills considered by the committee.
▶ 0:44:39Sen. Padilla: The key sets would convey over 20 1000 acres of national park service land. The joshua tree national park expansion act as senator heinrich mentioned would convey a similar amount of bureau of lane management land to the national park service. To me, it seems like that is a natural opportunity for these two bills to be paired on a marker. -- mark.
▶ 0:45:04Sen. Padilla: However, while my joshua tree bill was on the agenda, it was not on the short list to receive a vote. Because of these reasons, I voted against your bill today, but look forward to working with you and with all of our colleagues to take a balanced approach to conservation in this committee. I provide these remarks for the record. Mr.
▶ 0:45:30Sen. Padilla: Chairman, I also want to thank you for including my water act and other bills to address drought across the west. The remote water act is a companion to senator cortez masto and senator curtis's large-scale water recycling reauthorization act. And the water security and resilience act which the committee also marked up today.
▶ 0:45:57Sen. Padilla: Together, these bills renew reclamation's programmatic authority to support a range of water recycling and other drought resilience projects which are essential for combating severely dry conditions that we are finding in the colorado river basin and elsewhere throughout the west. Without these bills, reclamation's programmatic authority to construct these projects will expire later this year.
▶ 0:46:22Sen. Padilla: The water act will advance on a bipartisan basis speeding up federal assistance to drought stricken communities, avoiding the cost increases that inevitably result from delays in approvals. I greatly appreciate your action on this critical topic. I also appreciate your inclusion of my national heritage area study act and senator schiff's bay area feasibility study.
▶ 0:46:51Sen. Padilla: The study act would assess the feasibility of designating certain land along california's central coast as a national heritage area. Monterey bay -- I know many of you have visited. It is not just a beautiful region. It has many notable sites and cultural, historical and ecological significance, including big sur, hearst castle, and several john steinbeck literary sites.
▶ 0:47:21Sen. Padilla: A designation would allow for public private partnerships to empower local conservation efforts, provide technical assistance, and support economic activity in the region. I look forward to working with my colleagues to pass this legislation to recognize unique cultural and environmental treasures.
▶ 0:47:39Sen. Lee: We will go next to senator justice, followed by senator hirono.
▶ 0:47:46Sen. Justice: The first thing I would like to do is brag on this a little bit. People say all we do is fight with one another. But I introduced a bill, senate bill 2933, and we may think it is just so tiny that it does not matter. But it all centered around childhood cancer. Can you just imagine?
▶ 0:48:17Sen. Justice: Can you really just imagine if you were a parent -- many times it happens. They could have happened right here. But all of a sudden, the diagnosis is your child has cancer. It is terrible. And it would just absolutely jerk your guts out in every single way. Well, senator o and congressman miller and myself introduced this bill.
▶ 0:48:44Sen. Justice: And thank goodness we all got on board. Because all it is is renaming -- it seems so tiny. The renaming of a playground. Even though it seems so tiny, if you had been mean -- I did different things from license plates to meeting these great kids and everything.
▶ 0:49:15Sen. Justice: Just imagine little girls with no hair, fighting for their lives. Bravery like you cannot fathom. This means a lot. It means a lot in our state. It means a lot to new river gorge national park and preserve. And I thank you. I thank you for all of us, just standing up for those kids, because they are in the fight of their life.
▶ 0:49:46Sen. Justice: They are the best of the best of the best. It is not a little thing. It is a big thing. And so I thank you in every way. I yield, sir.
▶ 0:49:59Sen. Hirono: I want to thank senator murkowski for her advocacy on behalf of alaskan natives. In hawaii, there are a lot of significant sites that impact native hawaiians, and I certainly advocate for their concerns and interests. I understand your desire to get this bill passed. I want to explain my no vote on the site conveyance.
▶ 0:50:27Sen. Hirono: It has to do with my understanding that the size of this conveyance has to do with the application of the alaska native claims settlement act, and that this kind of conveyance requires the size of a township. But I am told the settlement act does not require or does not have applicability to this kind of conveyance.
▶ 0:50:50Sen. Hirono: So what I am hearing from you is a willingness to work with us to support your bill, and that is certainly where I want to be, because I very much understand the importance of these culturally significant sites to alaskan natives, just as there are such sites important to native hawaiians.
▶ 0:51:11Sen. Hirono: My hope is that we will be able to come to some agreement first of all as to the applicability of the alaska native claims settlement act and the understanding that I have that there is no requirement for this size of conveyance, the size of a township, under that act.
▶ 0:51:33Sen. Hirono: Senator murkowski, I very much I'm on your page in terms of what you are trying to do, and I would like to come to an agreement so that we can all agree on getting this bill to the finish line. Thank you, Mr. chairman.
▶ 0:51:47Sen. Murkowski: If I can respond to senator hirono -- with regards to the 21,000 acres, I do believe that you are correct. It is not a requirement that it be the size of a township.
▶ 0:52:04Sen. Murkowski: The rationale for the size was based on consultation with national park service in terms of how they would be able to manage the surrounding park lands. You have to have consistency there. We understand that. But another factor was, as you well know, sacred sites are exactly that. They are sacred.
▶ 0:52:33Sen. Murkowski: These are not sites that are designed for tourists to come and take pictures. These are not places that we advertise with big "come here and look at the sacred site. -- site." it is where the cultural traditions lie.
▶ 0:52:53Sen. Murkowski: And so part of the significance of where this sits within a larger parcel is to basically ensure that there is that level of privacy afforded to an historical sacred site.
▶ 0:53:14Sen. Murkowski: I would be more than happy to walk you through exactly how this 21,000 acres came to be, and the recommendations of our fellow agencies. I look forward to that.
▶ 0:53:33Chair Lee: That concludes today's business meeting. I will think my colleagues for their participation. The committee is adjourned.