The House Natural Resources Committee early Wednesday muscled through their portion of Republicans’ tax, energy and national security megabill, but not without some fireworks.
A late-night Republican amendment ordering the sale of thousands of acres of public lands in Nevada and Utah sparked outrage among committee Democrats. While Republicans had discussed such sales, they didn’t include them in the bill released last week.
The committee voted 26-17 late Tuesday night to advance the legislation that seeks to rake in billions of dollars in federal revenues from new oil and gas leasing while rolling back environmental laws.
One Democrat, Rep. Adam Gray of California, voted for it after signaling earlier in the markup that he might do so. Nonetheless, Gray said that he will oppose the final package on the floor, especially if it is tied to cuts to food assistance and Medicaid.
The marathon Natural Resources markup saw the consideration of more than 120 amendments, almost all offered by Democrats. Republicans easily defeated each of them.
The lone adopted amendment arrived close to midnight from Republican Reps. Mark Amodei of Nevada and Celeste Maloy of Utah. It would sell about 11,000 acres of public lands in Nevada and Utah, though Republicans would not say for what purpose. Democrats were flabbergasted, with Rep. Joe Neguse (D-Colo.) calling it “deeply irresponsible.”
The bill’s passage is a win for Republicans after weeks of disappointing delays and setbacks on the massive legislation, which holds the keys to President Donald Trump’s domestic agenda and his promises to “drill, baby, drill.”
“We’re working to bring production back to America where we do it more safely, cleanly and efficiently than anyone else in the world,” said committee Chair Bruce Westerman (R-Ark.). “We are delivering on the American people’s mandate to restore common sense to the federal government and stop the fiscal bleeding.”
Republicans are looking to pass the bill through the budget reconciliation process, which allows the congressional majority to advance legislation on fiscal matters without needing to worry about the Senate filibuster.
Westerman is projecting his panel’s bill will produce about $18.5 billion in savings, largely driven by quarterly onshore lease sales, new offshore leasing in the Gulf and Alaska’s Cook Inlet and four new leases in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge.
Democrats tried and failed to strip out many of the oil, gas and mineral provisions with their amendments, and railed against the Republican bill. Committee ranking member Jared Huffman (D-Calif.) said the bill is the “most extreme, anti-environment bill in American history.”
They also raged against what they call a “pay-to-play” permitting provision. It would allow companies to pay a fee in exchange for expedited permitting and certain exemptions from judicial review.
“There’s the new pay-to-play permitting scheme, a cauldron of corruption unlike anything we have ever seen,” said Huffman said, next to a plasterboard with an image of President Donald Trump and the words, “WRECK-ONCILIATION.”
Public lands
The markup roared to life after more than 12 hours of debate when Amodei introduced his public land sales amendment.
POLITICO’s E&E News reported in April that Republicans in the House and Senate were discussing using sales of public lands as an offset for the spending bill and to create opportunities for affordable housing. Such sales are a priority for Senate Energy and Natural Resources Chair Mike Lee (R-Utah).
“The disposal of this land would allow for more responsible development while giving a positive return to the American taxpayer,” Amodei said. “The lands included in this amendment were also identified by their respective counties in Nevada and Utah for disposal.”
“The CBO has scored provisions of this bill and estimates that this amendment would generate billions in federal revenue,” Amodei continued.
Specifically, the amendment would order the sale of more than 11,000 acres of lands in Utah and Nevada.
It caused an eruption among committee Democrats, who are staunchly opposed to selling public lands and assailed Republicans for introducing the amendment so late at night.
“This is just some truly odious sausage at 11:20 p.m. at the end of a long markup,” Huffman said. “Any member of Congress that votes for this is just surrendering any semblance of good process, the integrity of the legislative process is dead if you do this.”
Neguse, ranking member on the Federal Lands Subcommittee, said the proposal required more consultation with lawmakers whose districts would be affected.
“This has been the precedent … on bill after bill after bill that we’ve heard that members have the opportunity to be heard when the lands are being disposed of in their districts,” he said.
That prompted an angry response from Rep. Tom Tiffany (R-Wis.), chair of the Federal Lands Subcommittee, who suggested Democrats have also pushed resources legislation without enough consultation.
“Save the outrage because I’ve seen it in my own state, by members on your side of the aisle,” Tiffany retorted. “Take your whining someplace else.”
A spokesperson for Westerman said the amendment is a “product of community-driven efforts by six Western counties.”
“The sales from these small parcels of land will generate significant federal revenue and have broad local support,” the spokesperson said. “It’s a tailored, parochial budgetary measure.”
Public lands advocates were quick to slam the amendment Wednesday morning.
“This is a dangerous precedent that is intended to pave the way for a much larger scale transfer of public lands,” said Michael Carroll, the BLM campaign director for the Wilderness Society. “Every member of Congress who cares about keeping public lands in public hands should reject this deceptive, middle-of-the-night effort to sell our national heritage.”
Permitting amendment
Earlier in the day, Huffman introduced an amendment to strip the new permitting provision from the bill.
Republicans for years have sought to speed up the environmental review process under the National Environmental Policy Act. While some Democrats are sympathetic to that cause, most argued at the markup that the new provision is a bridge too far and even borders on corruption.
“Instead of a serious NEPA review, polluters can write their own environmental impact statement, pay a special fee and have it quickly rubber-stamped and then get total immunity from legal challenges,” Huffman said.
Republicans are pitching the permitting provisions as narrow changes to NEPA that will speed up timelines and net the government about $1 billion in new revenues, meeting the budgetary nexus required by reconciliation.
Under the proposal, companies could pay a fee that’s 125 percent of the cost of NEPA’s mandated environmental scrutiny — roughly $6 million. Companies that pay the fee would get an environmental assessment within six months and an EIS within a year, along with some immunity from litigation under NEPA.
Dems seek to provoke GOP
While the debate raged for hours, it was mostly one-sided. Throughout the hearing, Democrats goaded GOP members of the committee to engage in debate on their amendments, but the majority largely sat stone-faced.
Typically at committee markups, Republicans will argue against Democrats’ amendments and vice-versa. That did not happen Tuesday.
Democrats took advantage of the dynamic, lampooning Republicans for repeatedly avoiding direct challenges to engage in debate.
Neguse took several Republicans personally to task. He repeatedly asked Rep. Addison McDowell (R-N.C.) to debate him on the merits of renaming Washington Dulles International Airport. McDowell is the sponsor of a separate bill to rename the airport after Trump.
McDowell got up and left the hearing room during Neguse’s the questioning. A spokesperson for the congressman said he went to meet with constituents.
“I wish I could find a Republican member to engage in thoughtful debate about these policies,” Neguse said, suggesting that Republicans on the committee were under a gag order by House leadership, the White House or Westerman.
On two occasions, Huffman moved to adjourn the markup, which is a privileged motion that requires a roll call vote when it is made. Both motions were defeated, but nonetheless required Republicans who had left to rush back to the room.
“Now that we’ve got your attention, we hope you’ll stick around and actually participate,” Huffman said.
