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BIOECONOMY RESEARCH AND DEVELOPMENT ACT OF 2021
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speech of
HON. PAUL A. GOSAR
of arizona
in the house of representatives
Wednesday, February 2, 2022
Mr. GOSAR. Madam Speaker, I rise today to speak on amendment number 150 sponsored by Representative Mike Levin.
This amendment is modeled off the Public Land Renewable Energy Development Act (PLREDA) which promotes wind, solar, and geothermal resources on public lands.
You might ask me why I am speaking on a Democrat amendment, or why I seem to know so much about this amendment.
It's strange because this amendment looks familiar to me. I wonder why that is?
Oh that's right, that's because PLREDA is my bill, one which I have sponsored since the 112th Congress.
When I introduced PLREDA in the previous Congresses, I solicited original cosponsors in a bipartisan manner.
Mr. Levin was one such original cosponsor.
After the 2020 election, we used Mr. Levin as the lead, yet with this current legislation I was prohibited from being part of its annual original sponsors.
But that's fine, I am more interested in passing good governance for the American people than demanding the credit.
I have done this in the past when we reformed the antitrust exemptions in the McCarran-Ferguson Act for the medical insurance industry and brought knowledge to the erroneous administrative exclusion in the Radiation Exposure Compensation Act jeopardizing constituents in Mohave County, Arizona and Clark County, Nevada.
If this were a stand-alone provision, it would earn my support because we need to pass the remainder of PLREDA, the rest which I was unable to get passed in previous Congresses.
However, used as an amendment to a very disingenuous bill, I cannot support it. Not because of the theft of my bill but the poor process used today in this bad bill.
I've always said good process builds good policy which makes good politics.
The amendments being considered inside en bloc packages is a tactic of the current majority which would make the founders roll in their graves.
This is not a counter China bill. This bill promotes a role for the government in the economy which is un-American and deals more in abstract social and climate policies than anything else.
It is not good process. Everyone on the other side has not read the full bill, just like they have not taken the time to make themselves fully aware of anything they have passed so far, regardless if it's a bill, amendment, or resolution.
The American people should be concerned about how this bill actually makes us weaker in the face of China, and no matter how many of my good policy ideas you add to it in the form of an amendment, you cannot change its rotten core.
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SOURCE: Congressional Record Vol. 168, No. 22
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