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The House Natural Resources Committee voted to sell off thousands of acres of national public land in a late-night amendment to the reconciliation bill making its way through Congress.
The marathon markup session lasted the entire day and into the night, as Democrats on the committee introduced a string of amendments that would keep higher royalty rates on oil and gas production and protect public lands. When those members asked Republicans to debate or defend their spending bill, the majority members sat in silence, often for minutes at a time, rather than explain their vote. At one point, the sound of crickets played in the hearing room while Rep. Joe Neguse waited in a futile effort to discuss the reconciliation bill. In all, the committee rejected more than 120 amendments to the bill.
But as midnight approached, Reps. Mark Amodei of Nevada and Celeste Maloy of Utah introduced an amendment that would require the Interior Department to sell about 11,000 acres of public lands in Nevada and Utah. As they had done throughout the day, Republicans on the committee refused to say for what purpose. Amodei claimed the sale "would generate billions in federal revenue." The first version of the bill released last week did not contain any land sell-off provisions.
“This is just some truly odious sausage at 11:20 p.m. at the end of a long markup,” Ranking Member Jared 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.”
The land sell-off was the lone amendment to pass over the 12-hour markup session. In the end, the committee voted 26-17 to advance the legislation. One Democrat, Rep. Adam Gray of California, joined Republicans to vote for the bill.
Chairman's stock buys draw attention
Rep. Bruce Westerman, the chair of the Natural Resources Committee, got called out by members of his committee earlier in the day for buying stock in oil, gas, and mining companies that would benefit from the pro-industry budget reconciliation bill.
During the markup session, Rep. Yasmin Ansari revealed information from Westerman's recent financial disclosure, which included purchases of shares in mining companies BHP, Freeport-McMoRan, and Rio Tinto, as well as oil giants BP, Chevron, ConocoPhillips, Exxon Mobil, Shell, and Suncor. After his stock purchases were made public, Westerman backpedaled and claimed the shares were bought by an investment adviser without his knowledge, and that he was "in the process" of selling them.
The spending bill Westerman passed early Wednesday morning would lower royalty rates for those oil and gas companies when they drill on public lands, and reverse Biden-era policies that limited mining in states like Alaska and Minnesota. The bill would also let companies buy their way to a fast tracked environmental review that would be immune from legal challenges under the National Environmental Policy Act.
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Without hyperbole, this is surely the most aggressive attack on the environment, public lands and clean energy that Congress has ever seen. It is just breathtaking what they are doing, and all of it to enable giveaways to Big Oil and tax cuts for billionaires. It’s just shameful.”
