CLARIFYING JURISDICTION WITH RESPECT TO CERTAIN BUREAU OF RECLAMATION PUMPED STORAGE DEVELOPMENT

On 2024-12-17, Senator Mark Kelly (D-AZ) delivered a floor speech titled "CLARIFYING JURISDICTION WITH RESPECT TO CERTAIN BUREAU OF RECLAMATION PUMPED STORAGE DEVELOPMENT" in the Senate. The speech addressed taxes and also covered climate policy, foreign policy. It referenced legislation including HR1607, HR6826, HR1727, among other bills.

CLARIFYING JURISDICTION WITH RESPECT TO CERTAIN BUREAU OF RECLAMATION PUMPED STORAGE DEVELOPMENT

Congressional Record, Volume 170 Issue 187 (Tuesday, December 17, 2024) [Congressional Record Volume 170, Number 187 (Tuesday, December 17, 2024)] [Senate] [Pages S7079-S7085] From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [ www.gpo.gov ] CLARIFYING JURISDICTION WITH RESPECT TO CERTAIN BUREAU OF RECLAMATION PUMPED STORAGE DEVELOPMENT The bill (H.R. 1607) to clarify jurisdiction with respect to certain Bureau of Reclamation pumped storage development, and for other purposes, was ordered to a third reading, was read the third time, and passed. Mr. CARDIN. Mr. President, first, I want to thank Senator Cassidy for his cooperation in putting together this package. It is a package of bills that were favorably considered by the committee. They are noncontroversial. I want to thank also Senator Kelly for his help in putting together this package. Let me just, if I might, talk about two of the issues we just passed: First, H.R. 6826, to designate the visitor and education center at Fort McHenry National Monument and Historic Shrine as the Paul S. Sarbanes Visitor and Education Center. I want to first acknowledge Congressman Sarbanes, who is on the floor, who has represented me so well in the House of Representatives. He has also decided not to run for reelection and served for 18 years in the House of Representatives. [[Page S7080]] Mr. President, I hold the Sarbanes seat in the U.S. Senate. Paul Sarbanes was a dear friend. He was a Senator's Senator. He was deeply respected by all Members of this body. I think it is particularly appropriate that he is honored with the naming of the Fort McHenry National Monument and Historic Shrine visitor center and education center. The late Paul Sarbanes was a tireless advocate to preserve Fort McHenry in Baltimore, MD. Senator Sarbanes worked to honor the site and elevate the history of the War of 1812 in the national consciousness throughout his career. I got to know Senator Sarbanes when we were both elected at the same time to the Maryland House of Delegates many years ago. He would go on to serve in the House of Representatives on the Judiciary Committee, which was given the responsibility of the first Article of Impeachment against President Nixon during the Watergate scandal. Later, while serving in the Senate in the aftermath of the 2002 Enron scandal, Sarbanes worked in a bipartisan manner to pass the Sarbanes- Oxley legislation. Then-President George W. Bush called the Sarbanes- Oxley bill ``the most far-reaching reforms of American business practices since the time of Franklin Delano Roosevelt.'' He had a long and distinguished career of public service to the Nation, and, throughout, he never forgot his Baltimore roots. He saw Fort McHenry as a national treasure in the city and a site worth celebrating. This legislation acknowledges his long-term advocacy for the preservation of the site and the improvement of the visitor experience by designating the visitor and education center the Paul S. Sarbanes Visitor and Education Center. It is a fitting tribute to name the visitor center at Fort McHenry National Monument and Historic Shrine after a true American hero: Paul S. Sarbanes. Mr. President, I also would like to call my colleagues' attention to H.R. 1727, the Chesapeake and Ohio Canal National Historical Park Commission Extension Act, which we just approved. I am proud to have worked together with Representative Trone and Senators Capito, Van Hollen, Manchin, Warner, and Kaine on this legislation. The C&O Canal National Historic Park is 184.5 miles long and covers 20,000 acres, winding north and west along the Potomac River, from the heart of Washington, DC, to Cumberland, MD. The park includes a canal and contiguous towpath that provides runners, cyclists, and backpackers access to hundreds of historic structures that tell a story of this critical economic artery. The Advisory Commission was established in 1971, and it has been reauthorized at nominal cost by Congress every 10 years for the past three decades with overwhelming bipartisan support. There is no better wealth of knowledge of the unique issues the C&O Canal and its resources face than the Chesapeake and Ohio Canal National Historical Park Advisory Commission. Government works better when policymakers listen to the people who know them best, and this commission ensures that all surrounding communities have a voice in shaping their future. I am proud to work together with my neighboring delegations to keep this commission running strong. So, Mr. President, once again, I want to thank my colleagues for their cooperation in getting this done, and I particularly want to acknowledge, as earlier, Representative John Sarbanes. He has worked his entire career on good governance, and there is no stronger need in our society than an advocate for good governance in our community. He has done a great job in the House of Representatives. He is also known for his work on the Chesapeake Bay, as the leader of No Child Left Inside, getting young people to understand the importance of Chesapeake Bay so we have advocates for the future. I congratulate John Sarbanes for his incredible record in the House of Representatives and wish him the best. I thank the Presiding Officer for the courtesies that were just extended. I yield the floor. The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from Louisiana. Mr. CASSIDY. Mr. President, I rise to support H.R. 6843, which is part of this package, the Atchafalaya National Heritage Area Boundary Remodification Act. I want to take just a moment to talk about the Atchafalaya. Le Grand Derangement--my French is off, but stay with me. When the British kicked the Acadians out of Canada and they migrated down to Louisiana and along the gulf coast, the Atchafalaya basin was where many of them settled, and their culture spread out from there. And if you think of our culture with the etouffee, the jambalaya, the crawfish, it all began in the Atchafalaya basin and built out from there. And if you look at a map, where the Mississippi comes down, draining most of the continental United States, and then the Red River comes down, which drains Colorado, Oklahoma, Texas--they meet, and the Atchafalaya is born. Prehistorically, the Atchafalaya River was an outlet for the Mississippi River. And if it were not for human engineering, it would once again be the outlet for the Mississippi. It is 1.4 million acres of swamps and wetlands and rivers--the largest wetlands in the United States. And I say this because this culture, this Acadian culture--one of the most unique, if not the most unique, in our country--began here. In our boundary modification, we extend the footprint of this, acknowledging that the Cajuns that came from Canada, finding refuge in the United States, putting a unique imprint--a unique imprint on our country. And I hesitate because I'm thinking. For example, Breaux Bridge, LA, has the crawfish capital of the world. Now, we are the only State, I am sure, that has the crawfish capital of the world. But to show where that goes, yesterday, I am at a truck stop in Arkansas, and I stop and they are selling crispy, crunchy chicken. And with the crispy, crunchy chicken, I can get a side. It is jambalaya, it is red beans and rice, and it is something else. I said: This is Louisiana day. The guy laughed. He goes: It sure is. So the food that began when those Acadians settled there has spread out. What this does is it expands that footprint. It allows more of a celebration of that culture, a preservation of the sportsmen's paradise. And along the way, it created a lot of jobs. It has support across Louisiana, including from the original 14 parishes within the national heritage area. So I thank my colleagues for getting this across the line. I am very pleased about it, and I look forward to the Atchafalaya National Heritage Area educating even more Americans as to the wonders of my State. I yield the floor. The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from Arizona. Mr. KELLY. Mr. President, this bipartisan bill, H.R. 1607, the pumped hydro storage bill, is about delivering affordable and reliable energy to our growing State by expanding hydropower storage. The way it does that is pretty simple. It clarifies the Bureau of Reclamation's jurisdiction with respect to the future development of pumped storage along the Salt River in Arizona, and it expands an existing withdrawal south of the river from 1 to 2 miles, allowing the Salt River Project to explore developing sites identified in a 2014 Bureau of Reclamation study. This could ultimately bring upwards of 2,000 megawatts of energy storage capacity to the State of Arizona, providing clean energy and improving grid reliability as the demand for energy grows in the coming years. Representatives Schweikert and Stanton introduced this bill in the House, and it passed the Chamber last year by a vote of 384 to 1. I appreciate the work of my colleagues on the Energy and National Resources Committee to ensure that our bill received a hearing and a markup. I yield the floor. The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from Kentucky. Reforming Emergency Powers to Uphold the Balances and Limitations Inherent in the Constitution Act Mr. PAUL. Mr. President, we are currently considering the Defense authorization bill. We have considered this most years annually for many decades. Typically, though, we will have a robust debate, we will have amendments offered, and we will try to have participation by Senators from all over the [[Page S7081]] United States geographically represented in the debate. That won't happen this year. There will be no debate. It will be very controlled and circumscribed, and there won't be amendments. This is disappointing to me because I think there are some very important issues that need to be brought up, and one of those is emergency powers. Our Founding Fathers understood that it was very important to divide these powers between the execu

Referenced legislation: HR1607, HR1607, HR1727, HR5009, HR6826, HR6843