Jared Huffman Shreds GOP's CR, Says It Is A 'Rubber Stamp' For DOGE's 'Destructive Actions'

yesterday

During a House Natural Resources Committee hearing prior to the congressional recess, Rep. Jared Huffman (D-CA) spoke about the GOP-led continuing resolution.

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Transcript

00:00under the ranking member of the full committee, Mr. Huffman.

00:03Thank you, Mr. Chairman.

00:04There is a real crisis unfolding on our public lands

00:07that we really should be talking about today, but we're not.

00:11In just two months, President Trump

00:13and an unelected billionaire crony of his, Elon Musk,

00:16have upended every federal agency,

00:18recklessly laying off thousands of public servants,

00:21blocking critical funding for grants and critical projects,

00:25closing and attempting to sell key office buildings

00:29throughout the country, and the result is chaos

00:32and dysfunction across the government.

00:35The damage to our public lands is significant.

00:37Stopped work orders are stalling

00:39or canceling wildfire mitigation projects.

00:41We may lose an entire season of wildfire preparation.

00:46Partner organizations are halting maintenance work

00:49that ensures safe public access to our public lands.

00:53Scientific research that informs how we manage habitat,

00:57how we adapt to climate change,

00:58which is a real thing, is being shelved,

01:01and now we're just three days away

01:03from a federal government shutdown,

01:05and despite all of this,

01:07Republicans in this committee have shown no interest

01:10in actual real oversight.

01:12They even refuse to question the so-called

01:15Department of Government Efficiency

01:18or any of its reckless half-baked schemes

01:21that are coming out of this administration,

01:24and in fact, to make it worse,

01:26they're getting ready to vote on what they call a CR.

01:28It's actually a partisan full-year funding bill

01:32that surrenders all Article I authority

01:35to Donald Trump and Elon Musk,

01:37provides a rubber stamp for them to do even more

01:40of these reckless, destructive actions

01:42without any concern from our friends across the aisle.

01:46Meanwhile, the data continues to disappear

01:49from Mr. Musk's error-filled, quote, wall of receipts,

01:54which is really a wall of errors.

01:57Each new revelation exposes this initiative

02:00as arbitrary, haphazard, destructive,

02:03and from the other side, we hear deafening silence.

02:07The federal government is not a startup business.

02:10There's not a place to go fast and break things,

02:12and if you think that's a good idea,

02:14you're gonna own the stuff that they break.

02:17When it fails, real people get hurt,

02:20and yet there is this strange infatuation

02:25with this Silicon Valley-style experiment.

02:30They are breaking things,

02:32and anyone who is complicit in that owns the consequences.

02:36To be clear, Democrats do support

02:38rooting out waste, fraud, and abuse.

02:40We would love to work with you

02:42on bipartisan approaches to this.

02:44We welcome serious discussions on that front.

02:46That is not what's happening today.

02:48The Trump administration's goal is not efficiency,

02:50it's destruction, and the American people did not vote

02:54to destroy government or to crash the economy.

02:58As bad as it already is, it is about to get worse.

03:02They have signaled an intention just last week

03:05to add an additional 7,000 layoffs from the Forest Service.

03:10We can debate policy differences all day,

03:12but the reality is that these agencies

03:14can't function without staff.

03:16The writing is on the wall.

03:17Trump and Musk aren't trying to streamline government,

03:20they're trying to dismantle it,

03:21and they are hurting all of our constituents.

03:25Instead of convening a hearing on that,

03:27which is the real crisis facing public lands,

03:30we have a flashy messaging bill before us.

03:33This is obviously a misdirection.

03:37No one seriously believes the FLASH Act

03:39will somehow safeguard our public lands,

03:42and to the extent they need safeguarding,

03:44the ranking member is exactly right.

03:45They can make one phone call to the Department of Interior

03:48and get everything that they would hope to achieve

03:51through this bill.

03:51This bill does nothing to address the real threats

03:54facing our land management agencies.

03:57It does nothing about chronic underfunding,

03:59about staffing shortages or forced attrition

04:02that are hollowing these agencies out.

04:04That's the real crisis.

04:06Our public lands are being turned into a sacrifice zone

04:09for Elon Musk and Donald Trump to cook up some cuts

04:13to provide billionaire tax cuts.

04:16So I could say a lot about the legislation before us,

04:20but the bottom line is this committee is not judiciary.

04:24This committee is not homeland security.

04:27We are torturing the jurisdictional limits

04:30of this committee so that we can have a conversation

04:33about Republicans' favorite subject.

04:36And because our jurisdiction is public lands,

04:39right now the greatest threats to our land,

04:42isn't at the border.

04:44It's what we should be talking about, but we're not.

04:46Elon Musk and the White House doing all the damage

04:49they are with the chainsaw.

04:51I hope we can get back to some serious oversight.

04:54I hope we can stop torturing the jurisdiction

04:56of this subcommittee, and I yield back.

Jared Huffman Shreds GOP's CR, Says It Is A 'Rubber Stamp' For DOGE's 'Destructive Actions'

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