BRUTAL: James Risch Asks Deb Haaland Extremely Simple Questions Over And Over—And She Can't Answer

7 months ago

At yesterday's Senate Appropriations Committee hearing, Sen. James Risch (R-ID) questioned Interior Secretary Deb Haaland about a controversial project in Idaho.

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Transcript

00:00Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Madam Secretary, as you recall, last time we were here, we had a spirited discussion about the Lava Rage project.

00:06I think you're quite familiar with that.

00:09I delivered you a very clear message

00:12about what the people of Idaho think about this and the tens of thousands of people that are

00:17affected by this, all of whom oppose it. We've actually identified three people that are for it,

00:22but those three people have a financial interest in the

00:26in the

00:28project itself.

00:29Where are you on this?

00:32Thank you, Senator, and we're currently working to meet the direction included in the

00:372024 Appropriations Bill to conduct additional consultations with local elected officials and stakeholders.

00:45We will report on the status of those

00:48consultations as required by law, and we will not complete the final EIS until we've conducted all of those consultations and

00:55incorporated any of those relevant

00:58any of the relevant information into the analysis.

01:03You say you're in the process of that. Since we had that discussion last time,

01:07can you tell this committee whether or not you can confirm what I told you, and that is the

01:12number of people in Idaho that support this, you can count on one hand?

01:17Senator, in the consultations that we've had, there have been roughly 26 government-to-government

01:23consultation meetings with tribes, at least 19 meetings with county commissioners from Lincoln, Jerome, and Minidoka Counties,

01:3014 briefings for members of Congress of their staff, six meetings with local

01:35organizations, four meetings with grazing permittees and other members of the Agricultural Committee, and six public meetings on the draft

01:43Environmental Impact Statement. We are doing our work. That's good.

01:47Can you identify for me the people who support this project?

01:51Because this will only take a few seconds for you to name the three people. Thank you, Senator. Thank you, Senator.

01:56I appreciate you mentioning that you have found three people.

02:02Have you not found those three? I can give you their names. Thank you, Senator.

02:05We'd be happy to be in touch with your office regarding this issue, and

02:10happy to have a conversation with you and your staff about

02:14who we're talking to. Sure, and that's a great list of people.

02:19Tell me, how many people have you found on that list that support this project? Senator, I don't have a number for you today.

02:28You surely have a feeling about this.

02:31Have you found anybody that's in favor of this? Senator,

02:35I do truly appreciate your line of questioning here, and as I mentioned, we'd be happy to be in touch with you.

02:43No, no, no, no, no. Have you found anybody that said,

02:47we support this project, I support this project. Have you found such a person or an entity? Senator,

02:53I have some really amazing and

02:57dutiful

03:00career staff and

03:03Your staff supports this, I gather, but I'm not looking for staff that supports this. No, I understand that.

03:09Tell me somebody who supports this project. I don't have a list of people

03:15currently, but I'm happy to get back with you. Can you name one?

03:19Senator, I would be happy to reach out to you. You can't tell me one person today. I haven't actually done the

03:26conversations. As I mentioned, I have

03:28staff and

03:30people at the department who have carried on these conversations. Great.

03:34Can you give me a list of those people that support this? Will you commit to do that? Senator,

03:39we will commit to getting in touch with your office. No. Will you commit to give me a list of people and

03:46or entities who support this project? Will you commit to that? Senator,

03:51I will commit to being in touch with your office about this project. No, no.

03:56We will. Will you provide me the information I'm asking for, and that is a list. You were required to go out and

04:04publicly

04:05contact people and determine who supports this and who opposes this.

04:09Will you give me a list of the people and entities who support this project? Senator,

04:15we will have that for the record. We'll have a list. When will you have that for me?

04:19We will. As soon as I get back to my office, I will. It won't take you but minutes to put it together, believe me.

04:25I appreciate that. Okay. Thank you, Senator. So then the question I have for you is this.

04:29Suppose you find what I'm telling you is true, and that is there are tens of thousands,

04:35perhaps in the hundreds of thousands, of Idahoans who are opposed to this and a very small handful of people

04:43who support this. What do you do about that?

04:46Senator, we take all of, as I mentioned in my previous response,

04:50we take all of those comments from all of the meetings and the entities that we've had. We put that together with other

04:57analyses, such as the science and the data, and we come to a

05:04final

05:06decision about the issue. Will you be moved if the

05:09position is as I have described for you? Senator, we always take the public comments into

05:18grave consideration when we are considering these things. It means a lot to us. We know that the people on the ground

05:25are important, and

05:27we take their comments into deep consideration, yes.

05:31But you are not going to commit that you will abandon this if indeed the situation is that nobody in Idaho wants this.

05:38Senator, I

05:40appreciate and recognize that you do not like this project.

05:44No, no, no, not me. The people of Idaho do not like this project.

05:50I don't like it either, but the people of Idaho do not like this project, and not by one or two,

05:55but I'm telling you, there's nobody here. You can't even name one person that you think is opposed to it.

06:01My time is up, Madam Chairman. Look,

06:04don't do this.

06:05Your own agency has said don't do this. The people of Idaho said don't do this. Don't do this. Thank you, Madam Chair.

06:14Senator Hirono. Thank you, Madam Chair.

06:17Welcome, Secretary Holland.

06:20Before I begin with the questions, I just want to thank your department.

BRUTAL: James Risch Asks Deb Haaland Extremely Simple Questions Over And Over—And She Can't Answer

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