Hard work built America so get the government out of its way

Americans say they value hard work — and this week Congress has a chance to prove it.Lawmakers in the House are now debating the SPEED Act, a bipartisan permitting-reform bill that could help reignite the American Dream for millions of working families.By setting firm timelines on federal permitting for energy, mining, logging and infrastructure projects, the measure could determine whether responsible projects get built — or remain buried in paperwork for decades.That question isn’t abstract to me: I grew up in Libby, Mont., a timber town where work meant not just a paycheck, but identity.Our high school mascot was the Logger.When the football team scored, the sound of chainsaws roared from the bleachers.It wasn’t noise.

It meant respect.That was how the valley saluted the millwrights, welders and loggers who built the American West with sweat and skill.For generations, a kid in Libby could graduate high school on Friday, lace up his boots on Monday and start earning a living that would support a home, a truck and a family.No resumé or pedigree needed — just a work ethic, a pair of gloves and an older tradesman willing to teach the craft.That world didn’t disappear because Americans stopped wanting to work.It disappeared because the system stopped letting them.Just outside Libby sits the Montanore Project, one of the largest undeveloped copper and silver deposits in the country.First proposed in the 1980s, it has spent more than 40 years navigating environmental reviews, lawsuits and bureaucratic delays.Entire generations have grown up, started families and moved away from Libby while a project capable of supporting hundreds of good-paying jobs sat frozen on paper.Not because the resource wasn’t there.Not because the workforce wasn’t capable.But because the permitting process never ends.And it’s not just minerals.Over the past two decades, millions of acres of timber in Montana alone have burned: Enough lumber to build millions of homes — red...