Motion to Instruct Conferees on H.R. America Competes Act of 2022

Floor Speech

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Mr. WESTERMAN. Madam Speaker, in a peewee sports competition, you can make the case that if you are competing, you are winning. But when it comes to global standing, energy independence, and economic security, there are no participation trophies. Our goal can't be to just compete. We have to dominate because if we are not winning in this area, we are losing. And if America loses, the world loses.

Unfortunately, this so-called COMPETES Act would place America on the loser's bench. I am baffled why, at a time when gas prices are skyrocketing from Putin's war in Ukraine, and more Americans than ever are facing economic instability, this majority is still laser-focused on a blind, green-energy political agenda when America needs a rational, domestic energy plan that results in reliable, affordable, and clean energy.

Our constituents are paying almost $5 a gallon to fill their cars. Yet, I am hearing my Democrat colleagues suggest the solution is just to buy an electric vehicle. What a slap in the face to thousands of hardworking men and women that President Biden put out of their jobs by canceling pipelines and shuttering American mines, while turning to international adversaries like Russia, China, Iran, and Venezuela to solve the energy and mineral crisis he created.

Madam Speaker, no, if we really want to win, we must unleash the full power of American energy and mineral development by processing permits, issuing leases, streamlining the regulatory process, and giving our own homegrown industries the ability to use our American resources. We can and we will do that safer, cleaner and faster than anyone else in the world.

Where China uses child and slave labor to mine minerals vital to batteries and computers, we can use state-of-the-art technology to access those minerals that are right here in the U.S.

Where Russia controls oil rights and uses it as political leverage, we can produce energy for our own people and be an exporter to our allies.

Madam Speaker, we have no other option than to win.

I urge my colleagues to give Americans the power to develop, innovate, and unleash our full potential. If you look around, Democrat strategies are proving to be losing strategies. Americans can't afford higher prices and more incompetence. Let's begin to put an end to the madness by passing this motion to instruct.

Madam Speaker, I encourage that.

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