Republican Study Committee's Blueprint to Save America

Floor Speech

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Mr. BARR. Mr. Speaker, I thank my good friend, Kevin Hern, from the great State of Oklahoma not only for his leadership on the Republican Study Committee Budget and Spending Task Force--ably chairing that committee--but also as an advocate for more domestic energy production to deal with this energy crisis.

Like your constituents in Oklahoma, my constituents in rural Kentucky are feeling the pain. I was just with some farmers in Fleming County, Kentucky, on Friday when we were back in the district. And one of the farmers stood up, and he said: I don't know where you get your numbers in Washington, Congressman, but 8.6 percent doesn't sound right for us in Fleming County.

It is more than twice that. It is painful to fill up the diesel in our tractor. It is impossible for us to fill up our trucks to get around to move our produce. This is not 8.6 percent. You all don't know what the real number is and how it affects real Americans.

That is how bad this inflation crisis is. But I rise in strong support of this Republican Study Committee's proposed Federal budget. Our Nation is over $30 trillion in debt. This debt crisis threatens the long-term prosperity of every American. It is that debt, and it is that overspending, Mr. Speaker, that has helped to usher in this historic inflation crisis that is crushing my constituents in Fleming County and so many other middle-class Americans across this country.

The RSC budget restores fiscal responsibility to Washington by balancing the Federal budget within 10 years and rescuing America from bankruptcy, stopping the spending binge in this town.

Let's be clear, we will never balance the Federal budget if Democrats continue their spending spree. We will never balance the budget continuing this reckless deficit-producing fiscal policy and threatening tax hikes in this ``build back better'' calamity that fails to raise revenue, but instead would crush economic growth and actually diminish the tax base.

We will also never balance the budget if the Biden administration continues its inexplicable war on American energy, which is key to economic growth, key to reducing the deficit. That is why I commend RSC Budget and Spending Task Force chairman, Kevin Hern, for including my legislation in the budget, the Fair Access to Banking Act.

This legislation, the Fair Access to Banking Act, protects key American industries, such as energy producers, from discrimination by banks and lenders who politicize access to capital to satisfy the radical agenda of climate extremists.

And here is the irony: We all care about the environment, especially farmers. We care about the environment. They are the ultimate environmentalists. But what sense does it make to deprive financing to the very energy companies that can innovate our way to solutions to the climate issue.

When President Biden was sworn into office, gas prices averaged $2.36 across the country. This month, gas prices reached $5 nationally for the first time--and they are on their way to $6 a gallon.

In less than 2 years, our Nation went from energy dominant to energy desperate. And yet, the Biden administration continues to push ESG investments and regulations such as the SEC's new climate risk disclosure rule designed to choke off investment in energy production.

The Biden administration for sure is blocking construction of the Keystone XL pipeline, another energy infrastructure. It is halting new lease sales for oil and gas. It is stonewalling over 4,400 permits to drill. It is thwarting new large-scale refineries. And this has all contributed to constraining energy supply, contributing to inflation.

But ground zero in this war against domestic energy production is the Biden administration's weaponization of financial regulation to redirect capital away from fossil energy. The European financial sector, Wall Street banks, large, woke asset managers have all started the trend of politicizing capital allocation through the environmental, social, and governance movement. But the Biden administration's Security and Exchange Commission is now making matters worse by proposing a regulation that would force every public company to disclose reams of immaterial and unreliable information about the Green House gas emissions arising from their operations, the producers of energy they consume, and even the activities of their suppliers and customers.

This 534-page monstrosity marks the transformation of the SEC from an independent agency dedicated to investor protection to an unaccountable and politicized bureaucracy intent on advancing radical environmental policy over which it has neither jurisdiction nor competency.

Not only does this regulation discriminate against affordable, reliable energy by redirecting capital away from the American energy sector, it directly conflicts with the SEC's mission to protect investors. While asset managers continually prioritize ESG funds, the fees for those funds are actually, on average, 43 percent higher than nonESG funds.

Stocks and many ESG-related exchange-traded funds have elevated price-to-earnings multiples precisely because investment returns are sacrificed for nonpecuniary factors and policy objectives like social justice, diversity quotas, and lower carbon emissions.

It is time for us to stand up for American energy dominance. It is time for us to stand up for the American energy sector. It is time for us to stand up to retail investors who depend on returns instead of some woke political agenda that, frankly, they don't care about.

My farmers in Fleming County depend on returns. They depend on affordable electricity. Washington is out of touch with the reality and the hardships of American savers and American workers who can't afford Biden's inflation. That is why we need this budget.

Now more than ever we must defend and encourage investments in American energy production to lower costs for Americans at the pump.

Mr. Speaker, the duel visions for the future of America on this issue could not be clearer. On the one hand, Congressional Democrats are doubling down on a dangerous agenda in the middle of a generational energy crisis at cost to millions of middle-class Americans. Out of touch.

On the other hand, Republicans are renewing our commitment through the Fair Access to Banking provision contained in this budget to require lending to be based on risk-based metrics, not on the woke politics of the day.

Mr. Speaker, I am proud to stand with my Republican colleagues in support of this budget. I am proud to stand with Americans who depend on energy independence and energy dominance and affordable, reliable energy.

I ask all of my colleagues on both sides of the aisle to stand with the American people, not with woke Wall Street, not with large asset managers who put politics ahead of returns. Vote for the Republican Study Committee budget.

Mr. Speaker, I thank the leadership of my friend from Oklahoma.

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