Scourge of Wokeism

Floor Speech

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Ms. HAGEMAN. Madam Speaker, I rise today to talk about yet another instance of the insanity of wokeism that is permeating our society, ruining our culture, and destroying our ability to govern.

This scourge has infiltrated academia, the media, and our corporate boardrooms, and it is now taking over our government functions, all on the backs of our taxpayers, those very taxpayers who recognize this nonsense for what it is and who are being plucked clean by an elitist cabal of eco-warriors who are paid to destroy the very standard of living that allows them to focus on made-up crises rather than to do the job for which they were hired.

Of what do I speak? The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service has now begun offering eco-grief training for its employees. Yes, you heard me correctly. Eco-grief, a made-up condition that provides an opportunity for our oh-so-delicate employees who are allegedly struggling with a sense of trauma as they witness what they claim is a changing environment.

It is one thing for a private company to waste its own money, but it is not okay for the Federal Government to misappropriate our money to further a political agenda that is intended to increase the cost of putting food on your table, a roof over your head, and gas in your car.

It is our money that is being used for environmental activism instead of paying down some of our nearly $32 trillion in debt. It is our money that is being used to convince people that the United States is evil, despite the fact that we have lifted more people out of poverty, provided a better standard of living, and provided more opportunities for more people than any other country in the history of mankind while at the same time using and managing our natural resources in a way that protects our environment and our sovereignty.

Eco-grief is admittedly a smaller budget item than many other woke programs. That, however, is no reason to ignore what it portends, as it is just the latest made-up malady and another part of a larger scale assault on both common sense and American energy.

Biden's administration has gone to war on our energy industries by blocking the extraction, development, transport, and use of our abundant and clean fossil fuels--in other words, those energy resources that actually work, such as coal, oil and gas, and uranium.

They seek to make us energy paupers, thereby forcing the United States to beg other countries for the resources that we need to power this country and our economy.

Permitting is now longer, more complicated, more expensive, and designed to limit new energy development and production throughout every step of the process. Oil and gas leases have declined by 97 percent compared to this point in Donald Trump's Presidency.

Despite Biden irresponsibly tapping into our Strategic Petroleum Reserve, gas prices remain stubbornly high, and natural gas, a major source of home heating for half of America, is expected to increase by 25 percent.

Coal provides a quarter of America's energy. It is critical to manufacturing and is vital to not only my State of Wyoming but to anyone who wants to ensure access to clean and affordable energy. It is under constant attack by the ever-increasing and more restrictive rules issued from on high by the unelected bureaucrats in Washington, D.C.

Who suffers? The citizens of this country, with the poorest among us suffering the most. I believe that there truly is a special place in hell for people who adopt policies that are designed to create energy poverty, a situation where families must choose between buying food, heating their homes, or putting gas in their cars. This will be one of Biden's lasting legacies, shared misery for everyone except the liberal elite.

Quite simply, we cannot afford the woke energy agenda being pursued by President Biden, and we sure as heck can't indulge in the latest made-up condition of eco-grief.

While it may seem that we are in a hopeless situation with a nonstop cycle of bad policies coming out of D.C., we cannot give up. With Republicans now in control of the House of Representatives, we must pass legislation to claw back power from the administrative state, and I am filing multiple bills to do just that.

Ultimately, the solution is in producing our affordable and plentiful American energy, but we cannot wait for 2 more years. Our citizens need relief now.

I hope that everyone in this Chamber will join me in fighting against Biden's war on energy. We must call out the nonsense and remind these unelected bureaucrats who they actually work for--the American citizens who have no interest in paying for their counseling.

For our friends at the Fish and Wildlife Service who may be watching this speech, you may want to take that eco-grief seminar now, before we legislate it out of existence.

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