Lower Energy Costs Act
Floor Speech
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Mr. SCHUMER. Mr. President, finally, on H.R. 1, the House is expected today to vote on Republicans' partisan, unserious, and so-called energy package that they call H.R. 1.
First, once again, I want to make it clear: H.R. 1 is dead on arrival in the Senate, not because of politics but because it is so ridiculous and has been drawn up by a bunch of pro-oil Senators who have no regard for anyone else. No Democrat has been consulted. Obviously, the Republicans knew that in the House when they passed it, but they seem to want to go back. In H.R. 1, they go back to the MAGA supporters back home--the big oil companies, the oil wildcatters, and so many of the oil States that don't want to pay any taxes and that don't want anything to do with moving us forward as the climate gets worse and worse.
The Senate is not going to waste our time on a bill that sets America back decades in our transition to clean energy. All it takes is a brief glance at H.R. 1 to realize it is just a giveaway to Big Oil. House Republicans' so-called energy package just guts important safeguards, environmental safeguards, on fossil fuel projects. It would lock America into expensive, erratic, and dirty energy sources while setting us back more than a decade on our decision to move forward on clean energy, which this Nation fully supports. Transmission, of course, is hugely important to increasing access on clean energy, but the Republican plan hardly even mentions it.
So, again, the way to do this, Republicans in the House, is in a bipartisan way. We have a Republican House. We have a Democratic Senate. No party is going to be able to jam its way through without consulting the other side. That is true on the debt ceiling. That is true on the budget, and it is certainly true on H.R. 1.
There are Republicans in the House and Democrats in the House, and there are Republicans in the Senate and Democrats in the Senate who want to sit down and do a serious energy package. We need to do it. Let's stop this brinksmanship. Let's stop this political game-playing. Let's stop this throwing of bones to the MAGA hard right, which represents, maybe, 5 percent of America. Let's roll up our sleeves. Let's get down to work and get something done on energy and on so many other issues.
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