Providing for Consideration of H.R. Regulations From the Executive in Need of Scrutiny Act of Providing for Consideration of H.R. Separation of Powers Restoration Act of Providing for Consideration of H.R. Gas Stove Protection and Freedom Act; and Providing for Consideration of H.R. Save Our Gas Stoves Act, and for Other Purposes

Floor Speech

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Ms. SCANLON. Madam Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume, and I thank the gentleman from Kentucky for yielding me the customary 30 minutes.

With all the very real issues facing our great Nation, it is really disappointing that once again the House majority has decided to waste valuable time and resources to promote a bunch of half-baked legislative ideas and stir the culture wars pot with MAGA conspiracy theories.

The bills that we started considering yesterday in the Rules Committee and will debate and vote upon in the next couple days, consuming an entire week of scarce legislative time, will do nothing to address the most pressing issues our constituents are begging us to address: gun violence, affordable health and childcare, the growing impact of climate change, Social Security solvency, immigration, and national security.

Worse, the antigovernment philosophy inspiring these bills will ultimately harm Americans by creating dangerous bottlenecks in critical government functions, misrepresenting the role and actions of the Federal Government, and disrupting the government's ability to protect Americans from harm.

Let's get some facts straight. While our colleagues across the aisle have framed their argument as necessary to ensure that Congress exercises its legislative function, they completely ignore the fact that the Federal agencies and rulemaking processes they are attacking have been established by Congress to undertake specific functions. That includes rulemaking, which is delegated to the agencies by Congress and ensures that they implement policies using the best and most recent expertise available, for the benefit of the American people.

By enlisting the assistance of Federal agencies to administer the laws that it passes, Congress fulfills its constitutional mandate, the mandate for our entire government to establish justice, ensure domestic tranquility, provide for the common defense, promote the general welfare, and secure the blessings of liberty to our colleagues.

In other words, working together with the other branches, our government is charged with accomplishing certain basic goals for the American people. The regulatory process that our colleagues seek to frame as a battle against a vast bureaucratic conspiracy is actually an essential part of ensuring that we all have clean air and water to breathe and drink; healthy food to eat; safe planes, trains, and automobiles to travel in.

In reality, regulations mean that when a senior goes to the pharmacy to pick up their prescriptions, the lifesaving medication that they will take is both safe and effective.

When you boil it down, rules and regulations are extremely tangible ways that the Federal Government protects people's health and safety and helps create a fairer economy where everyone has a chance to succeed.

Subject matter experts at agencies craft these regulations, many based on highly complex and technical data. Once a rule is proposed, it undergoes an often years-long rigorous review in which comments are solicited from the public, business interests, and other agencies.

Of course, these rules and regs are issued in response to congressional directives. They are an important step towards implementing laws that Members of this body have passed while representing the people back home who elect them to come here.

We can see examples of successful rulemaking all the time across the country. Before the Clean Water Act, the Delaware River, which runs alongside my district, was so polluted that it stripped the paint off passing ships. These days, you can safely kayak on the river thanks to regulations developed by agencies to carry out that law.

While the regulatory process can always be improved upon, the proposals we are considering today are not good-faith improvements or efforts to provide checks on the regulatory process.

The first of these bills is H.R. 277, the REINS Act, which would turn the administrative rulemaking process on its head, requiring every major rule--of which there are dozens and sometimes hundreds every year--to be passed again by both houses of Congress and signed by the President.

Remember, these rules have been developed in the first instance as a result of congressional action.

What the REINS Act is really doing is creating a process that will cause gridlock that then Republicans, or other political operatives, can take advantage of to stop rules they don't like.

The burdensome requirements of H.R. 277 are simply not needed because Congress already has multiple opportunities to shape or rescind major rules if it disapproves of them.

We can hold hearings and offer public comment. We can disapprove major regulations before they take effect, or we can rescind those regulations under the Congressional Review Act.

On that last point in particular, I will note that this majority has moved these types of measures through this Chamber already many times this Congress.

In addition, we can also pass legislation to change laws or regulations, if we so please. Of course, we are considering bills today to do just that.

I know my colleagues on the other side of the aisle are aware of the avenues through which Congress can review and reverse rules. I know it because they use them, or try to use them, week in and week out.

For them to paint a bill like the REINS Act as a noble effort to empower Congress is disingenuous, and, ultimately, it diverts attention from the disastrous consequences this legislation would actually create.

Effectively, the REINS Act nullifies all new rulemaking by any administration, whether Republican or Democrat, and it would bring government operations to a standstill. Any new regulation would have to be passed by Congress in order to take effect.

So let's think about what that would really mean. A Congress, with a House majority that would rather bring the country to the brink of default instead of paying bills that Congress has already approved, would have to vote on every new major regulation from every Federal agency.

If that doesn't scare you, the Senate, hardly a model of expeditious legislation, would need to do the same.

In addition, the bill might actually be unconstitutional because it creates a mechanism in which one House of Congress can effectively veto an agency's rule by simply not acting on it within a 70-day legislative time frame.

This, in effect, is indistinguishable from the one-House legislative veto that the Supreme Court held to be unconstitutional in Immigration and Naturalization Service v. Chadha.

The unfortunate truth is, Congress struggles every day to meet the most pressing needs of the American people. There aren't enough hours in the day, year, or congressional term for us to weigh in on all the regulations that we would need to implement the laws that we are passing.

Under this policy, crucial regulations would be left to languish unacted upon, and the health, safety, and welfare of the people we are supposed to serve would be in jeopardy.

In addition to the REINS Act, there are three other bills that my colleagues are pushing through today which would also undermine the regulatory process and threaten public welfare and safety.

H.R. 288, the SOPRA Act, eliminates the decades-long standard for judicial review of agency decisions. That is a precedent that rests, in part, on the understanding that Congress delegates to agencies certain authorities to carry out the laws that it passes.

It is clear that all the talk on the other side of the aisle about this being to restore power to Congress is empty words because this bill actually incentivizes unelected judges, not Congress, to make and enact policy from the bench. Ultimately, it would slow the rulemaking process and skew it toward more powerful, well-funded, and often corporate litigants, which may be the point.

Finally, the two gas stove bills that our colleagues are pushing this week actually demonstrate some of the flaws in the REINS Act; chief among them, the ready availability of alternatives to the REINS Act proposal and the dangers of politicizing the rulemaking process.

H.R. 1615 and 1640 are fearmongering attempts to prevent the enactment of standards to make gas stoves more safe and efficient and would hinder agencies' abilities to address potentially dangerous consumer products.

The majority's trumped-up battle to defend gas stoves from the Federal Government is nothing more than a conspiracy theory cooked up to embroil Congress in culture wars that shed more heat than light on the issues facing our Nation and are likely done so with a healthy helping of fossil fuel lobbying dollars.

Contrary to the heated rhetoric from our colleagues across the aisle, the Federal Government has not proposed to remove appliances from Americans' homes. That persuasive falsehood has been repeated for months by partisan hacks like Tucker Carlson to stoke grievances and cause chaos.

H.R. 1640, the Save Our Gas Stoves Act, nullifies new, congressionally mandated energy efficiency standards for gas stoves, for new gas stoves only, that would save consumers up to $1.7 billion in energy bills and cut down on emissions that are being shown to be particularly dangerous to children's health.

Most of us are familiar with these energy efficiency standards, and we rely upon them when we purchase new appliances like stoves and freezers and furnaces. I know that I do because it is the responsible thing to do as a consumer from both an environmental and an economic perspective.

Contrary to my colleagues' assertions, half of the gas stoves on the market today would meet the standard, and the remainder would have 3 years to make the necessary and already available adjustments to bring their new stoves into compliance.

H.R. 1615, the Gas Stove Protection and Freedom Act, is even worse because it threatens the government's ability to identify and regulate unsafe gas stoves, including those with design defects that could cause injury or death to American consumers.

Just last year, the Consumer Product Safety Commission recalled a gas stove that had sent multiple people to the hospital and placed many more at serious risk of injury or death from carbon monoxide poisoning.

This bill would have prevented the recall of that dangerous appliance and would prevent the Consumer Product Safety Commission from addressing other dangerous appliances in the future. It is simply irresponsible to jeopardize the health and safety of Americans in order to promote conspiracy theories for the far right.

Overall today, my Republican colleagues take a misguided approach to the issues facing rulemaking and Federal regulations. It is clear they don't want to make the government work better. They want to break it.

They would rather allow polluters and corporations to wreak havoc on our environment, children's health, and working people's livelihoods. They would prefer to decimate a regulatory process that improves the lives of Americans every single day.

The Federal Government has long played an important role in promoting the health, safety, and welfare of the American people, and we need to ensure that it can continue playing that role.

Madam Speaker, I strongly oppose these bills, and I reserve the balance of my time.

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Ms. SCANLON. Madam Speaker, I yield 4 minutes to the gentleman from Texas (Mr. Doggett).
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Ms. SCANLON. The first line is: ``No, President Joe Biden isn't coming for your gas stove.''

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Ms. SCANLON. I also note that, in that article, it talks about the multiple studies now that are investigating the impact of gas stoves on asthma, including by the American Lung Association.

Jackson Lee).

Ms. JACKSON LEE. Mr. Speaker, I thank the gentlewoman from Pennsylvania and my good friend from Kentucky for their leadership.

Mr. Speaker, I think it is extremely important to assure the American people--and particularly my husband, Dr. Lee--and to proclaim, which we have the ability to do as Members of Congress, that no one's gas stove will be lost or taken.

In fact, I even heard Members say that they are buying a gas stove or getting a gas stove. Let me proclaim again: No gas stove will be taken from any American ever--ever.

It is interesting to be on the floor fighting about freedom and protection of a gas stove. Needless to say, today is June 6. I stood earlier today to honor D-day. I know what those men died for. It is important to be able to protect consumers from dangerous explosions of any kind, and that is all that our agencies are doing.

Again, I proclaim that no one's gas stove is being taken away.

We will be debating freedom of a gas stove, protection of a gas stove, when eight children per day are dying because of gun violence.

I only want my constituents in Houston to know, my constituents in Texas to know, my constituents in the Nation to know, as we represent the entire Nation: No one's gas stove needs protection or freedom because there is an agency that, prospectively, in 3 years, is looking to ensure that all gas stoves are safe. We owe that to the American people.

I have now for the third time been engaged with the REINS Act. Please let me explain to you what that is. It is literally a stop sign of the executive functioning. If a regulation is abusive to the American people, we can file lawsuits, as often happens, to challenge that, and that would be individual consumers or companies. When you have a regulation, it takes at least almost a year for the input of the American people to be able to say this is a regulation that works or not, except the REIN Act will require the Congress to intercede every moment.

Accordingly, if it is about asthma, if it is about heart disease, if it is about good medication, and a regulation comes out, you won't get it because the Congress will have a rein around it. It will be a stranglehold, and we will get nothing done.

The separation of powers, I have done that before, as well, out of Judiciary Committee.

Ms. JACKSON LEE. Mr. Speaker, I thank the gentlewoman from Pennsylvania for her kindness.

All that will do is end separation of powers and basically say that the courts--not because a petitioner or plaintiff has gone in but because the Congress intercedes and wants the court to stop lifesaving regulations that can be helpful to the American people.

Therefore, I know that we have to do our duty and be here today. I honor, again, the men and women who serve in the United States military and particularly those at Normandy on this day, of which I had the privilege of being there some years ago.

Mr. Speaker, I end my remarks by saying that the American people need us to be serious. Houstonians need us to be serious. Texans need us to be serious. I am saying that no one's gas stove will be removed from their house or their apartment, but we will offer you the ability and the instruction to make sure that everything you have in your home is safe for you and your family.

My esteemed colleague from Kentucky talked about the popularity of the REINS Act, but I suggest that that popularity is overstated. The REINS Act has been introduced by its extremist advocates for more than a decade without ever being enacted into law, even when Republicans held both Houses and the White House. I would suggest that it is because saner heads have prevailed and understood that enactment of the REINS Act is bad for America.

Mr. Speaker, if we defeat the previous question, I will offer an amendment to the rule to provide for consideration of a resolution which states that it is the House's responsibility to protect and preserve Social Security and Medicaid for our future generations and reject any cuts to these essential programs.

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Ms. SCANLON. Mr. Speaker, Social Security and Medicare are vital to many of our constituents' economic and health security, yet many of my friends across the aisle have called for major cuts to these critical programs.

In fact, just last week, Speaker McCarthy announced he was forming a bipartisan commission tasked with looking at budget cuts and suggested that Social Security and Medicare could be on the chopping block, saying: ``We have to look at the entire budget. . . . The majority driver of the budget is mandatory spending. It's Medicare, Social Security, interest on the debt.''

It wasn't too long ago that I remember some of my Republican friends calling the President a liar during the State of the Union when he suggested that Republicans were willing to put Social Security benefits on the chopping block.

Now, instead of debating gas stoves and the finer points of administrative law, I am giving my friends on the other side of the aisle a chance to reassure the American public and unequivocally state these programs won't be cut, not just with rhetoric but also with their votes.

Bush), to discuss our proposal.

Once again, my colleagues on the right are reverting to their favorite tactic when confronted with real problems in the real world: distraction to conceal that they are doing nothing.

They propose to grind the gears of government to a halt to impose an extreme ideology that Americans as a whole do not support, just as they threatened to tank our entire economy to impose other extreme cuts that even their own party members couldn't support.

They want to ensure that we can do nothing with these bills, that we can do nothing to protect kids from pollutants and dangerous products, to keep businesses from scamming working families out of money, or to ensure that the food people eat every day is safe.

Imagine an FDA that can't issue new food safety and drug regulations, or an EPA that can't keep our drinking water clean, or a VA that can't properly serve our veterans, or a Department of Transportation that can't enforce safety standards for cars, trains, or airplanes. This is what the majority is proposing, and it is a very dangerous vision for America.

The people who elect us to Congress depend on us to make their and their children's lives better, and doing nothing will not accomplish that goal. If anything, we need to make our government more responsive to the needs of the people. We need to do better, not nothing at all.

Mr. Speaker, I urge my colleagues to oppose the previous question and the rule, and I yield back the balance of my time.

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Ms. SCANLON. Mr. Speaker, on that I demand the yeas and nays.

The yeas and nays were ordered.

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