Gas Stove Protection and Freedom Act

Floor Speech

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Mr. SCALISE. Mr. Chair, I thank my friend, Mr. Bilirakis, for yielding.

Mr. Chair, I rise in strong support of this bill.

Mr. Armstrong brings forward a really important bill that follows with a number of other pieces of legislation you are seeing on the floor. Tomorrow, you will see Mrs. Lesko's bill dealing with the same issue, the same idea that the Federal Government wants to ban gas stoves.

Mr. Chairman, most Americans are looking all across the country and saying that inflation is still skyrocketing for families and that energy costs are skyrocketing for families. You are paying 50 percent more at the pump when you fill up your car.

By the way, they want to ban the combustion engine, not through a congressional act, but through unelected bureaucrat regulations to get rid of gasoline-powered cars. It is all part of this government control agenda that we are seeing from this administration.

It seems like in every single department of the Biden administration--the CFPB here, the Department of Energy over there, and EPA in another place--they are trying to tell people what they can and can't do with their lives--what kind of stove you can use in your house, for goodness' sake.

First of all, just look at the premise of what they are trying to do--to ban the gas stove, which means you have to then use an electric stove. Maybe a coal stove they would support, I don't know.

If you are choosing between a gas stove and an electric stove, we already know the gas stove is cheaper. They are targeting lower income families and raising the costs on lower income families. They are taking money out of the pockets of families who can least afford it.

Look at the energy side of this. I know this administration, more than any I have ever seen, has issued an all-out assault on American energy, not all energy. President Biden didn't cancel every pipeline. He canceled the Keystone pipeline and American pipelines. He green- lighted Russia's pipeline.

He didn't cancel all fossil fuels around the world. He said he just wants to make it harder to produce fossil fuels in the United States of America. Then, he went and begged Putin to produce more oil. He begged Saudi Arabia to produce more oil, and Venezuela. It just seems like, over and over again, it is American energy that they go after.

If you get rid of the gas stove, you are not getting rid of natural gas. Most places, a lot of places, get their electric from natural gas. You are going to ban the gas stove, and then you are going to take your electric stove--you don't plug it into a tree. You plug it into a socket that is probably fueled by natural gas, but they are probably going to try to ban that, too.

Who are the people that come up with these ideas when sitting around in a room? They are not trying to figure out how to lower inflation, not trying to figure out how to get spending under control, not trying to figure out how to secure America's border. They are trying to figure out how to take choices away from Americans, whether or not you can even buy a gas stove.

Mr. Chair, they are trying to take away the Second Amendment rights of disabled veterans on a bill we will be voting on later tonight on pistol braces. It is something that was designed for military veterans who risked their lives for our country and got so injured that their arms weren't able to use and hold a weapon like most people do. They came up with these braces to help them exercise their Second Amendment constitutional right. They want to get rid of that, too, and retroactively make felons out of millions of Americans.

Mr. Chairman, this government control is out of control. It is about time we push back. You are seeing this whole week we are bringing bills, as we have in the past, to finally start standing up for those hardworking families who are struggling and are sick and tired of attacks on their freedom and their opportunities by this Federal Government.

Today it is gas stoves. A couple of weeks ago, EPA started coming up with rules that they haven't even finalized yet to try to ban the combustion engine. They want to do these things that are major changes that will affect people's lives adversely.

I used to watch how a bill becomes law. I think most Americans watched that, too. I hope they still teach civics in school instead of hatred of America, which they seem to want to do all the time. It used to be that if you wanted to change the way something works, you file a bill and go talk to your Member of Congress. You file a bill and go to committee and explain your idea. If it is a really dumb, nutty idea, it gets voted down.

I guess they got voted down so many times that they decided: Why go run for Congress? They just got into the unelected bureaucracy where they can come up with these ideas and where there is no accountability, which, by the way, is why we are bringing the REINS Act later this week, a bill that says any kind of change from an unelected bureaucrat that affects your life--these hardworking families who are sick and tired of waking up and saying: What did the government do to me today, and how am I going to now live my life and have my freedoms when they are trying to take them away at every different angle?

The REINS Act says that if an unelected bureaucrat does that, they have to come before Congress first.

The elected people who are held accountable every 2 years were on the ballot. If it is a really good idea, present it in public view on C- SPAN.

Can anybody tell me who the person is that came up with this rule that is going to affect every American's life? No one can name who they are. Why don't you make them come? If it is a great idea, they should be proud to present it in open view like this forum is right here. They can tell everybody what it is about. If we vote it up, it becomes law. If we vote it down, the dumb idea dies.

That is not how it works, which is why we need things like the REINS Act. This unelected bureaucracy, these Big Government socialists that want to control every aspect of your life, we are sick and tired of it.

We need to pass this bill. We need to pass the pistol brace bill. Tomorrow, we need to pass Mrs. Lesko's bill. We need to pass the REINS Act and the Chevron deference bill. That is just this week.

Every single week, we are seeing this administration go after the rights of hardworking people, and they are sick and tired of it. I am glad this Republican majority is standing up for those families who are struggling and tired, too.

Mr. Chair, let's get this done. Let's pass this bill.

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