Energy and Water Development and Related Agencies Appropriations Act, 2024

Floor Speech

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Mr. NORMAN. Madam Chair, my amendment would prohibit funding for the Biden administration's rule titled, ``Energy Conservation Program: Energy Conservation Standards for Manufactured Housing.'' It would prohibit the Department of Energy from carrying out regulations that increase the regulatory burdens.

This is a topic that I am very familiar with. I met with the manufacturers of some manufactured housing. For those who don't know, manufactured housing is built in an enclosed environment. What they have done with the passage of the regulations would put the most affordable housing out of business, like changing the rafter sizes from 2 by 2s, 2 by 4s to 2 by 10s or 2 by 8s, 2 by 6s. It is just not practically feasible to do this.

Who would be against the title of an energy conservation program? What this does is much deeper than what this title says.

In May 2022, the DOE developed the energy standards for manufactured homes that would raise the price of new manufactured homes by, in total, thousands of dollars, which would be passed onto the homeowners from cost increases that is far in excess of any return that they would get from the energy savings. Since then, the costs of these DOE standards have become even higher as mortgage rates have increased dramatically.

The standards would limit consumer choices and severely threaten the affordability of new manufactured homes, and this is the most affordable home that the country is now putting on the market. Stick- built homes or building custom homes, as we did in the old days, are just not feasible now.

Manufactured housing represents one of the best opportunities for helping families realize the American Dream, and it counts for roughly 6 percent of the housing stock, this being the largest source of unsubsidized affordable housing in the country.

In South Carolina, one in five South Carolina families lives in a manufactured home. The average price of a new manufactured home is $75,000. The median income of a manufactured home buyer in South Carolina is about 30,000. The availability of affordable manufactured homeownership is in jeopardy if this new regulation is put into effect. We shouldn't trade off housing affordability for the sake of energy efficiency, which will limit the dream of homeownership.

Madam Chair, I yield back the balance of my time.
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Mr. NORMAN. Madam Chair, my amendment would prohibit funding for policies that advance the Biden administration's radical DEI agenda, diversity, equity, and inclusion.

Specifically, my amendment would prohibit the use of funds for the Department of Energy's Office of Scientific Workforce Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion. This office's mission is to promote diverse, equitable, and inclusive workplaces. Now, even science must bow to equity and inclusion. Science should be rooted in fact and research, not wokeism.

We have seen what happens when DOE prioritizes diversity and inclusion over all else. It results in hiring nonbinary nuclear officials like Sam Brinton, who uses they/them pronouns to address his cohorts.

It is time to be serious. We cannot waste taxpayer dollars funding an office of science whose sole purpose is to promote diversity, equity, and inclusion over science.

Madam Chair, I urge my colleagues to support my amendment, and I reserve the balance of my time.

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Mr. NORMAN. Madam Chair, I think my good friends on the left don't realize the cost of DEI is borne by the businesses in this country now more than ever when they are paying double and triple for gas and have supply chain shortages, interest rates at a 40-year high, and inflation that we have never seen the likes of.

We have seen what DEI does in the military. The military is down 25 to 30 percent. If you want a definition, define for me the pronouns ``they'' and ``them.'' If you are referring to your fellow coworkers as ``they'' and ``them,'' does that make sense? No, that is the stupidest, craziest idea to even entertain.

People are trying to put food on the table, trying to protect their loved ones, and you are really promoting this with a price tag? You all ought to be ashamed of yourselves for doing this at a time when America is struggling like never before.

It has a price tag to it, and to even have to discuss this is really unbelievable in today's world.

Madam Chair, I yield back the balance of my time.
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Mr. NORMAN. Madam Chair, this is my amendment, which is similar to what we talked about before on the DEI lunacy. My amendment would prohibit funds from being used by the Interagency Working Group on the Social Cost of Greenhouse Gases.

The interagency working group was originally convened by the Obama administration before being disbanded by the Trump administration and reimposed through Biden's radical climate Executive Order No. 13990. Democrats use the social cost of greenhouse gas metrics to justify sweeping climate policies and strict regulations.

I will add that President Biden, when asked what the main concerns and threats for America are, mentioned climate change. We have people being blown up over in Israel, and his focus is climate change.

Madam Chair, I urge my colleagues to support my amendment and ensure we don't waste valuable tax dollars and resources to fund the Biden administration's radical climate agenda.

The other thing I would add is we have to, for dollars that are just vaguely named in these bills, see where the money actually goes. I think America would be astounded.

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Mr. NORMAN. Madam Chair, I am glad the gentlewoman mentioned forest fires. If you talk to any forester, this is something we could have a direct impact on.

Do you know how much thatch is causing a lot of these fires? Thatch, in a lot of cases, is this high, and the environmentalists won't let them cut some dead trees and won't let them take the thatch out. How stupid is that? It defies logic.

You mentioned the oceans. Try to explain to anybody in this country how man is going to control the oceans.

We are all for clean water and clean air, but the price tag that is put on these programs that are paying some bureaucrat to give his opinion is, again, lunacy at its highest at a time in this country when Americans cannot afford it.

I promise in your district, if you talk to your constituents and put the price tag on it, I think they would have a different opinion than your President saying that climate change is the biggest existential threat in this country. There are far greater things than that.

Madam Chair, I yield back the balance of my time.
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Mr. NORMAN. Madam Speaker, this is similar to the other amendments we have been talking about. This particular amendment, 49, prohibits the use of funds for the consideration of the social cost of greenhouse gases in the development and implementation of budgets, Federal procurement processes, or environmental reviews.

I don't know how you calculate that, but the dollars are going toward it. President Biden is directing agencies to consider the social cost of greenhouse gases in the development and implementation of budgets in the Federal procurement process.

Democrats use the social cost of greenhouse gas metrics to justify funding sweeping climate policies and strict regulations.

Where is it legitimately going to? To my good friends on the left, if it were coming out of your paycheck, I think you would probably have a different opinion of where the money should be used.

This is, again, similar to what we have been talking about. It is similar to what we face in the Financial Services Committee where groups are demanding banks, banks that loan money, fill out 500-page reports on the carbon imprint that banks have. How stupid is that?

Again, this is down the same lines we have talked about.

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Mr. NORMAN. Madam Chair, I wish during a lot of the hearings I have been to and the advocates for us humans controlling the climate and those like Al Gore who says, ``the oceans are boiling''--he literally said that--it fits right in line with this radical agenda that America can't afford now.

I urge support of my amendment, and I yield back the balance of my time.
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Mr. NORMAN. Madam Chair, my amendment is similar to the others that I have proposed. It prohibits funding for the American Climate Corps that the Biden administration recently established through an executive order. Thank God it is not binding after his administration is gone.

The Biden administration describes the American Climate Corps as a workforce training and service initiative for careers in the clean energy and climate reliance economy. The corps will focus on equity and environmental justice.

Instead of funding Democrats woke climate agenda, why don't you focus on a pro-growth agenda that spurs the economy and prioritizes American energy independence?

Imagine if this administration reversed course and instead of buying it from OPEC countries that hate America, maybe buying it from our country where we have a 100-year supply, if not more, and become energy independent.

I am in the construction business. I haven't seen too many trucks that operate on batteries. When I get on a plane, I don't see too many airplanes flying on batteries or solar panels, much less the batteries that are made predominantly in China, which is a country that doesn't like us.

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Mr. NORMAN. Madam Chair, to my friends on the other side of the aisle, I agree with you. The people that joined the corps, they are well-meaning people.

They work. They build trails, as you mentioned. They fix houses up. Their motives are pure, or they wouldn't do that. It requires physical labor. I have met them on-site.

What this does has nothing to do with the good that they do. It just burdens them. In America, we have become the country we were in the past not by guaranteeing equal outcomes but by guaranteeing equal opportunity.

What I want to do is grant the opportunity for people to join the American Climate Corps to reach their highest potential.

It is not putting the money or making them fill out some crazy form like the banks are having to do. For those who have been in the private sector, they would be with us at every level to stop this kind of rampant spending of our tax dollars.

I urge support of this amendment, and I yield back the balance of my time.
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Mr. NORMAN. Madam Chair, my amendment cuts the salary of the Secretary of the Department of Energy, Jennifer Granholm, to $1. The job that she has done is far below standard by any measure.

She testified and promoted a company in Greenville--my State, not in my district but my State--that she was a former board member on and requested funds from the American taxpayer.

I have learned now with bureaucrats who make wrong decisions, the only way you deal with them is to cut their salary. I recommend that her salary be cut to a dollar.

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Mr. NORMAN. Madam Chair, I yield the balance of my time to the gentleman from Michigan (Mr. James), my good friend.

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Mr. NORMAN. Madam Chair, I yield back the balance of my time.

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