Financial Services and General Government Appropriations Act, 2024

Floor Speech

BREAK IN TRANSCRIPT

Ms. TENNEY. Mr. Chair, I rise today to offer an amendment to reduce the salary of Karine Jean-Pierre, the White House Press Secretary, to $1.

Mr. Chair, during Ms. Jean-Pierre's tenure as press secretary, she has repeatedly lied to the American people and acted in a condescending manner toward reporters, and she has also violated the Hatch Act.

Just to name a few of her lies, Ms. Jean-Pierre has claimed that illegal immigration is down under the Biden administration. She also claimed that nobody is just walking in across the southern border.

She also claimed that the 2016 election was stolen. She also claimed that Governor Brian Kemp stole the 2018 Governor race from Stacey Abrams. She also claimed that the Biden stimulus bill did not impact inflation. She also claimed critical race theory or its equivalent isn't being taught in our schools. She also claimed that nobody has done more for the southern border or our border in general than Joe Biden.

Mr. Chair, how can somebody with such a history of deceit continue to serve as the liaison for the President and the American people?

The American people should not be forced to pay the salary of an individual who dispenses bold-faced lies to the American people while they foot the bill.

Ms. Jean-Pierre also has a history of anti-Semitic and anti-Zionist rhetoric.

For example, she called AIPAC racist and Islamophobic for supporting Israel. She wrote an op-ed that pro-Israel policies and values are not progressive values, which I think many of my Democratic colleagues even would contest.

Mr. Chair, I urge all my colleagues to support this commonsense amendment to use the Holman rule to reduce the White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre's salary to $1.

BREAK IN TRANSCRIPT

Ms. TENNEY. Mr. Chairman, I respect the views of the gentleman in opposition. However, the American taxpayers are beleaguered now with inflation and with high energy costs, and dispensing lies from the White House--our own White House--from the press secretary knowingly is not something that the American people should tolerate or have to pay for, quite honestly.

BREAK IN TRANSCRIPT

Ms. TENNEY. Mr. Chairman, inflammatory language comes out of Karine Jean-Pierre. In fact, she is an election denier. She claimed that the election of 2016 was stolen. She claimed that Stacey Abrams actually beat Governor Brian Kemp in the election of 2018. An election denier is standing at the podium of the White House actually dispensing even more misinformation to the American people at their expense.

Mr. Chair, I ask my colleagues to join me in supporting this amendment, and I yield back the balance of my time.
BREAK IN TRANSCRIPT

Ms. TENNEY. Mr. Chair, I rise today to offer my amendment to prohibit any funding to finalize, implement, or enforce the Federal Acquisition Regulation Council's proposed ``Federal Acquisition Regulation: Disclosure of Greenhouse Gas Emissions and Climate-Related Financial Risk'' rule.

Mr. Chair, this disastrous rule proposed by the Federal Acquisition Regulation Council has numerous constitutional, national security, and practical concerns, none of which have been adequately addressed by the Federal Acquisition Regulation Council, otherwise known as FAR, nor has the Council on Environmental Quality done its due diligence. Both agencies have pushed for this rule in spite of a lack of due diligence.

First and foremost, this rule requires all Federal contractors that do business of more than $50 million with the Federal Government to disclose all scope 1, 2, and 3 emissions. This includes everything from emissions produced by the contractor to the emissions produced by mere office supplies that they buy for their employees.

We debated the ridiculousness of scope 3 emissions earlier, but this is simply not practical or helpful to the American people. This rule also seeks to require major Federal contractors to comply with the Paris climate accords, a flawed deal that has never been ratified by the Senate. However, the most objectionable part concerning this rule is the requirement that companies set climate targets and then have them validated by a company called Science Based Targets initiative, or SBTi.

SBTi is a foreign--and I emphasize ``foreign''--London-based company, which inherently has national security concerns. Under this rule, every major Federal contractor, including companies critical to our national security, is required to provide this foreign company with information about all of their scope 1, 2, and 3 emissions and then strategize with this foreign company about how to reduce them.

Despite the existence of numerous American-based companies that could fill this same role, the FAR Council and CEQ chose a foreign company as the named sole-source provider. Why? Because SBTi is nothing but a front for Democratic donors and Democratic advocacy groups.

SBTi is owned by the We Mean Business Coalition, which is a project of the New Venture Fund, which is managed by the famous Arabella Advisors.

Arabella Advisors, for those who do not know, is the George Soros- funded, leftwing advocacy group that funnels dark money to leftwing causes and candidates.

To summarize, the Biden administration has named this subsidiary, one of their top donor's leftwing dark money organizations, as the sole- source provider for all climate target validating for all major Federal contractors.

During a hearing in the Science, Space, and Technology Committee on this rule, even the Democrats' witness said that the SBTi was a poor choice for this role, yet the Biden administration continues to forge ahead with this rule anyway.

I look forward to continuing to work with my colleagues on the Science, Space, and Technology Committee to get to the bottom of this rule's suspicious creation, and I continue to urge the committee to subpoena CEQ Chair Brenda Mallory to answer these concerns so the American people know why this is continuing.

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

BREAK IN TRANSCRIPT

Ms. TENNEY. Mr. Chair, I appreciate the concerns about making sure that we have a cleaner climate. However, the gentleman doesn't talk about this obvious issue with Arabella Advisors.

Everyone knows this is a dark money group that funds entities that actually fund donors and is part of the donor class of the Democratic Party, which is put in a unique position to actually control how we manage climate and how we deal with these issues with Federal contractors.

I cited in my initial remarks that this also includes security issues. These are companies that are now going to have to confer with suspect foreign entities to talk about these issues and share information. This is a dangerous precedent.

Not only is it a Democratic donor issue, which is politically charged and shouldn't be allowed in our rulemaking process or in our governmental process, but it is also a threat to our security.

Mr. Chair, for those reasons, I urge all of my colleagues to support this rule. It is a commonsense rule, and it is something that they would certainly object to if the Republicans had proposed their major donor base to be in this position on the Federal level and certainly as part of the Federal bureaucracy in such a critical role.

BREAK IN TRANSCRIPT

Ms. TENNEY. Mr. Chair, with all due respect, this is a mandatory rule that requires every Federal contractor doing business over $50 million a year to use this company, a foreign-based company, not an American company, not a company where we can actually have oversight over it using our rules.

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

BREAK IN TRANSCRIPT

Ms. TENNEY. Mr. Chair, I demand a recorded vote.

BREAK IN TRANSCRIPT

Source