Providing for Consideration of H.R. Choice in Automobile Retail Sales Act of Providing for Consideration of H.R. Defending Education Transparency and Ending Rogue Regimes Engaging in Nefarious Transactions Act; and Providing for Consideration of H.J. Res. Providing for Congressional Disapproval Under Chapter 8 of Title United States Code, of the Rule Submitted By the Department of Education Relating to ``Improving Income Driven Repayment for the William D. Ford Federal Direct Loan Program and the Federal Family Education Loan (Ffel) Program''

Floor Speech

BREAK IN TRANSCRIPT

Mrs. HOUCHIN. Mr. Speaker, by direction of the Committee on Rules, I call up House Resolution 906 and ask for its immediate consideration.

The Clerk read the resolution, as follows: H. Res. 906

Resolved, That upon adoption of this resolution it shall be in order to consider in the House the bill (H.R. 4468) to prohibit the Administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency from finalizing, implementing, or enforcing a proposed rule with respect to emissions from vehicles, and for other purposes. All points of order against consideration of the bill are waived. The bill shall be considered as read. All points of order against provisions in the bill are waived. The previous question shall be considered as ordered on the bill and on any amendment thereto, to final passage without intervening motion except: (1) one hour of debate equally divided and controlled by the chair and ranking minority member of the Committee on Energy and Commerce or their respective designees; (2) the amendment printed in part A of the report of the Committee on Rules accompanying this resolution, if offered by the Member designated in the report, which shall be in order without intervention of any point of order, shall be considered as read, shall be separately debatable for the time specified in the report equally divided and controlled by the proponent and an opponent, and shall not be subject to a demand for division of the question; and (3) one motion to recommit.

Sec. 2. At any time after adoption of this resolution the Speaker may, pursuant to clause 2(b) of rule XVIII, declare the House resolved into the Committee of the Whole House on the state of the Union for consideration of the bill (H.R. 5933) to amend the Higher Education Act of 1965 to require additional information in disclosures of foreign gifts and contracts from foreign sources, restrict contracts with certain foreign entities and foreign countries of concern, require certain staff and faculty to report foreign gifts and contracts, and require disclosure of certain foreign investments within endowments. The first reading of the bill shall be dispensed with. All points of order against consideration of the bill are waived. General debate shall be confined to the bill and shall not exceed one hour equally divided and controlled by the chair and ranking minority member of the Committee on Education and the Workforce or their respective designees. After general debate the bill shall be considered for amendment under the five-minute rule. The amendment in the nature of a substitute recommended by the Committee on Education and the Workforce now printed in the bill shall be considered as adopted in the House and in the Committee of the Whole. The bill, as amended, shall be considered as the original bill for the purpose of further amendment under the five-minute rule and shall be considered as read. All points of order against provisions in the bill, as amended, are waived. No further amendment to the bill, as amended, shall be in order except those printed in part B of the report of the Committee on Rules accompanying this resolution. Each such further amendment may be offered only in the order printed in the report, may be offered only by a Member designated in the report, shall be considered as read, shall be debatable for the time specified in the report equally divided and controlled by the proponent and an opponent, shall not be subject to amendment, and shall not be subject to a demand for division of the question in the House or in the Committee of the Whole. All points of order against such further amendments are waived. At the conclusion of consideration of the bill for amendment the Committee shall rise and report the bill, as amended, to the House with such further amendments as may have been adopted. The previous question shall be considered as ordered on the bill, as amended, and on any further amendment thereto to final passage without intervening motion except one motion to recommit.

Sec. 3. Upon adoption of this resolution it shall be in order to consider in the House the joint resolution (H.J. Res. 88) providing for congressional disapproval under chapter 8 of title 5, United States Code, of the rule submitted by the Department of Education relating to ``Improving Income Driven Repayment for the William D. Ford Federal Direct Loan Program and the Federal Family Education Loan (FFEL) Program''. All points of order against consideration of the joint resolution are waived. The joint resolution shall be considered as read. All points of order against provisions in the joint resolution are waived. The previous question shall be considered as ordered on the joint resolution and on any amendment thereto to final passage without intervening motion except: (1) one hour of debate equally divided and controlled by the chair and ranking minority member of the Committee on Education and the Workforce or their respective designees; and (2) one motion to recommit.

BREAK IN TRANSCRIPT

Mrs. HOUCHIN. Mr. Speaker, for the purpose of debate only, I yield the customary 30 minutes to the gentleman from Massachusetts (Mr. McGovern), pending which I yield myself such time as I may consume. During consideration of this resolution, all time yielded is for the purpose of debate only. General Leave

Last night, the Rules Committee met and produced a rule, House Resolution 906, providing for the House's consideration of several pieces of legislation.

The rule provides for H.R. 4468, the Choice in Automobile Retail Sales Act, or the CARS Act of 2023, to be considered under a structured rule. It provides for 1 hour of debate equally divided and controlled by the chair and ranking minority member of the Committee on Energy and Commerce or their designees and provides for one motion to recommit.

The rule also provides for two measures related to education: H.R. 5933, the Defending Education Transparency and Ending Rogue Regimes Engaging in Nefarious Transactions Act, or the DETERRENT Act, and H.J. Res. 88 related to income-driven repayments for educational loans.

H.R. 5933 would be considered under a structured rule with eight amendments made in order. It provides for 1 hour of debate equally divided and controlled by the chair and ranking minority member of the Committee on Education and the Workforce or their designees and provides for one motion to recommit.

Finally, the second education measure to be considered under a closed rule is H.J. Res. 88, a joint resolution nullifying the final rule submitted by the Department of Education on income-driven repayment published on July 10, 2023. It also provides for 1 hour of debate equally divided and controlled by the chair and ranking minority member of the Committee on Education and the Workforce or their designees and provides for one motion to recommit.

Mr. Speaker, I rise in support of this rule and in support of the underlying pieces of legislation, beginning with H.R. 4468, the CARS Act.

Mr. Speaker, it seems like every week we are here talking about another bureaucracy under the Biden administration overstepping their bounds. Again and again, these out-of-control agencies under this administration are chipping away at our personal freedom.

This time, it is the EPA. Specifically, their proposed new standard is for two-thirds of all new vehicles to be electric by 2032.

Last night, at the Rules Committee hearing, the bill's sponsor, Representative Walberg, laid out why this legislation is very clearly necessary. This misguided EPA rule takes away consumer choice. Americans should be able to have every option available to them in what vehicle they choose to drive, specifically because automobiles vary greatly in both reliability and cost, and consumers have different wants and needs.

Market demand, not government mandates, should drive this industry. If nothing else, our colleagues should support this legislation because it is also not ready for prime time.

Electric vehicles are more expensive. Until the cost comes down, we shouldn't be forcing these purchases on consumers.

While Americans are experiencing crushing inflation, the infrastructure needed to support EVs does not exist. This rule disadvantages rural communities like mine and so many others across the country.

Mr. Speaker, we all know it is a Biden administration priority to pour billions into green energy and clean cars. The President even recently invoked the Defense Production Act, spending $169 million in green energy handouts for electric heat pumps for water heaters. That doesn't seem like a top priority to meet the needs of our national defense.

This EPA rule simply ignores the practicality, cost, and choice for Americans, and it is wrong.

One doesn't need to look further than Secretary Granholm's recent failed and taxpayer-funded EV road trip. This PR stunt was ridiculed for highlighting the shortcomings of EVs rather than their potential and also resulted in a probe by the House Oversight and Energy and Commerce Committees.

Most egregiously during this trip, the police were called when Secretary Granholm's staff blocked a charging station from use by a Georgia family with an infant in the middle of summer.

It is unbelievable, really, but under President Biden's EPA, this would be reality for everyone everywhere in America.

In addition, with the forced and accelerated transition to EVs, this EPA standard prioritizes benefits to China over the needs of the American people. As we all know, China controls many of the raw materials necessary for batteries and other components for EVs. By rushing to meet arbitrary green and climate agendas, the United States is more likely to solidify China's control of the energy future rather than save the planet.

Mr. Speaker, we must be measured, trust market forces and American consumers, and not push top-down and expensive mandates. I hope my colleagues will join me in supporting H.R. 4468.

Moving on to education, as a member of the Education and the Workforce Committee, I am glad to see floor consideration of H.R. 5933, the Defending Education Transparency and Ending Rogue Regimes Engaging in Nefarious Transactions Act, also known as the DETERRENT Act.

This legislation would bring much-needed transparency, accountability, and clarity to foreign gift reporting requirements for colleges and universities across the Nation.

I know many of our colleagues share our concerns over foreign adversaries infiltrating college campuses. Foreign adversaries like the Chinese Communist Party have been leveraging ties with institutions of higher education in order to further soft power goals for many years, including by shaping public narratives, influencing academic curricula, sowing social divisions, and undermining faith in our public institutions and our very system of government. It must stop.

While it is clear that global partnerships and academic collaboration can be beneficial for U.S. students at our universities, it is our responsibility to carefully monitor foreign partnerships, particularly with countries of concern, and we must be steadfast in doing so. We must ensure our adversaries are not given a platform in our classrooms to work against the United States' values and interests.

The Biden administration doesn't seem to take this responsibility seriously, though. They have not opened a single new investigation since taking office.

Just this week, the Department of Education updated their section 117 FAQs. This was their first update to these FAQs since taking office 3 years ago, and it was undoubtedly a result of pressure from our work on the Education and the Workforce Committee in passing the DETERRENT Act.

Because of the Biden administration's failure on section 117, the University of Pennsylvania alone took $14 million from unnamed contributors in China and Hong Kong and $2.4 million from unnamed contributors in Saudi Arabia since 2021. These amounts are well over the threshold of concern and are reasons alone to pass the DETERRENT Act.

Back home in Indiana, our own Valparaiso University was home to a Confucius Institute. These institutes are funded and arranged by the People's Republic of China and have raised concerns about improper influence over teaching, espionage, and undermining Taiwan and its relationship with the United States. Indiana Attorney General Todd Rokita investigated this Confucius Institute, and though it has now been closed, the need for oversight remains.

Mr. Speaker, I am proud to be an original supporter of this legislation, and I urge its passage.

Finally, H.J. Res. 88 is a joint resolution nullifying President Biden's reckless income-driven repayment plans that would effectively forgive nearly half of the student loan debt and cost taxpayers at least $138 billion over the next 10 years.

It would be a direct cost to taxpayers because this proposed student loan debt plan simply transfers the burden of paying these loans away from student loan borrowers and onto those taxpayers who have chosen not to go to college.

A 2019 Government Accountability Office report found that 95,100 income-driven repayment plans were held by borrowers who reported zero income yet earned enough wages to make monthly student loan payments. Borrowers with these 95,100 income-driven repayment plans owed nearly $4 billion in outstanding direct loans.

As to their family size, about 40,900 income-driven repayment plans were approved based on large family sizes of nine or more, which are atypical for income-driven repayment plans. GAO also found two income- driven repayment plans that were approved in which the borrower reported a family size of 93. Borrowers with atypical family sizes of nine or more owed almost $2.1 billion in outstanding direct loans.

Given all of this reported fraud, I have significant concerns with the Biden administration's income-driven repayment plans.

Since I went to college, tuition and fees have increased almost three times more than the rate of inflation, many due to subsidized tuition in the form of grants and loans that are already largely paid by taxpayers. Student debt in the U.S. is now over $1.6 trillion, with the average borrower owing over $37,000.

Since 1980, the average cost of college attendance has risen 180 percent. We can't keep writing blank checks to universities, particularly when many are failing our students and graduation rates are poor.

We need solutions that will drive down the cost of college. The income-driven repayment plan doesn't address the root cause of this issue, and it places an unfair burden on the taxpayer.

I look forward to the consideration of this legislation that will actually address the underlying issue here, and I urge the passage of this resolution.

Mr. VAN ORDEN. Mr. Speaker, I am proud to support the CARS Act, which will stop this executive overreach by the Biden administration by preventing the implementation of regulations that seek to limit consumer choice instead of allowing consumers to choose the vehicle that best suits their needs.

The Environmental Protection Agency has produced a rule that would effectively require two-thirds of all vehicles sold in the United States to be fully electric in less than 9 years.

While I believe electric vehicles have their place in society, this misguided EPA mandate would have an immediate detrimental impact on the choices and the affordability of cars, trucks, and SUVs that are available to my constituents.

Despite billions of dollars being spent on part of the Biden administration's IIJA bill to expand our Nation's EV charging network, at present the electric grid is incapable of supporting this, not to mention the fact that according to the Department of Energy, the range of EVs is reduced by over 40 percent in cold weather. I remind you that I am from the State of Wisconsin. For the rural, cold climates common in my district, EVs are simply not the answer at this time.

Even more troublesome is that biofuels were barely mentioned in the IIJA, which means that the clean, renewable energy options to power our country's transportation system are nearly forgotten by the Biden administration, despite ethanol production supporting more than 300,000 jobs concentrated in rural areas and adding $43 billion to the U.S. economic output in 2019 alone.

I am proud to also cosponsor the Flex Fuel Fairness Act which would provide a meaningful incentive for automakers to manufacture flex-fuel vehicles in addition to battery-powered electric vehicles. This would offer more options to consumers and unlock increased use of lower- carbon liquid fuel blends which contain higher levels of ethanol, including E85 and E30.

Flex-fuel vehicles are the exact type of domestically supported transportation solution that Congress and the Federal Government should be incentivizing. Let's encourage these vehicles to be used, not Chinese-mined batteries.

Not only will the EPA's proposed regulation severely limit consumers' choices for affordable vehicles that fit the need for average Americans, an overreliance on EVs would have drastic consequences to our national security. Up to 90 percent of the electric vehicle battery supply chain comes from the Chinese Communist Party. For the foreseeable future, until 2032, at least 67 percent of all forecasted battery cell manufacturing will be controlled by China. In contrast to China, the United States has 7 percent of the global battery production capacity.

The batteries that power EV require critical minerals, including lithium, cobalt, nickel, graphite, and manganese. The key component here is cobalt.

Mr. Speaker, 73 percent of the global cobalt output is produced by the Democratic Republic of the Congo, and that is mined by children. The Chinese Communist Party controls over two-thirds of the global production of cobalt.

Mr. Speaker, it is imperative that we understand that if we go through with this measure, then we are essentially sanctioning child slavery. That is unforgivable.

In fact, this bill does something, something, something. It is for the moms and dads who are driving their children to school. It is to prevent these children from having to work in slavery. It also supports our farmers who feed the world.

Mr. Speaker, I would like to note that Congress has provided $7.5 billion for electric vehicle chargers, and they have built zero so far.

According to this article recently published by Politico, the United States has around 180,000 chargers today according to the Energy Department, including 41,000 of the type of chargers that can alleviate what they are calling range anxiety. They expect that the U.S. will need 1.2 million public chargers by 2030 to meet the demand, including 182,000 fast chargers.

Again, I would say this rule is not ready for prime time. We don't even have the vehicle charging stations available, and we don't expect that if zero have been built, we will meet that demand.

BREAK IN TRANSCRIPT

Mrs. HOUCHIN. Mr. Speaker, I would just like to note that the criticism that this bill does nothing to address the spiraling cost of education is just not true. The cost of higher education always rises in connection with the availability of student loans.

Making student loans widely available with government backing has caused this wild cost increase in higher education, which has increased 4.6 times the rate of inflation since 1971.

Canceling student loan debt will not lead to reductions in the cost of higher education. It will, instead, likely have the opposite effect, encouraging colleges and universities to raise tuition and other fees, knowing full well that the cost of these items will ultimately be borne by the taxpayers.

Mr. Speaker, we have before us the opportunity to move legislation that could have a positive effect on the everyday lives of Americans. This is not nothing.

Whether it is the overreach of the bureaucratic state or protecting our colleges and universities from bad actors, the choice before us in this rule is clear: We must take action.

H.R. 4468, the CARS Act, protects American consumers, protects their freedom of choice, and does not give China the upper hand in the energy economy of the future.

We must let market forces work and American ingenuity lead the way, not pursue mandates and unrealistic green agendas that drive us off a fiscal cliff and pick winners and losers.

H.R. 5933, the Defending Education Transparency and Ending Rogue Regimes Engaging in Nefarious Transactions Act, or the DETERRENT Act, takes seriously our responsibility to carefully evaluate foreign partnerships, particularly with countries of concern.

We must ensure our adversaries are not given a platform within our classrooms to work against the United States, our values, and our interests.

H.J. Res. 88, the joint resolution nullifying President Biden's reckless income-driven repayment plans, will increase rather than decrease the cost of college. This Biden rule will effectively forgive nearly half of the student loan debt and cost taxpayers at least $138 billion over the next 10 years. Therefore, it is the responsibility of Congress to reject this rule as we continue our work to address the cost of higher education in the United States.

Mr. Speaker, I look forward to moving these bills out of the House this week. I ask my colleagues to join me in voting ``yes'' on the previous question and ``yes'' on the rule.

The material previously referred to by Mr. McGovern is as follows:

An Amendment to H. Res. 906 Offered by Mr. McGovern of Massachusetts

At the end of the resolution, add the following:

Sec. 4. Immediately upon adoption of this resolution, the House shall proceed to the consideration in the House of the resolution (H. Res. 178) affirming the House of Representatives' commitment to protect and strengthen Social Security and Medicare. The resolution shall be considered as read. The previous question shall be considered as ordered on the resolution and preamble to adoption without intervening motion or demand for division of the question except one hour of debate equally divided and controlled by the chair and ranking minority member of the Committee on Ways and Means or their respective designees.

Sec. 5. Clause 1(c) of rule XIX shall not apply to the consideration of H. Res. 178:
BREAK IN TRANSCRIPT

Source