Choice in Automobile Retail Sales Act of 2023

Floor Speech

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Mrs. DINGELL. Mr. Speaker, I rise today in strong opposition to H.R. 4468, the Choice in Automobile Retail Sales Act. I love my colleagues on the other side, but it is just disappointing that, yet again, another Republican messaging bill is coming to the floor intentionally to mislead and harm the American people.

Even the United Auto Workers, who my colleagues say they are helping, say that this bill seeks to inject American union-made vehicles as a wedge issue in the culture war.

I remind my colleagues, some of whom are young while some of us are seasoned, that it was years ago when gas prices went up and consumers wanted smaller cars. Japanese carmakers were prepared, and our domestic auto industry was flatfooted. We weren't ready to build small cars, and we took a beating.

We cannot make that mistake again. We need to be ready to innovate, build these electric vehicles now, and do so in a competitive way.

This bill is a blatant attack on the EPA and on our ability to, and how we will and must, compete in a global marketplace. It prevents the EPA from finalizing recently proposed new standards for light- and medium-duty vehicles, which will save consumers up to $12,000 over the lifetime of their vehicles. It will also reduce fine particle pollution that not only harms our environment but leads to increased asthma attacks, heart attacks, strokes, lung cancer, and premature death.

To be really clear, EPA is not imposing an electric vehicle mandate. EPA's standards actually would expand vehicle choice by accelerating innovation in hybrid and fully electric vehicles and promote American manufacturing to keep us from relying on our adversaries. In total, EPA estimates that the net benefits of these standards would exceed $1 trillion.

The bill we are debating will have widespread harmful effects on the future of our auto industry. What scares me the most is this is going to enable China even more to potentially lead the global EV transition.

I ask my colleagues, are we going to help China do anything? I am not. I will not cede American leadership to anyone. We cannot let future mobility be dictated to us by foreign competitors when we are the ones who put the world on wheels.

Mr. Speaker, we must continue to invest in our EV transition so we don't lose to China.

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Mrs. DINGELL. Mr. Speaker, I have talked to those dealers. The dealers aren't opposed to EV vehicles. There is a rulemaking, and the rulemaking needs to take their input into consideration.

I am a car girl. I was born one, raised one, worked in it, and my district depends on it.

Let's get serious. We need to get to work, and blocking our domestic auto industry from innovating is no way to lead.

Mr. Speaker, I urge my colleagues to oppose the bill.

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