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Floor Speech

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Mrs. CAPITO. Mr. President, here we go again. I rise today in this Chamber as President Biden and his administration enter yet another summer of executive overreach as the administration adds layer after layer of bureaucracy that spells negative consequences for nearly every aspect of American life. Actually, I just had the homebuilders in my office today making this very point--the West Virginia Home Builders Association.

Throughout the President's time in the White House, we haven't really seen much consistency except when it comes to his desire to grow the influence of unelected government bureaucrats or to defy congressional intent or to impose unnecessary rules, regulations, and redtape. These things will forever define his administration, and as of June 7 of this year, the 946 final rules imposed by President Biden have cost the American taxpayer over $1.6 trillion.

So, for President Biden and his administration, I would recommend a brief refresher on the history of the United States and the intent that inspired the Framers of our Constitution.

Our Founding Fathers were quick to recognize that power and authority vested in one body would create devastating costs for the future of our Nation. That was the motivation behind establishing separated powers, of creating a system of checks and balances across three equal branches of government. However, President Biden's advocacy for the growth of the administrative state has put this separation into question. It kind of goes against article I of the Constitution, which states:

All legislative powers herein granted shall be vested in a Congress of the United States.

Let's just take a few examples that we have seen recently of what I would consider to be outrageous overreach.

No. 1, first--something I have been very vocal about--is the EPA's Clean Power Plan 2.0, which will eliminate coal-powered generation completely, but it will also block new natural gas plants from coming online in the future. Don't ask me how we are going to power the Nation.

This rule from the EPA is meant to put coal and natural gas employees out of work and shutter those baseload power plants once and for all.

Next, we have the final rule from the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services that imposes burdensome Federal staffing mandates on long-term care facilities.

This is something that could be incredibly harmful to rural States like mine. Now, safety is first in a long-term care facility, but unattainable employee requirements like this one would force many of our rural nursing homes to shut their doors, especially as rural health facilities are facing staffing challenges all across the country.

Then there is the Biden HHS rule that endangers the safety and well- being of unaccompanied migrant children.

Currently, migrant children who enter into the country illegally without an adult are detained and placed in the Unaccompanied Children Program. The HHS rule that I am referring to includes many harmful practices like optional sponsor-vetting. That is the refusal to consider a sponsor's criminal record. So we are going to put children into the care and sponsorship of people, and we are refusing to see if they have criminal records. Think about somebody who has a history of abuse or neglect or somebody who has a drug problem. We wouldn't know. And there are weak standards for post-release home studies to determine a child's status or safety once the child is in the custody of that sponsor.

There are many heartbreaking stories we see with the border crisis, but this exploitation of children is one of the most devastating. I would add we have seen article after article about child labor and child trafficking that is occurring, and the administration is changing a rule to make it less protective of those children.

Over at the Department of Commerce's Bureau of Industry and Security, they have an interim final rule that targets U.S. businesses that support America's use of their Second Amendment rights. Specifically, it restricts the ability of American firearm--ammunition--and related component manufacturers to obtain a license to export their products for sale.

Aside from the fact that it is unlawful, the interim rule will have a negative impact again on these American manufacturers, their suppliers, and the jobs that they support.

Additionally at the EPA, we saw the coal combustion residuals final rule, also known as coal ash, that imposes retroactive and costly regulations on coal ash management at inactive coal-fired powerplants.

This highlights, yet again, another anti-energy rule from the Biden administration that would throw our power grid into even more uncertainty. The volume of these efforts truly goes to show the broken rulemaking process of this administration. It underscores the President's bureaucratic blunders and his administration's ineffective style of governing.

While each rule may seem unrelated to one another, they strike a common cord. President Biden's administrative state is out of control. They would rather impose harmful regulations--remember, I said 900 of them--that would restrict America's rights and make life more difficult for our families than work with this Congress on pragmatic solutions, and they further escalate the hidden tax generated by these regulations--a tax that often receives too little attention.

The growth of the administrative state has distorted the way that policy and policymaking and lawmaking works right here in Washington, DC. This shifts away from letting Congress legislate; it openly defies the basis on which our country was built; and it takes the power away from the people. When you take the power away from the Representatives, you are taking power away from the people. Remember, the Constitution starts with ``We the People.'' It does not start with ``We the Administration'' or ``Me the President.''

I encourage President Biden and my colleagues in Congress to recognize that.

So, if we look at the summer bucket list, you will see--I talked about all of these--eliminate coal power, check; block new natural gas plants, check; add burdensome Federal staffing mandates on long-term care facilities, check; restrict Second Amendment rights, check.

The President's summer bucket list has been fulfilled already, and we don't even have summer officially here yet.

So while President Biden and his bloated bureaucracy attempt to put major restrictions on American energy, decimate the healthcare workforce for our seniors, tax and spend their way to higher prices, cast our southern border into chaos, and put restrictions on Americans' constitutional rights, Senate Republicans will continue to fight and hold the administration accountable and return authority to the American people on the issues that impact them every single day. That is why we were sent here. That is what we were sent to do.

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