Department of Defense Appropriations Act, 2025
Floor Speech
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Ms. TENNEY. Mr. Chair, I rise to offer my amendment No. 163 to the Defense appropriations bill to prohibit funding for President Biden's executive order No. 14019 titled: ``Executive Order on Promoting Access to Voting.''
This executive order requires Federal agencies to use their power, influence, resources, and Federal funding--taxpayer cash--to enter into agreements with nongovernmental organizations, third-party organizations, to conduct voter registration and other voter mobilization activities, including vote harvesting.
Mr. Chair, this executive order is nothing but a blatant attempt to transform the Federal Government into a partisan, get-out-the-vote machine for Democrats.
The Department of Defense should be completely nonpartisan and should not be using taxpayer funds to actively engage in get-out-the-vote operations that have nothing to do with the core mission of the Department of Defense, not to mention the obvious mission creep and Hatch Act violations this activity would trigger.
Mr. Chair, President Biden should not be weaponizing the Federal Government's spending using American taxpayer dollars to manipulate and steer our election in a partisan manner.
As the cofounder and the chair of the Election Integrity Caucus, it is my privilege to introduce this amendment to restore transparency and confidence in our Democratic process while keeping partisan Federal bureaucrats and the swamp, literally, from deliberately tipping the balance at the ballot box.
I stand firmly behind the concept of one citizen, one vote, as enshrined in our Constitution. However, I do not support this blatantly partisan mobilization of the Federal Government for political purposes, especially at such a critical time in the world.
The Department of Defense should be laser focused on the missions at hand and countering our adversaries such as the Chinese Communist Party, not implementing a partisan get-out-the-vote initiative.
Mr. Chair, I urge all my colleagues to support amendment, which will preserve election integrity, stop the Biden administration from transforming the Department of Defense into a get-out-the-vote partisan machine for the Democrats. Let's make voting great again.
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Ms. TENNEY. Mr. Chair, with all due respect, our Constitution clearly states the administration of elections is in the province of the States. It is not for the Federal Government to use Federal agencies to coordinate with third-party partisan groups using taxpayer dollars in order to get out the vote for Democrats.
The mission of our Department of Defense is to protect and secure our Nation, not to get the vote out. We encourage and want every member of the military who is an eligible citizen to vote in our elections.
We do not want our taxpayer dollars used in a partisan way for a vote harvesting scheme conceived by the Democrats and by this executive order.
First of all, this is mission creep. The Department of Defense has to focus on its very serious mission. This is germane. We are using taxpayer dollars and military members, people paid under the Department of Defense, to work on vote harvesting schemes, not on their mission of protecting the American people.
I encourage all of my colleagues to vote for this amendment and make voting great again and make our free and fair elections once again possible in the United States of America.
I yield back the balance of my time.
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Ms. TENNEY. Mr. Chair, I rise today to offer my amendment to prohibit any funding to finalize, implement, or enforce the Federal Acquisition Regulation, known as FAR, 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 FAR Council has numerous constitutional, national security, and practical concerns, none of which have been adequately addressed by the FAR Council nor the Council on Environmental Quality who have pushed for this rule.
First and foremost, this rule requires all Federal contractors that do more than $50 million worth of business with the Federal Government to disclose all scope 1, 2, and 3 emissions.
This rule also seeks to require major Federal contractors to comply with the Paris Climate Accords, which has never been ratified by the Senate.
The most objectionable part of this rule is the requirement that companies set climate targets and have them validated by one specifically named company called Science Based Targets Initiative, or SBTi. SBTi is a foreign entity based in London, which inherently carries national security concerns.
Under this rule, every major Federal contractor, including companies critical to our national security and our defense industrial base, would have to provide this foreign company with information about all of their scope 1, 2, and 3 emissions and then strategize on how to reduce them.
Despite the existence of numerous American and U.S.-based companies that could fill the same role, the FAR Council and CEQ, Council on Environmental Quality, chose a foreign entity as the named sole-source provider.
Why? Because SBTi is nothing but a front for Democratic donors and advocacy groups. SBTi is owned by the We Mean Business Coalition, which is a project of a new venture fund, which is managed by none other than 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 a subsidiary of one of its top donors, a leftwing dark money organization, 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 SBTi was a poor choice for this role, yet the Biden administration forged ahead anyway.
I look forward to continuing my work with Chairman Lucas, Chairman Obernolte, and all of my colleagues on the Science, Space, and Technology Committee to get to the bottom of this rule's creation and halt its implementation.
Mr. Chair, I urge all of my colleagues to support this amendment, and
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Ms. TENNEY. Mr. Chair, with all due respect, the gentleman is wrong about this amendment. It simply states that the amendment defunds and causes us not to fund the implementation of this particular rule. It has nothing to do with climate change. It has nothing to do with any of those allegations he has just set forth in his prepared notes. It is all bluster.
This rule is about the fact that this is a sole-source contract. SBTi was incorporated after the rule was actually made. They were looking, trying to find a company that they could use that would get the answers they wanted. There is no choice for any American company. No U.S.-based company in this category has a choice. They must use this Arabella dark money super-PAC money umbrella that is funded by leftwing George Soros and all these organizations in order to get their contracts approved.
There isn't a choice. You can't go to anyone else. Even the Democrats in the Science, Space, and Technology Committee admitted there was no other choice. Here is a company created after the fact that they needed somewhere, somebody to validate what they wanted, not to determine what the actual science was. This isn't a debate about climate change. It is a debate about science and making sure that our companies have their secrets secured, that they are with American-based companies that we can provide oversight for, and that the Department of Defense can provide its oversight.
It is not about some kind of climate issue. It really doesn't address that at all. It really addresses national security concerns. It addresses the problem that we have a company that is foreign owned which is requiring American-based companies to disclose only to them, with no choice, a sole source.
This is not actually acceptable under DOD rules, and that is why we want this particular rule to be held up until we can get other options for our U.S.-based companies that ensure the security of the American people. This is a sad attempt at trying to politicize, again, the Department of Defense under the guise of some kind of climate rule.
Mr. Chair, I yield back the balance of my time.
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