Providing for Congressional Disapproval of the Rule Submitted By the Department of Energy Relating to ``Energy Conservation Program: Energy Conservation Standards for Walk-In Coolers and Walk-In Freezers''

Floor Speech

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Ms. CASTOR of Florida. Mr. Speaker, I thank the gentleman for yielding time.

Mr. Speaker, I rise in opposition to this Republican bill that requires businessowners to spend more money and use more energy.

Mr. Speaker, here we are at the end of March. It is the 83rd day since the Congress convened under the Republican majority, and Republicans haven't brought one bill to the floor of the House to help lower costs or tackle the cost of living for our neighbors back home.

Instead, Republicans have been singularly focused on crafting a massive tax giveaway for billionaires like Elon Musk that is paid for by ripping away health coverage from the people we love the most: kids, our parents, our neighbors who rely on skilled nursing, and people with disabilities who especially rely on Medicaid. It is wrong, and it makes life harder for people back home. It makes their lives more expensive.

People want answers, but Republicans have refused to hold townhalls. Many of them will not even answer the phone. At my townhall last week in St. Petersburg, people wanted to know why the administration and Republicans want to make it more difficult to receive Social Security rather than strengthen Social Security.

Instead of a wasteful, time-consuming, silly bill like this, why don't we work together and bring to the floor a bill that will strengthen Social Security? That would be a help to our neighbors back home.

I think what it comes down to is Republicans in Congress are out of touch with hardworking people. They are out of touch with their struggles. They want lower costs. They don't want bills like this that say you will pay more and our Big Oil friends are going to make more on their bottom line.

People are tired of being ripped off by the special interests and politicians who all have too much power here in Washington, D.C. This bill is another example of that. Republicans want to make it harder for businessowners to save money through energy efficient appliances.

Energy efficiency saves people money. It is pretty straightforward. It cuts costs. It cuts pollution. It encourages innovation. Specifically, electric bills for walk-in refrigerators and freezers are a huge line item for restaurants and grocery stores. Taking those savings away will increase costs for businesses, and these are costs that will be passed on to consumers.

Mr. Speaker, I want you to think about that the next time you are in the frozen food aisle of your grocery store. This is not right.

Overall, when the Department of Energy goes in and works with manufacturers and consumer advocates, they come up, they look at the latest technology, and then move forward on adopting a standard that will be in effect years from now. They look particularly at the cost savings overall, and the savings they estimate here are huge. It is $6.5 billion in utility bill savings over the next 30 years.

This also hits home in my community because many of the businesses and many of my neighbors are rebuilding from Hurricanes Helene and Milton. They were flooded out. They lost their appliances. Many businesses went on the fritz. It would be particularly helpful to know that they are going to save money over time as they make these major investments.

This is exactly what Congress intended when we passed the Energy Policy and Conservation Act. It was passed in 1975. We directed the Department of Energy to set and regularly update these standards.

Energy efficiency standards also incentivize innovation, and American manufacturers have traditionally led the way in innovation due to updated standards. By weakening these rules, we open our markets up to countries like China that manufacture low-efficiency products at the expense of American companies and American families.

The Department of Energy followed the law. They collaborated with manufacturers to ensure that the standards work. After all of this hard work, Republicans now want to swoop in and repeal these standards on coolers and freezers. They are, in essence, walking out on the cost savings at a time our neighbors really expect us to work together to lower the cost of living.

There is a larger issue here, and it is the fact that Republicans are ignoring the affordability squeeze. When Democrats were in charge, we did everything we could to help lower the cost of living. We passed a cap on insulin at $35 per month. We required Medicare to negotiate lower drug prices. We gave help on health insurance bills. We provided tax rebates and savings for appliances on electric bills.

This has led to a major manufacturing boom across the country of over 750 clean-energy projects and over 400,000 new jobs created all across America, many in Republican districts.

Since the Trump administration came in and started these illegal shutdowns and threatened new taxes through tariffs, the economy has stalled. Has anyone looked at their 401(k) lately? People are very uncertain.

Let's get back to business, standing up for hardworking Americans, standing up for businesses. Let's make sure we guard their pocketbooks and tackle the affordability squeeze together, rather than serve the special interests that all have too much power. Republican billionaires and Big Oil companies are the real winners when resolutions like this are passed and savings are ripped away from American consumers.

Mr. Speaker, let's stand up for the people for a change and not the powerful special interests. Let's stand up for their pocketbooks and vote ``no'' on this resolution.

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