Providing Congressional Disapproval of the Rule Submitted By the Environmental Protection Agency Relating to ``California State Motor Vehicle and Engine Pollution Control Standards; Heavy-Duty Vehicle and Engine Emission Warranty and Maintenance Provisions; Advanced Clean Trucks; Zero Emission Airport Shuttle; Zero-Emission Power Train Certification; Waiver of Preemption; Notice of Decision''

Floor Speech

BREAK IN TRANSCRIPT

Mr. JAMES. Mr. Speaker, I thank Chairmen Guthrie, Congressman Griffith, and their staff for their professionalism, especially on moving this important measure forward.

Mr. Speaker, I rise to speak in support of H.J. Res. 87, my resolution of disapproval to overturn the Biden administration's California Advanced Clean Trucks rule.

Mr. Chairman, I am kind of disappointed but not surprised at my colleagues' lack of understanding for exactly what we are trying to do here. I would expect bad-faith negotiations here and elsewhere. Let me highlight a couple of points that we have heard over the recent few minutes.

Let's talk about lowering prescription drug costs. I wonder what my colleagues think about our truck drivers and how their lifesaving drugs get to their constituents. I wonder if they just appear out of thin air, or maybe the trucks that carry these things will actually just get there on unicorn tears, hopes, and dreams. That doesn't happen.

We actually need trucks to get our lifesaving drug medications to the pharmacies at lower costs. Mr. Speaker, if you increase the number of trucks required because you increase the payload capacity, you are going to actually do more harm than good.

Let's talk about infrastructure. Apparently, my colleagues think we are doing nothing to address infrastructure when literally their plan will contribute directly to crumbling infrastructure due to the heavy weight of these trucks. They could also crash into barriers, which would endanger lives. This would make sure the number of around 45,000 fatalities in this country would increase. I wonder how many American lives they would sacrifice on the altar of their Green New Deal initiatives.

How do we pay for these roads, Mr. Speaker? We pay for these roads with gas taxes, and the gas taxes that these gas trucks would not be paying would take directly from the funds that we need to build our roads all across the country.

In addition to air pollution, Republicans care about clean air. We care about clean water. We also care about common sense. Maybe in California they can plug their trucks into a tree, but in the rest of the country we are relying on an energy grid that is still at least half reliant on an all-of-the-above approach where we have economic, reliant energy and we are still including things like natural gas and coal.

These are the types of things that happen in the real world, and common sense applies in other areas outside of California. In Michigan, we are not afraid of the future, but we demand to be a part of it. America called on us during two World Wars and a global pandemic, and my legislation ensures Michigan stands ready to answer the call once again.

My family is no stranger to how important the trucking industry is. My father started a trucking business with one truck, one trailer, and no excuses. Then a generation later, I started a trucking company during the COVID pandemic.

He grew up in the Jim Crow South and moved to Michigan in search of opportunity and for the American Dream. Tooth and nail, he fought harmful regulations and misguided rules that would have prevented his company from ever getting off the ground.

More than 50 years later, his son stands before the United States House of Representatives to continue the fight against harmful regulations and misguided rules that put thousands upon thousands of livelihoods at risk.

This Biden rule is not just bad policy, Mr. Speaker. It is the scam of the decade to put California's failed EV policies in charge of the entire trucking industry in Michigan and the United States. Does anyone in this Chamber actually believe that this is the United States of California? Perhaps Californians do, but in Michigan we do not want to be dictated by Sacramento. There are about 49 other States that would agree.

Gavin Newsom may be content with being the number one State for declining population, losing nearly 1.2 million Californians from 2020 to 2023. Mr. Speaker, I assure you that I am not. This Biden-era waiver allows California to ram its comply-or-die, zero-emission truck rule down the throat of the American trucking industry, essentially gutting the trucking industry all across Michigan and across the country.

It is a Green New Deal mandate that will crush our trucking industry and drive costs up on everything and increase deaths on our highways. Those are facts.

This policy, if left unchecked, would mandate truck manufacturers only sell expensive, less reliable, zero-emission trucks, no exceptions, no choice. This is going to increase the number of trucks required, which is going to increase the cost of everything from gas to groceries.

The death of the American trucking industry is not just an unintended consequence of this radical California policy. Mr. Speaker, it is the goal. They intend to set unworkable emission standards that will cripple our supply chains and make it impossible for tens of thousands of trucking companies to do business because they are unwieldy and inconvenient.

This policy is unsustainable, unrealistic, and a job killer. Most importantly, it will end lives. Telling the Michigan trucking industry and all other industries that they are willing to move forward with this policy is unacceptable.

Today, the House of Representatives will send a resounding ``no'' to the radical left and a resounding ``yes'' to the middle class, to our job creators, to our employers, and to our truckers who keep America running.

Mr. Speaker, I urge my colleagues to do simple math, use common sense, and put this Biden-era California waiver to bed once and for all.

BREAK IN TRANSCRIPT

Source