Energy and Water Development and Related Agencies Appropriations Act, 2026
Floor Speech
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Mr. PERRY. Mr. Chairman, I might sound like a little bit of a broken record here, but, unfortunately, the broken record of $37 trillion in debt and climbing continues as well, so we have just got to keep at it.
First, the Great Lakes Authority has only been authorized since 2022. It still does not have a Federal co-chair, so nobody is in charge. It has no website, and it has no programs funded. They haven't done anything.
They haven't spent any money making any lives better, yet, strangely, it is still receiving Federal dollars to the tune of $4 million for projects allegedly in the watershed of the regions of Illinois, Indiana, Michigan, Minnesota, New York, Ohio, Pennsylvania, and Wisconsin.
The commission's programs are duplicative of other Federal economic development programs and are better addressed at the State and local levels. That is even if they do any projects, which they don't. They just get money.
Mr. Chairman, we have seen how the other commissions have gone. President Trump urged the elimination of many of them, and President Obama also recommended the elimination. With that level of bipartisan criticism of existing commissions, I don't see why we need to dig ourselves even deeper with another one, more debt, more projects that are supposed to be done by others, and no Federal nexus, but here we go.
I know that people in the building will scoff at the difference of $2 million and $4 million, but for folks where I live, $2 million and $4 million is a lot of money.
Remember, Mr. Chairman, whether it is four or two, no projects are being completed at this time by this organization. That is a lot of money to be throwing around at a commission that is duplicative and, obviously, unnecessary.
Furthermore, all of us here know it is not going to stop at $4 million. This commission, like all the rest, will balloon up to tens of millions of dollars unless somebody puts their foot down. I am going to stay on this mission to try and save the taxpayers some money.
It is great for people on the commission to be Santa Claus and hand out your money to somebody else, but you are the one paying for it, Mr. Chairman. Don't have any illusions about that.
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Mr. PERRY. Mr. Chairman, there are a lot of things I agree with the gentlewoman from Ohio about. We have hardworking people. Whether they are in Harrisburg or in Ohio, they are working-class people. I am one of them, having spent most of my life turning wrenches, laying in ditches, and things like that. We know how to work in Pennsylvania.
Where we agree, apparently, but we can't say, is that the Federal Government broke it, shipping our jobs overseas, not only in the gentlewoman's communities but in my communities.
Of course, the Federal Government did that with our tax dollars. Then the Federal Government is going to come back in after they broke it and use our tax dollars to tell us that they are fixing it.
What I am saying is that these programs are being done by other Federal agencies. We don't need yet another one on top of them to take our money and have it sit in some account.
Oh, by the way, when the gentlewoman says that no one has been appointed by the executive branch, this thing was started years ago while somebody else was in the executive branch and didn't appoint anybody.
Please don't lecture me on how Donald Trump isn't appointing someone to this when President Biden had the opportunity and somebody could have autopenned it but couldn't be bothered.
Mr. Chair, we need to support this amendment. I urge passage, and I yield back the balance of my time.
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Mr. PERRY.
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Mr. PERRY. Mr. Chair, this amendment fully defunds DOE's Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy, or the EERE.
This amendment is offered because we simply cannot continue to fund the destruction--and that is what it is--of the U.S. energy grid to satisfy a climate cult.
The FY 2024 minibus gave this office $3.5 billion. While the underlying bill cuts funding down to $1.9 billion, we need to defund it entirely. Why are we fooling around here, taking half of it? This thing doesn't do anything good for anybody.
This office's mission under the last administration was to ``equitably transition America to net-zero greenhouse gas emissions economy-wide by no later than 2050.''
What does that mean, net zero? What that means is everything that you see--the clothing you are wearing, the car you are driving, the cell phone you use--disappears in America because we can't make any of that stuff because it requires emissions. We will still have it, so we will just offshore that stuff to everybody else, including China. That is a brilliant plan.
If we look at wind and solar, it funds wind and solar, which are actively destroying the power grid. They are the least reliable sources of power and the most expensive. Nobody would use them, and nobody would produce them, if they weren't subsidized by your tax dollars. It funds zero-emission vehicles that only the wealthy can afford and depends on supply chains dominated by China.
It actively promotes divisive concepts like energy equity and environmental justice, which allocate tax dollars based on immutable characteristics. Are you serious? This is America?
While we successfully ushered in the end of the Inflation Reduction Act, we have to continue because there is plenty more to do. Over 90 percent of the subsidies from this organization went to corporations that make over $1 billion per year.
I am going to tell you who is going to defend it. Not me. Some people over there, some people over here will, but not me. With $1 billion per year, these subsidies could make wind and solar account for nearly 60 percent of U.S. electricity generation by 2050.
People say that is great. Isn't that good? It is good if you don't care if you can't turn the lights on because the wind is not blowing and the sun is not shining. We are going to have rolling brownouts and blackouts because that is what is going to happen, like in California. Americans in the 21st century are going to become used to it. We are going to normalize living in the seventh century instead. Of course, all of this makes us wholly dependent on China for our power.
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Mr. PERRY. Mr. Chair, President Trump won the election and requested that Congress slash the funding for this office. This amendment does exactly that and deals with this out-of-control agency.
Historically, this office was responsible for some of the most egregious rules regulating the lives of Americans. Previous regulatory actions undertaken include air cleaners, fans and blowers, dehumidifiers, commercial clothes washers, and conventional cooktops. Who in the hell do these people think they are? We are Americans. We ought to be able to choose whatever we want to, yet they tell us what we can have and what we can't have. I am not sure what country you think you live in or what it should be, but it shouldn't be this.
Mr. Chair, I still urge adoption of this amendment, and I yield back the balance of my time.
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Mr. PERRY. Mr. Chair, I demand a recorded vote.
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