Saving Homeowners From Overregulation with Exceptional Rinsing Act
Floor Speech
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Ms. CASTOR of Florida. Mr. Speaker, I thank the gentleman from New Jersey for yielding the time.
I rise in opposition to H.R. 4593 with a great concern that House Republicans simply do not care to work on any solutions to lower the cost of living for our hardworking neighbors back home.
In 2025, House Republicans failed to bring one bill to the floor to lower the cost of living or to tackle the high rate of inflation, but here is some good news actually: By tomorrow, thanks to House Democrats and a handful of Republicans who stood up to their Speaker, the House will vote to lower the cost of healthcare coverage for millions of Americans. That is a little bit of good news.
If Americans were hoping that Republicans in Congress would start 2026 off with some relief for their pocketbooks, I am sorry to report that, no, Republicans are not bringing bills to lower the cost of living.
I congratulate my Republican colleagues, their first bill of 2026, to set the tone, is to address showerheads. This is critical. You heard that right. It is ridiculous, isn't it? It is so out of touch.
The President promised he was going to cut Americans' power bills in half, but since he took office last year, electric bills are up by 13 percent across the country, and they are much higher in some places. There are 80 million Americans who are struggling just to pay their electric bills. In Florida, the Republican-controlled utilities commission just approved the highest rate increases in the history of the country--they are calling them that--a $6 billion rate increase.
Across the country, folks are facing about $86 billion in electric rate increases, so hold on to your wallet. Rather than help, Republicans have only made things worse. They have gone along with arbitrary tariffs that have raised the cost of living and taken a hatchet to cleaner, cheaper energy. They have gone along with illegally halting energy projects. They ended tax cuts and rebates that helped people afford their electric bills in order to pay for tax breaks for billionaires.
They are out of touch.
Folks in the Northeast are worried about their rising electric bills because the President in December arbitrarily terminated five offshore wind projects that were under construction. That energy onto the grid would have helped keep the pressure on lower electric bills.
The President canceled final approval for what would have been the Nation's largest solar farm, a 6.2 gigawatt project in the Nevada desert. He illegally ended low-cost solar installation for working- class families that would have helped them and their family budgets.
The President now has canceled major upgrades to the power grid out of the bipartisan infrastructure law, such as the Grain Belt Express transmission line.
Republican policies now--we are adding it up--have cost Americans about 266 gigawatts of planned electricity generation projects in 2025 at a time when there is a surge of new demand for electricity across the country. They are out of touch.
Speaking of being out of touch, of course, the President doesn't believe there is an affordability crisis. He has called it a hoax. The real issues for the President are shower pressure, redecorating the White House, and so much more.
Yes, it was last April that the President thought it was so important he issued an executive order to end the Obama-Biden war on water pressure and make America's showers great again. He is out of touch. However, he urged Congress to codify that order, so that is what we are doing here tonight on the first bill of 2026 by this Republican majority. Are they serious?
What has been the President's focus during all this time he has called the affordability crisis a hoax? Well, he paved over the Rose Garden. He has torn down the East Wing of the White House to make way for a grand ballroom funded by people who have business in front of the Federal Government.
I haven't been over to the White House, but all of the pictures show 24 karat gold ornamentation all through the White House. He has installed marble floors. I have seen him tweet that out. He has also added his name to the Kennedy Center.
For those of you who haven't come to Washington, D.C., he has put banners of his picture up on Federal buildings. He is proposing to put his likeness on gold coins.
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Ms. CASTOR of Florida. Mr. Speaker, I think you get my drift here. It was so galling as people are trying to pay their electric bills and their grocery bills that the President here is bragging about how he has redone the Lincoln bathroom, yes, with gold showerheads.
We don't need to redefine what constitutes a showerhead. We don't need to weaken energy and water conservation measures that help people save money. We don't need to make life more expensive for hardworking neighbors back home. We don't need to boost foreign manufacturers who want to import inferior products to the U.S., but that is what they are doing.
No, in 2026 we are going to need real solutions. I beseech my colleagues to work with us to tackle the high cost of living. You can look back on 2025 now; Federal spending is up. They added $2 trillion to the national debt and they have lost manufacturing jobs when you add it all up. Now their answer on the first bill of the Congress in 2026 is showerheads. They are out of touch.
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