Scalise: This Government Control Is Out-of-Control
WASHINGTON, D.C. — Today, House Majority Leader Steve Scalise (R-La.) spoke on the House Floor to express his support of several bills meant to curb Washington’s brazen attempts to regulate the daily lives of Americans. Leader Scalise highlighted several bills that would defend the free choice of Americans and their Second Amendment rights. Leader Scalise also discussed the Regulations from the Executive in Need of Scrutiny (REINS) Act, which would create strong accountability measures for unelected bureaucrats seeking to push restrictive, left-wing policies without the approval of Congress or the American people. Leader Scalise slammed the Biden Administration for pushing policies that would also impose enormous costs on American families struggling under its tax-and-spend agenda.
Click here or the image above to view Leader Scalise's remarks.
Leader Scalise’s remarks:
“I rise in strong support of this bill [Congressman] Armstrong brings forward – a really important bill that follows with a number of other pieces of legislation you’re seeing on the Floor. You’re seeing tomorrow, [Congresswoman] Lesko’s bill dealing with the same issue: the idea that the federal government wants to ban gas stoves.
“I think most Americans, Mr. Chairman, are looking all across the country saying, ‘Okay, inflation is still skyrocketing for families, energy costs are skyrocketing for families, you're paying 50 percent more at the pump when you fill up your car.’ By the way, [the Biden Administration] want[s] to ban the combustion engine – not through a Congressional act – but through unelected bureaucrat regulations to get rid of gasoline-powered cars. It's all part of this government-control agenda that we're seeing from this administration.
“The Biden Administration – it seems like – every single department. It seems like [the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau] here, it's [the] Department of Energy over there, it’s [the Environmental Protection Agency] in another place trying to tell people what they can and can't do with their lives. What kind of stove you can use in your house? For goodness’ sake.
“I mean the gas stove, first of all, if you just look at the premise of what they're trying to do to ban the gas stove, which means you then have to use an electric stove, [or] maybe a coal stove they would support. I don't know. But if you – let's say you are choosing between a gas stove and electric stove. We already know the gas stove is cheaper, so they're targeting lower income families and raising the costs on lower income families. Taking money out of the pockets of families who can least afford it but then, if you look at the energy side of this, and I know this administration – more than any I've ever seen – has issued an all out assault on American energy. Not all energy. President Biden didn't cancel every pipeline. He canceled the Keystone Pipeline and American pipelines, but he greenlighted Russia's pipeline.
“He didn't cancel all fossil fuels in America or around the world. He said he just wants to make it harder to produce fossil fuels in the United States of America, but then he went and begged Putin to produce more oil. He went and begged Saudi [Arabia] to produce oil, [then] Venezuela. So it just seems like, over and over again, it is American energy that they go after.
“But if you get rid of the gas stove, you are not getting rid of natural gas. Most places – a lot of places – get their electricity from natural gas. So you’re going to ban the gas stove and then you're going to take your electric stove – you don’t plug it into a tree, you plug it into a socket that’s probably fueled by natural gas. What an irony, but they are going to probably try to ban that, too.
“Who are the people that come up with these ideas, that are sitting around in a room – not trying to figure out how to lower inflation, not trying to figure out how to get spending under control, not trying to figure out how to secure America's border – they're trying to figure out how to take the choices away from Americans, whether or not you can even buy a gas stove. They’re trying to take away the Second Amendment rights of disabled veterans on a bill we'll be voting on later tonight on pistol braces, something that was designed for military veterans who – risking their lives for our country – got so injured that their arms weren’t able to use and hold a weapon like most people do. So they came up with these braces to help them exercise their Second Amendment constitutional rights. They want to get rid of that, too, and make felons retroactively out of millions of Americans.
“This government control is out-of-control Mr. Chairman, and it's about time we pushed back. You're seeing this week – this whole week – we're bringing in bills, as we have in the past, to finally start standing up for those hardworking families who are struggling. They're sick and tired of a tax on their freedom and their opportunity by this federal government. Today, it’s gas stoves. A couple of weeks ago, [the] EPA start[ed] coming up with rules they haven't even finalized yet to try to ban the combustion engine. If you want to do these things – these are major, major changes that will affect peoples’ lives adversely.
“I used to watch ‘How A Bill Becomes [A] Law.’ I think most Americans watched that, too. Hopefully they still teach civics in school instead of hatred of America, which they seem to want to do all the time, but it used to be that, if you want to change the way something works, you file a bill. You go talk to your Member of Congress, and you file a bill. You go to Committee [and] you explain your idea. If it’s a really dumb, nutty idea, it gets voted down.
“Well, I guess they got voted down so many times they decided, ‘Why go run for Congress?’ They just got into the unelected bureaucracy, where they can just come up with these ideas and there's no accountability which, by the way, is why we’re bringing the REINS Act later this week: a bill that says or any kind of change, from an unelected bureaucrat that affects your life – these hardworking families who are sick and tired of waking up going, ‘What did the government do to me today, and how am I now going to now live my life, and have my freedoms when they’re trying to take [them] away at every different angle?’
“And the REINS Act says, if an unelected bureaucrat does that, they have to come before Congress first, the elected people that are held accountable – every two years, we’re on the ballot. If it’s a really good idea, present it in public view on C-SPAN. Can anybody tell me who the person is [who] came up with this rule? It's going to affect every American's life. No one can name who they are. Why don't you make them come? It’s a great idea. They should be proud to present it, in open view like this forum is right here, and tell everybody what it’s about. And if we vote it up, it becomes law. If we vote it down, the dumb idea dies. And yet, that's not how it works, which is why we need things like the REINS Act but, this unelected bureaucracy – these big-government socialists that want to control every aspect of your life – we're sick and tired of it.
“We need to pass this bill, we need to pass the pistol brace bill, tomorrow we need to pass [Congresswoman] Lesko’s bill, we need to pass the REINS Act and the Chevron deference bill. That’s just this week. Every single week we're seeing this administration go after the rights of hardworking people and they're sick, and they're tired of it. I am glad this Republican majority is standing up for those families who are struggling, and they're tired too. Let's get this done, let’s pass this bill.”