Floor Statements

Madam Speaker, this should be a happy occasion because major telehealth legislation is being brought to the floor on its own. Finally.

As a co-chair of the bipartisan Congressional Telehealth Caucus, my fellow caucus members and I have been pushing for telehealth to be recognized for its true value for years. Years.

So here we are, and those of us who are leaders on the Congressional Telehealth Caucus, the Energy and Commerce Committee, Ways and Means, and are all longtime champions for telehealth reforms, we have been completely left out of the process.

The product we have before us today is a small step in the right direction, but the American people deserve better. This legislation, conceived in a last-minute deal, is, sadly, a missed opportunity.

This legislation, well, frankly, it looks familiar. It removes geographic restrictions, enables telehealth access in the home, protects telemental health services--reforms we have been seeking for years now.

But it is time to decouple important telehealth reforms from this never-ending public health emergency. Kicking the can down the road another year-and-a-half, as this legislation does, just isn't sufficient.

During COVID-19, temporary telehealth expansion was a real bright spot. It eased burdens on a strained medical system, protected at-risk patients, and in rural Appalachian districts like mine, I heard from countless constituents who were very relieved that they could access care from their home instead of the common half hour or even longer to drive to the appointments they needed.

Now, Madam Speaker, it is time for permanent reforms. I am proud to have introduced H.R. 8493 with my colleagues Vern Buchanan and Michelle Steel to make real long-term reforms to telehealth. This, coupled with the additional alternative proposals my colleagues have offered today, would do just that.

Clearly, as you can see, Madam Speaker, the Speaker of the House has the will to take on this challenge. But this bill on the floor today? Well, I am going to support it, but I am afraid it is just a start. We have more to do.

Madam Speaker, I thank the gentleman for yielding time.

Madam Speaker, I rise in opposition and urge my colleagues to oppose the Levin amendment. What most concerns me about this amendment is subsection (c), which extends last year's incineration moratorium on all PFAS in firefighting foam and does not fix the underlying drafting problems from that enactment.

Specifically, the scoping provisions in section 343 do not limit the moratorium only to the Department of Defense but captures ``materials sent to another entity or entities.''

In doing so, this ban continues to present ambiguity about who is subject to the incineration moratorium, potentially extending the temporary ban from just the military to any entity or person.

Moreover, this amendment contravenes the Federal law governing these matters: The Resource Conservation and Recovery Act. Practically speaking, if the executive or judicial branches of our government adopt this interpretation, it would have profound policy implications on waste, storage, and disposal practices in our country.

Of greatest concern, a policy like this has the real potential to overwhelming existing landfill capacity and leave few viable disposal options for Americans.

Again, I urge my colleagues to oppose the Levin amendment.

Mr. Speaker, I rise in opposition to the amendment.

Mr. Speaker, as I said, I rise in opposition to the Ross amendment, and I urge my colleagues to join me.

This amendment would be an implementation nightmare for the EPA, and the regulated stakeholders would have no choice but to comply or try to comply.

The current provisions of the Toxic Substances Control Act require the EPA to issue final regulations compelling anyone who manufactured PFAS--back to 2011--to report detailed information about the chemical and its manufacture to the EPA.

Last fall, the EPA already proposed regulations to implement TSCA section 8(a)(7) and began taking public comment on it. The proposed regulation uses a definition of PFAS that is structural, and the agency believes it will capture 1,364 PFAS chemicals.

The Ross amendment would massively expand the EPA's definition of PFAS to any PFAS containing at least one fully fluorinated carbon atom. Just going off of EPA's master list of PFAS, the number of PFAS covered could jump from slightly over 1,300 to more than 12,000--that is a 10- fold increase.

In addition, the Ross amendment makes no changes to the deadline the EPA must issue these regulations, meaning the EPA will have to scrap its current rulemaking and expedite a new one that gives very little opportunity for public input.

Furthermore, under this amendment, the universe of new parties that would need to report is unknown and could be huge. And because of the retroactive nature of the reporting requirement, there may not be complete records to fulfill the amendment's broad reporting mandate.

Mr. Speaker, I reserve the balance of my time.

Mr. Speaker, like so many other amendments that I have heard here tonight, this is one that really befuddles me that it is in the NDAA. This is something that should be adjudicated in the jurisdiction of the Energy and Commerce Committee, not something that we should be trying to tag onto the NDAA.

This amendment simply tries to do too much, too fast, and too soon. It dispatches the scientific assessment of the agency about how to address it and disregards the public's input on the process.

Mr. Speaker, I urge a ``no'' vote on the Ross amendment, and I yield back the balance of my time.

Mr. Speaker, I rise today in support of H.R. 2472, to honor John Armor Bingham, a man who played an important role in advancing a more perfect Union for all Americans.

Bingham first came to Cadiz, Ohio, in the early 1800s as a teenager. While studying law at Franklin College, he befriended former slave Titus Basfield, the first African American to graduate college in Ohio.

Bingham's commitment to advancing liberty and equality for all can notably be attributed to Section 1 of the 14th Amendment to the United States Constitution, which he drafted. This amendment is the foundation for many famous Supreme Court decisions that have advanced liberty.

Additionally, he represented the great State of Ohio in Congress, served as a House manager for the impeachment of President Andrew Jackson, and was appointed by Abraham Lincoln as Judge Advocate of the Union Army.

While John Armor Bingham's legacy remains enshrined in the pages of the Constitution, I hope this body will see fit to honor John Bingham by renaming the Cadiz, Ohio, post office after him.

Mr. Speaker, I urge a ``yes'' vote.

Madam Speaker, I thank my colleague for yielding.

This is such a huge problem. There are so many different paths we could go down with this discussion. It is so big of a crisis that it is almost impossible to get it all articulated well within one Special Order series.

Madam Speaker, late last month, the CBO released its ``May 2022 Budget and Economic Outlook.'' This is the first time the CBO has produced a baseline that properly incorporates the runaway, destructive inflation that is ripping through our economy today.

According to the CBO report, inflation is not going anywhere anytime soon except up. This is a dramatic change from the insistence of the President, the Treasury Secretary, and my Democrat colleagues that inflation is merely transitory and is nothing to worry about.

They are, in fact, so out of touch that they have begun to change their narrative. They now claim that Americans are financially prepared--get this--financially prepared to weather $5 a gallon gasoline, skyrocketing energy costs, and grocery prices that would have been unthinkable just 18 months ago.

Now, I am not sure what Americans they are talking to, but they are not talking to Americans who live in Appalachia where I live--seniors who live on fixed incomes and others who struggle to make ends meet in this high inflationary period. But inflation is not just a sticker- shock sensation. It will have ripple effects throughout the economy. Debt will continue to rise to 110 percent of GDP over the next decade.

Don't be fooled by President Biden's propaganda claiming victory on debt reduction either. CBO projects that deficits will be $2.4 trillion larger over the next 10 years. The more President Biden continues to pour gasoline on the inflation fire with his failed policies, the more that number is going to keep growing.

Madam Speaker, we must get our fiscal house in order. The American people have to live by a budget, and the American government should live by a budget, too. The United States does not have a revenue problem, we have a spending problem. And the first step in fixing this problem is to fix our broken budget process.

That is why I am proud to be a cosponsor of H.R. 2575, the TRUST Act, to establish special rescue committees to begin developing recommendations and legislation to protect and ensure the longevity of Social Security and Medicare. These are some of the country's main drivers of our debt. They are mandatory spending programs that are absolutely out of control. Doing nothing about it is not an option.

I am also, as was mentioned, the co-lead on a bipartisan debt and deficit working group as a member of the Problem Solvers Caucus, and I am willing to work with anyone, Republican or Democrat, to find real solutions to ensure Medicare and Social Security are around for our children and our grandchildren to benefit from in the years to come.

Madam Speaker, this is a big problem. I look forward to hearing what my colleagues have to say tonight. We need bold ideas to address the fiscal crisis that looms in front of us.

Madam Speaker, I hereby remove my name as cosponsor of H.R. 3807.

Madam Speaker, for my colleagues to continue to advance this narrative that there are some 9,000 permits out there waiting to be drilled demonstrates the naivete of the oil and gas industry and it is just, frankly, disingenuous.

And to make the statement that Vladimir Putin is responsible for the skyrocketing cost of gasoline, what a joke. Gasoline was going up before Russia ever invaded Ukraine because of President Biden's policies.

Madam Speaker, I rise to oppose the previous question so we can immediately consider H.R. 6858, the American Energy Independence from Russia Act. I was proud to work on this legislation with Ranking Member Rodgers and the Energy and Commerce Committee.

Madam Speaker, we all saw it today, President Zelenskyy pleading with the United States and the West to do more to punish Russia for these atrocities and halt Putin's assault on innocent Ukrainians.

It is obvious that the United States and Europe need to do more. But sadly, more, much more, could have been done before this invasion, and I believe it could have all been avoided.

Madam Speaker, you will hear a lot today that energy security is national security. Well, ain't that the truth.

Our European allies, after years of rushing to green, weather- dependent, unreliable energy, and shutting down their own energy resources, have come to learn this the hard way. Their green priorities led them to greater and greater dependence on Russia, to the point that they could do virtually nothing as Russian tanks rolled into Ukraine.

Let's not make the same mistake here in America. We can't make our energy supply and the energy supply of our allies dependent on some of the worst people in the world.

This legislation would put us on a better path. It would restart the Keystone XL pipeline; reopen our Federal lands and waters to access our abundant natural resources; and it also includes a provision, legislation that I authored, to cut the red tape and unleash American liquefied natural gas exports, which our allies in Europe are currently clamoring for; ultimately, to get out from under the boot of Putin's energy dominance.

There is still time to make things right, Madam Speaker, so I am urging this Chamber to consider H.R. 6858 immediately.

Madam Speaker, I was unavoidably detained during this vote, but had I been present, I would have voted YEA on Roll Call No. 70.

Madam Speaker, I thank the gentleman for yielding.

Madam Speaker, America is hurting, with painfully high gas prices, rampant inflation for everyday goods, from groceries to clothing, and it looks like it is going to get much worse before it gets better.

How did we get here? Well, some say it was the pandemic, others say it is the war in Ukraine. Well, what if I told you this has been going on for quite a long time?

In 2017, Republicans in Congress started an investigation into Russian interference. No, not that Russian interference, but real interference into the debate over American energy.

Let me explain. The Biden administration is right now trying to distance itself from their anti-coal, anti-oil and gas actions and policies. Their war on affordable, reliable energy, blocking pipelines, slowing permits, and promoting an ill-advised rush to green.

You see, Europe tried this already, walking headlong into dangerous energy dependence on Russia. The results of that are now clearly evident. We see it playing out in the horror unfolding in Ukraine.

Europe could have taken a path of self-reliance if it wasn't for their politicians caving to radical activists to rush renewables and cutting off their own reliable energy resources like nuclear, oil, gas, and coal.

France banned fracking in 2011; Bulgaria in 2012; the Netherlands in 2015; Germany in 2017; the U.K. in 2019. All the while becoming more dependent on Putin's Russia for reliable energy.

Well, what if I told you that Russia sent at least $95 million to radical green groups in Europe who helped achieve these goals?

The investigation I mentioned earlier conducted by the Republican-led Science, Space, and Technology Committee, uncovered evidence that Russia may have done and is continuing to do the same thing right here in America.

It is time to reopen that investigation. I sent a letter today to the relevant committee chairs to do just that.

Throttling back our own American energy resources is exactly what Vladimir Putin would want us to do.

To borrow a term from the Cold War, Madam Speaker, let's not be fellow travelers with the green agenda. Let's reopen that investigation into potentially real Russian interference.

Madam Speaker, I thank the gentleman for yielding.

The Bible, wow, what a book. You know, Billy Graham said in the 1950s in one of his early books called ``Peace with God,'' he said:

There is one thing that has never changed since day one of

creation. The truth has always been the truth, and it always

will be. There is only one place to go to find that truth,

and that is in God's Holy Word, the Bible.

You know, I think our Founders understood that nearly 2,000 years before Billy Graham ever spoke those words on the floor of the Constitutional Convention. Benjamin Franklin, in a moment of frustration because they were at an impasse trying to write the Constitution of the United States, brought focus to what was happening on the Convention floor. He was recognized by the President of the Convention, George Washington, and he stood up and said these words:

I have lived long, sir, and the longer I live and the more

I see, the more convincing proof I see of this truth that God

deals in the affairs of men. And if a sparrow can't fall from

the sky without His notice, how do we think it probable that

an empire can rise without His aid?

Other Founders understood where the truth was to be found. John Adams went on to say:

The Constitution of the United States is a document

designed to govern a moral and religious people, and it is

wholly inadequate for any other.

I believe that is because our Founders understood that to be a self- governing people, we had to be grounded in our faith. We had to be self-responsible people and that there were no more self-responsible people on the planet than those who lived by the truth contained in the Scriptures.

My prayer for our country and for each of us today is that we would live by the prayer that Paul prayed to the church in Ephesus:

That God would send His Holy Spirit to give us His wisdom

and His revelation that we might know Him better because it

is only knowing God better that we can understand the truths

that lie in that precious book, the Bible.

Madam Speaker, this administration's assault on American energy--oil, natural gas, and coal--is causing energy prices to surge. They say they are doing this to address climate change, but make no mistake, this is not about carbon, it is about control. President Biden and his liberal allies in this body do not want our Nation to return to the energy independence we had just 2 short years ago because it means they would have less control over our daily lives.

They want working families to feel economic pain in order to force them to change their behavior and reject fossil fuel generated electricity.

Consider this. Gas prices are up 61 percent over last year.

It is estimated American families could face a 54 percent increase in their home heating bills this winter.

When asked about its plan to lower energy prices, the Biden administration essentially told us that high energy prices are punishment for using fossil fuels--oil, gas, natural gas, coal--and that sacrifices must be made to make progress on the climate crisis, something China and Russia are absolutely not willing to do.

Surging energy prices in the Biden administration's out-of-control government spending that is causing inflation to surge to more than 6 percent is causing everything to cost more, from gasoline to groceries.

Yet, while this Thanksgiving could be the most expensive in history, one administration official called this inflation tax a ``high-class problem.''

Put simply, when inflation increases, wages decrease. Everyday goods cost more. It hurts the poor, the middle class, our seniors, and those living day-to-day on a fixed income the most.

Make no mistake, hardworking Americans can't afford this administration's agenda and its complete lack of compassion and respect for working families any longer.

I urge my colleagues to stand up to this administration's far-left social reengineering agenda and the assault on fossil fuels that will continue harming the very Americans they claim so much to want to help the most.

Madam Speaker, there is a major disconnect between political elites here within the Washington beltway and the hardworking Americans that live beyond it.

The American people in Virginia spoke loud and clear Tuesday. Those serving in this building and at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue would be wise to listen.

Americans want less government in their lives, not more. They are sick of mandates. They are tired of being called racist. They are worried about the increasing lawlessness in our cities.

They are angry their fellow Americans were left behind in Afghanistan. They are frustrated that more of their paychecks are being taken from them at the gas pump and the grocery store. And they distrust a media that arrogantly dismisses their concern.

They are facing a bleak holiday, a cold, expensive winter, and a down-sized American Dream. And they know full well the bigger Washington gets and the more it spends, the less freedom they have.

The President's agenda isn't about protecting the climate, providing vaccines, healthcare, or education funding. It is about control. And the American people are seeing through it.

Mr. Speaker, the cost of everything is spiking, from gas to groceries.

One of the main reasons for these spikes is that energy costs are soaring. Affordable, reliable energy fuels our economy and our daily lives.

But some of my colleagues don't like the affordable, reliable energy that has built our economy and lifted billions of men, women, and children around the world out of poverty. Why? Because this energy has been provided by fossil fuels and nuclear power, energy sources vilified by many wealthy elites and the activist class, those least impacted by these high prices.

Make no mistake, when pipelines are blocked, new leasing on Federal lands is stopped, and mines are forced to close, working families pay the price.

This rush to green is a tax on working families, the middle class, because a larger part of their paychecks is consumed by these increasing prices on items necessary for daily life.

The American people should know, this race to green is not really about carbon. It is about control.

Mr. Speaker, I rise today in opposition to this harmful methane resolution. It is just another example of this majority's and this administration's ever-changing ``support our global competitors at the expense of America's workers'' energy narrative.

They say they don't want to ban hydraulic fracturing, interfere with American energy dominance, or increase supply chain dependence on China, but with their renewed Obama-era regulations, the cancellation of America's pipeline projects, and proposed bans on domestic plastics manufacturing, it is clear they have an ulterior energy plan that might as well have been written in Moscow or Beijing. And the American taxpayer is footing the bill.

As oil and gas prices rise with our country reopening from the pandemic, there should be an increase in new wells being drilled and rigs being brought online to meet demand, but reports suggest this is not the case.

Under pressure from radical environmentalists, coupled with the risks of an uncertain regulatory environment, American oil and gas producers are reducing drilling investments, costing jobs, and increasing the likelihood of continued price spikes at the pump and at the grocery store.

While Democrats continue their assault on America's hard-earned global energy dominance, our adversaries have positioned themselves to take advantage of America's absence at the leadership table while also making a profit.

In just the latest example, President Biden lifted sanctions on the completion of the Nord Stream 2 pipeline, Putin's pipeline, which will be operational soon, sending Russian gas to Europe and billions into Putin's pocket.

While he lifts sanctions on the Russians here at home, the President is, in effect, imposing sanctions on America's energy workers, all without Russia or China having to lift a finger.

America's energy security--in effect, our national security--cannot depend on President Biden's weak leadership any longer.

Mr. Speaker, you can just add this methane resolution to the long list of President Biden's predictably terrible policy solutions. Not only are we better than this, but we are smarter than this.

I urge my colleagues to oppose this measure.

Mr. Speaker, I rise today in support of the U.S. Anti-Doping Agency Reauthorization Act.

I thank my colleague, Representative Thompson, for his hard work to get this important legislation across the finish line; and I thank Ranking Member McMorris Rodgers for yielding time.

The United States Anti-Doping Agency, or USADA, has worked hard to ensure that our athletic programs are the best in the world, and also the cleanest. Critical to maintaining that success is ensuring our athletes are competing fairly, without the use of performance-enhancing drugs, which is why I have introduced the U.S. Anti-Doping Agency Reauthorization Act.

USADA must have the resources it needs to ensure the integrity of its programs and advance the American values of sportsmanship and playing by the rules on the global stage.

In addition to funding the agency, this legislation adds a special focus on clean sport training for young athletes and their coaches, and enables USADA to better coordinate with Federal law enforcement.

With the Olympics and other international sporting events just around the corner, I urge my colleagues to join me in supporting this bill.