Floor Statements

Mr. Speaker, I rise today to honor Kaitlyn Peterson for her service to the House Committee on Energy and Commerce.

A graduate of the University of Minnesota and native of Massapequa, Long Island, New York, Kaitlyn began her career in Washington, D.C. as a Staff Assistant and Deputy Scheduler for former Chairman of the House Committee on Energy and Commerce, Rep. Fred Upton (MI-06). She later became his Legislative Correspondent and Special Projects Director before joining the House Committee on Energy and Commerce as Lead Legislative Clerk for the Subcommittee on Energy, Climate, and Grid Security and the Subcommittee on Environment, Manufacturing, and Critical Minerals under Chair Cathy McMorris Rodgers. She then joined my team and became Policy Analyst for the Subcommittee on Environment where she led the committee efforts behind H.J. Res. 87, H.J. Res. 88, and H.J. 89 which were signed into law in June of this year.

After serving the U.S. House of Representatives for nearly four years, Kaitlyn will depart the House Committee on Energy and Commerce to take a position with the Senate Committee on Environment and Public Works, handling a portfolio of energy, fish, and wildlife issues. I thank her for her service to the committee and wish her well in her new endeavor.

Mr. Speaker, pursuant to House Resolution 879, I call up the bill (H.R. 3109) to require the Secretary of Energy to direct the National Petroleum Council to issue a report with respect to petrochemical refineries in the United States, and for other purposes, and ask for its immediate consideration in the House.

Mr. Speaker, I ask unanimous consent that all Members may have 5 legislative days to revise and extend their remarks on this legislation and to include extraneous material on H.R. 3109.

Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume.

Mr. Speaker, the American economy is fueled by petrochemical refineries

providing affordable diesel and gasoline to families, critical inputs for our manufacturers, and products imperative for the maintenance of our defense systems.

The national security component of a viable refining industry cannot be overstated, and we must not forfeit these essential supply chains.

Under the previous administration, we saw the impact of an energy retreat: higher prices for families and businesses, emboldened adversaries, sluggish economies, and increasing reliance on other nations.

Unfortunately, this is still the case in States like California, where a hostile regulatory environment has forced refineries to reduce operations. In fact, the Golden State is expected to lose 17 percent of its capacity in the next year. This has led to an average gasoline price of nearly $5 per gallon, an increased fuel dependence on Asian producers, and jeopardizing the fuel supply chain of military installations in their State.

We must not let this become status quo across the country. H.R. 3109 requires the National Petroleum Council to collect and examine information regarding the role of petrochemical refineries in the United States and their contributions to affordability, security, and reliability. The report will assess opportunities to expand capacity as well as current risks to refineries.

H.R. 3109 will provide the Committee on Energy and Commerce the information we need to enact policies to deliver affordable, reliable, and clean energy to all Americans.

I thank Representative Latta, the chairman of the Energy Subcommittee, for his leadership on this issue.

I urge all of my colleagues to support H.R. 3109, and I reserve the balance of my time.

Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume.

When I was a young man in the 1970s--when I was a kid, I guess, in the 1970s--I remember gas lines and having to push my father's car to get gasoline. At the time, everybody said we were going to run out of crude oil. That was the thing, running out of crude oil.

I appreciate the gentleman bringing up the crude oil issue. It is actually because of the ingenuity of the American people that we have an abundance of crude oil. The issue isn't crude oil. It is the refining capacity.

Since I was a kid, we found this abundance of crude oil in the Permian Basin, North Dakota, and all the places I can name. We have more oil than they have in the Middle East, which, when I was a kid, a lot of it was coming from the Middle East.

Then, you have this chokepoint of refining capacity. We haven't built a new refinery in the United States since I was a kid, so that is the thing that we want to address. That is the issue we want to address. We do want prices to go down. We don't want it to be $5 a gallon.

I was putting gas in a rental car in California, and I looked over at the guy next to me. I paid probably $2.60 a gallon in Kentucky, and I think it was $4.80 there. I said: Do you guys have any idea what the rest of America is paying for gasoline?

We are here to address it, and we are addressing it by a bill authored by my good friend, the chairman of the Energy Subcommittee, a member of the Energy and Commerce Committee, and a leader in this arena.

Mr. Speaker, I yield 3 minutes to the gentleman from Ohio (Mr. Latta).

Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume.

It is frustrating that we lost 42 days because our side of the aisle wanted to open the government and wanted to have the government operating. We

wanted to sit down and work through the issues before us, not choosing to not fund the government.

I was always embarrassed to even look in the eye--I voted for all of it--to go see a TSA agent at the airport in Nashville in my home State of Tennessee where I fly out of, the FAA people going to work at the airport. I was embarrassed coming here and seeing the people sitting in front of us here, the people guarding the doors of the Capitol building, with no respect, having them come to work without respect and paying them. That was extremely frustrating to me. It is just beyond pale that that happened.

On the Epstein files, the Speaker tried to come and unanimous consent the Epstein files. Remember, last week he came down and said let's pass the Epstein files, and the other side of the aisle objected to it. I don't know why they would object to passing the files.

They held it up for several days. I know there were a few rallies that happened, and then we all voted. It was 427-1. Were they trying to get the Epstein files out, or were they trying to make sure people got in town for their rallies? That is what I would like to know.

The National Petroleum Council that we are referring to in this bill is a part of the Department of Energy. All through government, we have councils of people that are experts in their fields who come to D.C. The Department of Labor has them. People from the labor community come and have councils to give advice on bills.

We know we have ample crude. We know the ingenuity of the American people to have ample crude. What we are talking about today is where 40 refineries in California have gone to 14. If you want affordability, not only do you have to be able to get the crude out of the ground, you have to refine it to where we can use it.

As we are shrinking refining capacity in this country and increasing demand, if we don't increase supply, we are not going to have affordability. You can talk about affordability all you want, but you have got to have the supply to address it. That is what we are focused on doing today.

We want the experts to give us their information. We don't have to do what they say. We want to take their information, take the good ideas and try to implement them into where we can provide lower prices.

If you think this doesn't work, come buy gas in Kentucky. Then go to my good friends who are sitting here from California and buy gas in their State, then tell us what does efficient energy policy do for affordability. I will challenge them to do that. I will say you can buy the most expensive gas in Kentucky, and we will compare that to what is going on in California.

Mr. Speaker, I yield 2 minutes to the gentleman from Georgia (Mr. Carter), my good friend and very important member of the Energy and Commerce Committee.

Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume.

Mr. Speaker, I appreciate my friend from California, and I actually do love going to California. I haven't been in the bay area in a couple of years, and we will figure out an opportunity to come there. My family tries to go to California as much as we can. I know he is from the beautiful bay area. Actually, when I was talking about the high price of gas, it was down in southern California, which has its own beauty, as well.

I am a fan of California. Other than Kentucky, I think California is one of the prettiest States we have in the Union. From the redwoods to the Yosemite Valley, it is absolutely stunning. I absolutely would love to come back out to the bay area because it is beautiful, as well.

In this bill, we are talking about electricity prices. China is building the electric car industry, but they are also building the power generation, like a coal plant a week, I think, to provide the energy for that.

This bill we are talking about is on gasoline and diesel. Remember, everything that arrives to a store comes on a truck. Sometimes they come on a train, but the last mile is almost always or is always a truck. Diesel prices, fuel prices, matter in terms of food prices and about everything else that we consume.

This is important to do. Electric affordability is also important to do, and we are committed. We will work together to get our prices down, but we have to produce more.

That is what we are wondering. How do we efficiently, effectively, safely, and cleanly produce more gasoline and diesel? You can't do it without more refining capacity unless you decrease demand for it. That is not the avenue we have to go, either.

Mr. Speaker, I yield 2 minutes to the gentleman from Texas (Mr. Weber), my good friend and the vice chair of the Subcommittee on Energy of the Committee on Energy and Commerce.

Mr. Speaker, I yield an additional 1 minute to the gentleman from Texas.

Mr. Speaker, as I mentioned, other than the Commonwealth of Kentucky, California is one of those beautiful States in our--they are all beautiful, actually. We live in a wonderful country. There is nothing prettier than the tunnel view from Yosemite Valley.

I don't know, with your lines changing so much, but I know my good friend from California used to represent our beautiful natural resources in the National Park of Yosemite Valley. He still does.

Mr. Speaker, I yield 2 minutes to the gentleman from California (Mr. McClintock), my good friend and a classmate elected the same year.

Mr. Speaker, I yield 2 minutes to the gentleman from California (Mr. Fong), who is from Bakersfield, California, and was elected just recently to Congress.

Mr. Speaker, I yield myself the balance of my time to close.

Mr. Speaker, we are all concerned about rising prices. My friend from New Jersey talked about since 2022, and he said the emphasis is on what has happened in the first few months of this year.

The decisions were made prior to the present Trump administration to take power offline. I know in my community down in Bowling Green, Kentucky, a few years ago with the polar vortex, we actually had blackouts, we had to have rolling blackouts because of taking power offline.

We all want to address it. The way we address this is not taking power offline, not building new, safer--my good friend from California talked about what they are doing in California to make refineries cleaner and safer, and that is what we want. We want refineries to refine in a safe, responsible, and sustainable way. We can work together to do that.

On the LNG we are going to talk about in just a few minutes, we do have the gas in our country. We have people who can develop, particularly in your home State, Mr. Speaker. The problem is, can we move it to where it needs to go. We know the challenge isn't the access to gas, it is actually moving it to where it needs to be.

We need to work together. I think Natural Resources today had a markup, T&I is working on a markup, and we hopefully can work together as Members across the aisle in the Energy and Commerce Committee to do our share to make sure this explosive growth of energy is not just in gas and diesel but also in electricity. We need every electron we can produce to beat China.

Talking about China, China is struggling and working as hard as they can to beat us to control the data that flows around the world through AI. It

is our job on this committee to see that that doesn't happen for this country, and that is because we have to have enough energy.

Again, this is a Department of Energy council, made up of people in the industry, to give us a report to see where we should go in making sure that America has proper refining. It is not a report that is going to produce what we do. It is the kind of report that informs us in what we do. I know on our side of the aisle--I think on both sides of the aisle--we try to take as much information as we can to make a reasonable decision to make sure we have clean, sustainable, but ample and safe fuel for this country in order to get groceries to the grocery store, either through diesel or gasoline.

Prices matter. It hurts families when their electric bills are high and when their grocery bills are high because people have to eat and they have to have a safe and clean place to live. This is what this is about. This is what our struggle is over, and this is what we are going to accomplish as a committee.

Mr. Speaker, I encourage a ``yes'' vote on H.R. 3109, and I yield back the balance of my time.

Mr. Speaker, pursuant to House Resolution 879, I call up the bill (H.R. 1949) to repeal restrictions on the export and import of natural gas, and ask for its immediate consideration in the House.

Mr. Speaker, I ask unanimous consent that all Members may have 5 legislative days to revise and extend their remarks and include extraneous material on H.R. 1949.

Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume.

Mr. Speaker, in February 2016, the first cargo of U.S. LNG set sail from the lower 48, making the United States a natural gas exporter for the first time since the 1960s.

Since then, exports have increased from 5 billion cubic feet per day in 2016 to nearly 12 billion cubic feet per day in 2024, making the U.S. the global leader in LNG in less than a decade.

U.S. LNG has played an undeniably important role in providing affordable, abundant, and clean energy to the world. This could not have been more evident than in 2022, when Russia invaded Ukraine, disrupting global commodity markets and leaving Europe without secure access to energy.

Immediately, for our friends in Europe, U.S. producers began sending cargos of American gas to the Continent to fuel their economies and heat their homes, helping some of our most important global allies and friends.

However, in January 2024, the Biden-Harris administration announced an illegal and indefinite ban on new export authorizations, all in the name of vaguely stated climate change goals. Current law is clear. Requiring a statutory presumption in favor of exports are in the public interest.

Plus, the vast majority of studies show that not only do LNG exports boost our energy security but they also help maintain low domestic natural gas prices for Americans.

The Biden-Harris administration's action not only jeopardized our European allies but it threatened the faith and credibility of American companies' contracts. It emboldened Russia and other nefarious actors and created uncertainty for domestic producers of natural gas.

H.R. 1949, the Unlocking Our Domestic LNG Potential Act of 2025, would ensure this catastrophic policy decision is never made again by removing DOE from the statutory authorization process.

This legislation maintains the President's authority to impose sanctions on foreign governments, prohibiting imports or exports, if justified. Free trade, open markets, and competitions have resulted in the U.S. emerging as a global energy superpower. Lifting these restrictions will help maintain this dominance at a time it is needed most.

Mr. Speaker, I urge all my colleagues to support H.R. 1949. At a meeting a couple of years ago with people at the highest levels of the German Government, they said they needed American LNG gas to rain down on them because of what was going on in Eastern Europe and Ukraine.

High natural gas prices around the world fund the Russian Army. That is how they fund their army. It is not that friends are buying from them but, as the world price goes higher, the Russian price goes higher from the people who do choose to buy from them. We are not talking about affecting those people. The President still needs to have the authority. We are talking about our friends and our allies who are dependent on us.

I worry about what we do here in our country, but also America cannot cut itself off from the rest of the world and have our friends and allies look elsewhere to other people for the natural gas they need to run their economy. They will do that if we don't step in and do this at this time.

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

Mr. Speaker, this bill does nothing to prohibit the President, or whoever is President, from limiting LNG exports, sanctioning China, or tariffing China. There is no limit to that.

The people who are begging, I can tell you, Mr. Speaker, for our energy is Europe, who are our friends. I do know from just recently meeting with friends from Japan and Korea they want the natural gas that we have in our great State of Alaska. This is important.

The chairman of the Energy Subcommittee is a leader on this issue and has fought for reliable and sustainable energy.

Mr. Speaker, I yield 2 minutes to the gentleman from Ohio (Mr. Latta).

Mr. Speaker, there are still protections in place so the President can sanction and not send to any adversaries. What this does is prevent a President from suspending LNG gas exports for some reason at a time when our friends in Europe are literally begging for it, and I know our friends from Japan and Korea are asking for it.

Mr. Speaker, I yield 2 minutes to the gentleman from Texas (Mr. Weber), the vice chair of the Energy and Commerce Committee and my good friend.

Mr. Speaker, I yield 2 minutes to the gentleman from Georgia (Mr. Allen), a very valuable member of the Energy and Commerce Committee and my good friend.

Mr. Speaker, I yield an additional 30 seconds to the gentleman from Georgia.

Mr. Chair, I yield to the gentleman from Ohio (Mr. Balderson), another good friend. I am yielding to all of my good friends, but I yield to a very valued member of the Committee on Energy and Commerce.

Mr. Speaker, I yield 4 minutes to the gentleman from Texas (Mr. Pfluger), the sponsor of the legislation and a valued member of our committee.

Mr. Speaker, I yield 2 minutes to the gentlewoman from Florida (Mrs. Cammack), another distinguished member of the Energy and Commerce Committee.

Mr. Speaker, I will say that we want the world price produced by what we have here in our country. The price does fluctuate on a stop price day-to-day. However, just because we are sitting on massive reserves of natural gas where our friends in Europe are suffering, where our friends in Korea and Japan are asking for it, the argument is, if you don't export any natural gas, the argument some people seem to be making is the price would go down, but that is just not true because the producers are going to produce to world price. A real problem in price of natural gas is getting it distributed to where it needs to go and that is pipelines. I hope we can work together on permit reform.

Mr. Speaker, I yield 2 minutes to the gentlewoman from Oklahoma (Mrs. Bice).

Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume.

Mr. Speaker, I was actually in a meeting with Europeans at the highest level of government, and when they talked about needing more LNG exports from the United States and criticized the ban, somebody made the point that my friend just made to them and said: Well, I understand all of your terminals are full. You couldn't receive any more anyway. They said: We need the world price to come down. We have to have the world price come down.

Energy prices in Germany are three times what they are here. Could you imagine trying to compete in the global economy when energy prices are three times as high and when you have a neighbor just a few countries over that has an unprovoked and illegal invasion of another country?

We can't just dismiss that this is important to Europe as well just because they have full terminals.

Mr. Speaker, I yield 2 minutes to the gentlewoman from West Virginia (Mrs. Miller), my good friend from a neighboring State and a good neighbor.

Mr. Speaker, I yield 2 minutes to the gentleman from Texas (Mr. Babin), my good friend.

Mr. Speaker, I should have introduced my good friend from Texas (Mr. Babin) as a colleague and fellow chairman, the chairman of the Committee on Science.

Mr. Speaker, I yield 2 minutes to the gentleman from Texas (Mr. Arrington), chairman of the House Committee on the Budget, my good friend.

Mr. Speaker, I yield myself the balance of my time.

Mr. Speaker, the price is different around the world because of the way it is distributed. The price of natural gas is the price of natural gas. To use it, you have to get it to market. You have to have it there.

To use an example my friend from Illinois said, Mr. Speaker, that you have a real-world example, he said there was a terminal that went offline that was supposed to export natural gas. It burned, so it went offline. There was natural gas moving to that terminal. All of a sudden, for a few days, you had an excess of capacity of natural gas. The argument would be, we would have the same production of natural gas if we just shut down all of the ports. If you can use one as an example, if you shut them all down and continue to produce the same level of natural gas, the price would drop.

The issue is, there is a certain point where it costs you to produce natural gas. You have to reach that point. What we are saying is, there is a world price for natural gas. If you continue to expand markets for people to ship natural gas, you will continue to have natural gas, and they will continue to drill to meet those market demands around the world.

If you shrink the demand around the world artificially by banning the exports, then they are not going to produce as much natural gas, and it doesn't affect the price. You can point to times when there are disruptions in the supply, but overall, it is basic economics. That is how it works.

Mr. Speaker, also, you can call what President Biden did a pause as opposed to a ban, but I know from the time he implemented the pause or ban until President Trump came into office, you couldn't ship natural gas. Either pause it or ban it, I think that is saying the same thing.

Mr. Speaker, this is important. We do want to beat China. I have a tremendous amount of respect for my ranking member. We want to work together to beat China, and we are going to work together to beat China because that unites all of us. Everybody in this room and everybody in this Chamber wants America to be first. We are going to work together to do that.

I think this is important. We may disagree on this policy. I think it is important. I encourage my colleagues to vote for this bill, and I yield back the balance of my time.

Mr. Speaker, I rise today to honor Seth Gold for his service to the House Committee on Energy and Commerce.

A native of Cincinnati, Ohio and graduate of The George Washington University for both a Bachelor of Science in Public Health and Master of Public Health--Seth began his career on Capitol Hill as a Health Legislative Assistant for Dr. Michael Burgess (TX-26) in 2016 before moving to the Senate to work as Health Policy Advisor for Senator Rob Portman (OH) in 2017. In May 2021, Seth joined the Subcommittee on Health for the House Committee on Energy and Commerce when I served as Subcommittee Republican Leader, and later Subcommittee Chair, under Chair Cathy McMorris Rodgers. During his time under Chair Rodgers and myself, Seth was an invaluable Professional Staff Member and under his leadership--our committee strengthened Medicaid through the Working Families Tax Cuts, which established Medicaid work requirements and expanded home and community-based services to new beneficiaries.

After serving two Chairs and three Subcommittee Chairmen, Seth will soon depart Capitol Hill and move to Louisiana to serve as the Policy Director for the Louisiana Department of Health. I wish him the best, congratulate him on his new role, and thank Seth Gold for his service to the House Committee on Energy and United States Congress.

Mr. Speaker, I rise today to honor and remember the life of Danny Buckman.

A native of Lebanon, Kentucky, Danny Buckman was born on February 2, 1954, to Robert ``Bobby'' Ray and Mary ``Pauline'' Buckman. Danny was a lifelong farmer in Marion County who truly loved what he did--growing corn, soybeans, and tobacco, and raising hogs and beef cattle. Farming wasn't just his work; it was a way of life he took great pride in.

He was a devoted husband, father, and grandfather who found great joy in his family. Danny and his wife of 39 years, Sheliah, raised six children--Emily, Olivia, Ben, Katie, Laura, and Elizabeth--and were blessed with two grandchildren, Mia and Finley Ray.

Danny was a man of quiet faith and deep roots, a lifelong member of Our Lady of the Hills Catholic Church in Finley, Kentucky. Friends and family often said the same simple and powerful sentiment: ``Danny was a good man.'' One friend put it best--``He may have been a small man, but he was a big man when you needed him to be.''

On August 27, 2025, Danny Buckman passed away at the age of 71. My thoughts and prayers are with his wife, children, grandchildren, and all those who loved him as we remember and celebrate a life so well lived.

Mr. Speaker, I rise today to honor the life of my dear friend, Sheriff Jerry ``Peanuts'' Gaines. Sheriff Gaines dedicated his life to serving the Warren County community for nearly half a century. Prior to his service in law enforcement, Sheriff Gaines served our Nation in the United States Army and as a Warren County Magistrate. In 1978, Sheriff ``Peanuts'' Gaines was first elected as Warren County Sheriff, serving until 1982, and then was re-elected, serving from 1987 to 2018. His 41 years of service to our county made him the longest serving sheriff in the history of Kentucky. He was a five-time President of the Kentucky Sheriffs' Association, the 1995 Sheriff of the Year, President of the National Sheriffs' Association and the only Kentucky sheriff to ever serve as President of the Kentucky Association of Counties. Sheriff Gaines was also a founding member of the Kentucky Sheriffs' Association's Boys & Girls Ranch, which has served children in every part of the Commonwealth.

I offer my deepest condolences to the Gaines family, the Warren County Sheriff's Office, and to all who had the pleasure of knowing Sheriff Jerry ``Peanuts'' Gaines. His legacy will endure for generations to come. He will be remembered as a stranger to none. He exemplified his kindness and love for people daily. I thank him for selflessly answering the call to serve and devoting his life to making Warren County a better place. His service should inspire us all.

Mr. Speaker, I rise today to celebrate the birth of Reese Patricia Fritsch.

Reese was born on October 7, 2025 at 2:45 P.M. at Luminis Health Anne Arundel Medical Center weighing seven pounds, two ounces and measuring 21 inches long to loving parents Taylor and Kristin Flukey Fritsch, who serves as a valuable member of my team on the Subcommittee on Health for the House Committee on Energy and Commerce.

I'm grateful to have Kristin as a part of the Energy and Commerce family, and I'm excited for her and Taylor to start their family with their newest addition.

Mr. Speaker, I rise today to congratulate the Bank of Edmonson County for 100 years of service to its local community.

Founded on October 5, 1925, by brothers Jesse, Luther, and David Alexander alongside business paltners George Woodcock and N.E. (Ed) Vincent, this local financial institution has served the residents of Edmonson County well for a century. Their foresight during the 1920's, followed quickly by the trials of the Great Depression, laid the foundation for a community-focused institution that has not only endured but thrived. The Bank of Edmonson County has guided its customers through economic shifts, new technologies, and changing conditions with one main mission in mind: ensuring customers are its highest priority

Established with the goal of building a local bank to serve as a pillar of trust and local investment, 100 years later, they continue to focus on supporting Edmonson County and the surrounding area faithfully.

From its humble beginnings with just $15,000 in capital, the bank has grown into a $200 million enterprise, with locations in multiple counties in Kentucky. I congratulate the

Bank of Edmonson County for its 100 years of service.

Mr. Speaker, I rise today to honor and congratulate Mr. Stephen D. Austin, Assistant Chief of Army Reserve, on his retirement from the U.S. Army Reserve as a Department of the Army Civilian, Senior Executive Service Tier 3.

Mr. Austin's career is a testament to unwavering dedication and distinguished service. Over the course of 26 years in uniform and 19 years as a civilian leader, he has served in positions with increased responsibilities, culminating in his role as Assistant Chief of Army Reserve. A native of Oregon and a proud graduate of the United States Military Academy at West Point, Mr. Austin has left an indelible mark on the lives of countless Soldiers, Army civilians, and their families.

Even after retiring as a Colonel in the U.S. Army, Mr. Austin's passion to serve endured. In June 2015, he returned to the Army Reserve as a member of the Senior Executive Service, where he represented the Army Reserve in the formulation and synchronization of policy and strategy at the national, departmental, and service levels. His leadership has been instrumental in shaping the development of policy, resourcing, and plans that generate, sustain, and integrate Army Reserve capabilities in support of our Nation.

Mr. Austin's professionalism, integrity, and tireless commitment to service have been evident in every role he has held. His legacy is one of excellence, and his contributions have strengthened the foundation of our military and its future.

I also want to extend my deepest gratitude to his children--Sarah, Grace, Naomi, Camille, and Nate--for their unwavering support throughout his career. The sacrifices made by military families are profound, and their strength and resilience are vital to the success of our armed forces.

As Mr. Austin embarks on this next chapter, I wish him and his family a future filled with peace, joy, and well-deserved rest. The United States Army Reserve--and indeed, our Nation--is better because of his service.

I thank Steve for his extraordinary career and your enduring commitment to our country.

Under clause 2 of rule XIII, reports of committees were delivered to the Clerk for printing and reference to the proper calendar, as follows:

Mr. GUTHRIE: Committee on Energy and Commerce. H.R. 3632. A

bill to amend the Federal Power Act to adjust the

requirements for orders, rules, and regulations relating to

furnishing adequate service, to require owners or operators

of generating facilities to provide notice of planned

retirements of certain electric generating units, and for

other purposes. (Rept. 119-307). Referred to the Committee of

the Whole House on the state of the Union.

Mr. Speaker, pursuant to House Resolution 707, I call up

the bill (H.R. 3062) to establish a more uniform, transparent, and modern process to authorize the construction, connection, operation, and maintenance of international border-crossing facilities for the import and export of oil and natural gas and the transmission of electricity, and ask for its immediate consideration in the House.

Mr. Speaker, I ask unanimous consent that all Members may have 5 legislative days to revise and extend their remarks and include extraneous material on H.R. 3062.

Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume.

Mr. Speaker, North America has grown to be an energy superpower due to the robust trade of oil, gas, and electricity. As energy demand is projected to increase in staggering numbers over the coming years, the expansion of cross-border energy infrastructure throughout this integrated market will be important.

One challenge confronting the expansion of energy trade with Mexico and Canada is that Congress has not asserted authority to establish procedures for permitting cross-border infrastructure.

Cross-border infrastructure, especially oil and natural gas pipelines and electrical transmission lines, is essential to American communities across the Nation.

Instead of a clear statutory process, a myriad of executive orders over decades have provided the legal context for permitting procedures of cross-border energy infrastructure.

Under this permitting regime that has been cobbled together, the Secretary of State has the authority to issue Presidential permits for cross-border liquid pipelines; the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission, or FERC, for cross-border natural gas pipelines; and the Department of Energy for cross-border electric transmission facilities.

Unfortunately, this regime has subjected infrastructure permitting processes to the political whims of an administration, as we saw for 12 of the last 16 years under Presidents Obama and Biden. This can severely curtail America's energy.

H.R. 3062, introduced by the gentlewoman from North Dakota (Mrs. Fedorchak), would remedy these permitting inconsistencies by establishing a uniform process for authorizing energy infrastructure construction that crosses U.S. boundaries. Instead of the complex existing process, projects would simply be required to receive a certificate of crossing from the relevant agency for the border- crossing segment.

Nothing in this legislation alters additional permitting requirements of other statutes, like the National Environmental Policy Act or Clean Water Act.

It is past time for Congress to assert its authority and establish a modern and transparent process for cross-border energy infrastructure.

Mr. Speaker, I thank Representative Fedorchak for her leadership. I urge my colleagues to support this legislation, and I reserve the balance of my time.

Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume.

Mr. Speaker, before I introduce my next speaker, I will make clear that tariffs don't affect these products. USMCA-qualifying products, which is crude oil, natural gas, refined petroleum products, and biofuels, are tariff-free. Additionally, this legislation does not remove permitting requirements. All environmental and regulatory reviews of this infrastructure would continue. It is not accurate to say that we would go around any of the qualifying. The other side talks about us tipping the scales toward fossil fuel energy and dispatchable power, but theirs tips the scale toward wind and solar. I think we need all of the above, but when you say we are going to subsidize a more expensive power, that doesn't make power cheaper. Maybe in the short- term, but certainly not in the long run, and that is where we need to focus.

We do need to work together, as he said, to make sure we can do permit reform and produce the energy this country needs for AI and other things.

Mr. Speaker, I yield 5 minutes to the gentlewoman from North Dakota (Mrs. Fedorchak), my good friend and the sponsor of this bill and a viable member of the Energy and Commerce Committee.

Mr. Speaker, I yield 5 minutes to the gentleman from Georgia (Mr. Allen), a member of the Energy and Commerce Committee and the vice chair of our Communications and Technology Subcommittee.

Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume.

Mr. Speaker, I want to say that this does not replace any need for permits, so the idea that there would be no environmental review or any review for a

cross-border project approved by FERC or the State Department is just not accurate. That is not what the bill does.

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

Mr. Speaker, I yield myself the balance of my time.

Mr. Speaker, I appreciate the opportunity to be here and be here with my friend. Hopefully, we are going to be able to work on a lot of issues because we do care about the cost of electricity. I know they know we care about the cost of electricity.

If the Keystone pipeline is not going to happen, which by Presidential fiat didn't happen, we have to worry about future situations when we are in Congress. We don't just legislate about the past. We have to legislate for the future as well, and this is important.

Also, I am a big believer that we have to continue to have economic development and growth, and work in a fair way to make sure our products are being traded fairly as well with Canada and Mexico. This is an opportunity to do so.

In America, the one thing we have is ample natural gas. As a matter of fact, the price of gas is historically low now because of the oil development in the Permian Basin. An offshoot of it is natural gas. Because it has driven the price of gas so low, we have ample natural gas.

What we need to do and really need to work on--hopefully, we can work on together--is if you want to lower the price of electricity, which I assume we all do, is that the way you do that is by taking the natural gas that we have, converting it to electrons, and transmitting it out so people can have access to the electricity.

Mr. Speaker, that is where the expense is, not being able to permit, to move. To create electrons and then to move them is an expense, as well, as much as it is permitting the pipelines that we are talking about.

We are in a battle of our time. We are in a battle where we can choose to follow the regulatory state of Europe. We can't out-regulate Europe. We need to out-innovate China.

Mr. Speaker, this is the beginning of a series of bills. Hopefully, we can find a series of bills we can work on together. It needs to be all of us, together, focused on defeating China in terms of delivering the energy we need to do so. I encourage my colleagues to vote for this bill, and I thank Representative Fedorchak for bringing it forward.

Mr. Speaker, I yield back the balance of my time.

Mr. Speaker, pursuant to House Resolution 707, I call up the bill (H.R. 3015) to reestablish the National Coal Council in the Department of Energy to provide advice and recommendations to the Secretary of Energy on matters related to coal and the coal industry, and for other purposes, and ask for its immediate consideration in the House.

Mr. Speaker, I ask unanimous consent that all Members

may have 5 legislative days to revise and extend their remarks and include extraneous material on H.R. 3015.

Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume.

Mr. Speaker, I rise in support of the National Coal Council Reestablishment Act, introduced by my colleague from Ohio's Sixth District (Mr. Rulli).

This legislation would codify the National Coal Council, an important advisory committee that had aided our Federal Government for 37 years with expertise and technical reports on all matters affecting the coal industry and its workers.

The reestablishment of the National Coal Council couldn't come at a better time. It is no secret that our energy demands are rising. If the demand isn't met with sufficient supply, we risk ceding leadership in the next-generation economy to China, while raising costs on American households along the way.

We are seeing the demand for reliable electricity affect nearly every industry. At the end of the day, electricity policy is technology policy, and electricity policy is manufacturing policy.

There is one source of reliable electricity that has been powering American industry for many years. Coal-powered generation is a key baseload resource that even today can protect against upward price pressures and provide the right type of energy to fuel American innovation and the next-generation industries.

Unfortunately, the previous administration sought to deliberately undermine the financial viability of coal while subsidizing preferred sources like wind, solar, and batteries.

Instead of regulating one industry and subsidizing another to make it competitive, we need to get back to making things affordable in the first place.

The National Coal Council plays a critical role in developing a cohesive national energy strategy that will unleash American energy dominance to lower costs for hardworking households.

Mr. Speaker, I urge my colleagues to support H.R. 3015, and I reserve the balance of my time.

Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume.

Mr. Speaker, we are absolutely concerned about families making ends meet through cheaper electricity. There are also hardworking families in my Commonwealth of Kentucky who work in the coal industry and have been really hurt by the policies that came out of the prior administration.

This has been reinstated by the Trump Presidency. This ensures a future President can't again undo what we experienced in the last 4 years. That is the difference in where we are. That is why it is important that we are doing it.

Mr. Speaker, I yield 5 minutes to the gentleman from Ohio (Mr. Rulli), the sponsor of this legislation. He is a new member of the Committee on Energy and Commerce, and I am proud to have him on the committee.

Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume.

Mr. Speaker, I just want to say that over the next decade, we are going to

need 152 gigawatts of power. A gigawatt of power is about what is needed to power the city of Seattle, so 152 Seattles over the next decade is what is estimated.

We are also slated to close 112 gigawatts of power, so we need 152 gigawatts of power in the next decade. It takes years to get any project approved. Hopefully we can speed that up through permitting reform that hopefully we all can work on. However, when you need that much power and you have existing power, then why take it offline?

My understanding--I have had a couple of people bring this coal plant up that was just mentioned--is that the grid needed it for the summer because they were afraid they were not going to have enough power to get through the summer. It wasn't just that the Federal Government forced them to keep it open. The Federal Government allowed them to keep it open.

The first thing we can do to help our fight against China--that is what it is all about. We know either we have the scaling data centers here, or China is going to dominate. That is the only choice.

Europe can't do it. We know what happens if you overregulate and don't produce the energy. That is a good example right there from Europe.

We know we need the power or we are going to lose the great battle of our time of who is going to control AI and supercomputing, eventually quantum computing.

The very first thing we can do to really bridge that power gap is not take power offline. I think it is reasonable to do. I think it is the right thing to do, and I think that it is absolutely what we should do.

Mr. Speaker, I yield 5 minutes to the gentlewoman from Wyoming (Ms. Hageman).

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

Mr. Speaker, I have no further speakers, and I reserve the balance of my time.

Mr. Speaker, I yield myself the balance of my time.

Mr. Speaker, I thank my friend, Congressman Rulli, for sponsoring this legislation. It is important. We don't want this to be unestablished. I know it is getting reestablished.

The reason President Trump is having to reestablish it and it is coming soon is because it got unestablished. That is what we are trying to prevent in the future.

Mr. Speaker, I wish the gentleman from Kentucky (Mr. McGarvey), my friend and colleague, were still here because I would thank the gentleman for the kind words. He is a good friend with kind words.

I will say that I wish that he were in here just a couple of years ago when he said we haven't spent 1 minute or any time helping the coal miners. There are more retired union coal miners in Kentucky and the surrounding areas than there are current coal miners. Their entire pension system and their healthcare system were based on a time when there were always new people coming in and fewer people going out.

It is upside down now. If my friend had been here, he would have seen in the Longworth Cafeteria or the Rayburn Cafeteria, day in and day out, people with their coal hats on, their miner hats on, their shirts, and a lot of them from Kentucky saying, what am I going to do? This is something I had depended on.

I will tell you, we all worked on it. I will have to say that his constituent, our colleague on the other side of the bill and the leader at the time, Leader McConnell, took that as his issue. I will tell you, if you ask any coal miner, retired coal miner in Kentucky with a pension, a union benefit, retired union benefit, they will tell you who spent time on that issue, who was the leader on that issue.

Leader McConnell used to go around Kentucky when he was campaigning and say things like, Kentucky punches above its weight, and we absolutely did on that. He threw the right punch on that.

Our retired union coal miners have the benefits they have today because in an omnibus or spending bill--I can't remember, probably both together--he put in a provision that preserved their benefits.

When you say we hadn't spent a minute on it, maybe he is talking about right now, but I can tell you we have here in this Congress, the leader absolutely did, and I commend him for that.

Mr. Speaker, I urge support of this bill, and I yield back the balance of my time.

Mr. Speaker, pursuant to House Resolution 707, I call up the bill (H.R. 1047) to require the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission to reform the interconnection queue process for the prioritization and approval of certain projects, and for other purposes, and ask for its immediate consideration in the House.

Mr. Speaker, I ask unanimous consent that all Members may have 5 legislative days to revise and extend their remarks and insert extraneous material on H.R. 1047.

Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume.

Mr. Speaker, I rise in support of H.R. 1047, the GRID Power Act, sponsored by my colleague, Representative Troy Balderson of Ohio's 12th District.

This legislation would ensure that grid operators have the tools they need to secure the reliability of the electricity grid in the event there is a capacity shortfall.

Across two-thirds of the country, grid operators are charged with ensuring that the lights stay on when you flip a switch. Reliability isn't a luxury. It is a critical necessity to our way of life and one of the reasons our economy is the greatest in the world.

Unfortunately, decisions made by the last administration favoring intermittent, unreliable sources, often at the expense of on-demand, dispatchable resources like fossil fuels, have made the grid operators' jobs nearly impossible.

We know that baseload and dispatchable power resources provide the essential reliability services necessary to maintain the stability of the electric system at an affordable price. This legislation provides a pathway for grid operators to bring these resources online quickly if there is a demonstrated need.

Importantly, this bill does not alter the existing interconnection process and will work in tandem with reforms made in FERC order number 2023 to alleviate some of the backlogs we have witnessed over the past several years.

If we fail to build the dispatchable resources needed to power next- generation industries, we will cede American leadership on the world stage to Communist regimes such as China and raise costs on consumers along the way.

Mr. Speaker, I urge my colleagues to support the legislation as it will make our grid more reliable and lower America's electricity bills.

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

Mr. Speaker, I yield such time as he may consume to the gentleman from Ohio (Mr. Balderson), my good friend and sponsor of this legislation, who is a leader on the Energy and Commerce Committee.

Mr. Speaker, I yield such time as he may consume to the gentleman from Virginia (Mr. Wittman), who is a good friend of mine and a leader in Congress in energy policies and national security policies and a member of the Committee on Armed Services.

Mr. Speaker, I thank Congressman Balderson for sponsoring the GRID Power Act.

Mr. Speaker, this is part of the strategy we all have to do to produce more power so we can have cheaper power. Demand is rising. We need supply to rise. We need supply of dispatchable power to rise.

I do believe in the all of the above. I also believe it is also the best of the above. Dispatchable power is important, and I encourage a ``yes'' vote.

Mr. Speaker, I yield back the balance of my time.

Mr. Speaker, I am proud to have supported the 2026 National Defense Authorization Act. This bill is a generational investment in our national defense.

House Republicans, alongside President Trump, are investing in our military-industrial capabilities, securing all servicemembers a well- deserved pay raise, making meaningful strides to secure our southern border, and so much more.

As a graduate of West Point and the proud Representative of Fort Knox, I am excited by the commitment this bill makes to Army Reserve Aviation and the strategic partnerships it creates with local communities to inspire the next generation of warfighters by preserving local museums like the Patton Museum.

Make no mistake, this NDAA restores peace through strength, rightly refocuses our military posture, and puts America first.

Mr. Speaker, I encourage all of my colleagues to join me in supporting this historic investment in our national defense.

Mr. Speaker, I rise today to honor Kate O'Connor Harper for her service to the House Committee on Energy and Commerce.

A native of Chicago, Illinois and a graduate of the University of Chicago, Kate began her career as a Staff Assistant for Senator Mark Kirk (IL) before becoming Legislative Assistant and Correspondent for Senator Dan Sullivan (AK). In 2018, Kate joined President Trump's administration serving as Deputy Director of Legislative and Intergovernmental Affairs for the National Telecommunications and Information Administration where she proved to be a valuable asset and became Chief of Staff in 2019. Later that year, Kate returned to Capitol Hill to become Chief Counsel of the Subcommittee on Communications and Technology for the House Committee on Energy and Commerce under Ranking Member Greg Walden. She continued to lead in this role under Chair Cathy McMorris Rodgers and when I became Chairman, I knew I wanted to have her at the helm of this subcommittee. Under her leadership, her team passed historic legislation including the Protecting Americans from Foreign Adversaries Act and the reauthorization of the FCC's spectrum auction authority.

After serving three Chairmen and two Subcommittee Chairmen, Kate will soon depart Capitol Hill to work in the private sector as a telecommunications expert. I wish her the best, congratulate her on her new role, and thank Kate O'Connor Harper for her service to the House Committee on Energy and Commerce and the United States Congress.