Lower Energy Costs Act

Floor Speech

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Mr. LIEU. Mr. Chairman, let me first commend Ranking Member Raul Grijalva for fighting the good fight every day.

I rise today to oppose the polluters over people act. It is an extreme MAGA Republican bill that will increase pollution by lowering environmental standards. It will increase climate change by removing a lot of provisions of the Inflation Reduction Act designed to combat climate change. It also increases the deficit.

According to the Congressional Budget Office, it will increase the deficit by over $2.4 billion just on one bill alone. It is like a triple threat of badness. It increases pollution, it increases global warming, and it increases the deficit.

Now, let's just take a review of what we have done up to now. Last term when Democrats were in control, we passed laws that moved the American family forward.

We passed the American Rescue Plan that got our economy back on track as we were coming out of a pandemic.

We then followed that up with the infrastructure law to rebuild roads, bridges, and highways; to take lead out of water pipes; and to put broadband everywhere from rural areas to inner cities and everywhere in between.

We then followed that up with the CHIPS and Science Act. That is going to bring manufacturing back to the United States.

Then we followed that up with the Inflation Reduction Act, which not only helped reduce the deficit--Democrats reduced the deficit by over $1.7 trillion last year--but that Inflation Reduction Act also had the highest number of climate change projects and the highest amount of climate change funding in world history.

This term when Republicans took control, what did you all do? Well, let me tell you. You read the Constitution on the House floor. You took turns doing that. You also held not one, but two congressional hearings complaining about Twitter.

It is more than just stupid stuff. Extreme MAGA Republicans are trying to pass extreme MAGA Republican bills like H.R. 1 that is going to, again, increase climate change, increase pollution, and increase the deficit. It is also a monumental waste of time, because guess what? This bill ain't going anywhere.

It is not going to pass the Senate, because you need to override a filibuster. That ain't gonna happen.

Even if it miraculously does pass the Senate, the administration has already signaled they are going to veto it. We are just wasting time here when we should be focused on more relevant issues like how do we prevent gun violence at schools.

My heart goes out to the victims of the tragic mass shooting yesterday in Nashville. Three of the victims were 9-year-old children. Recently, a member of the Republican Caucus from Tennessee was asked what we are going to do to fix school violence.

His answer was: We are not going to fix it.

Well, Democrats have a different view. Instead of wasting time on political stunts like H.R. 1, let's pass universal background checks into law.

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