House Republicans' Legislative Efforts This Week

Floor Speech

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Mr. HILL. Mr. Speaker, I thank the gentleman from Utah for yielding. Just for those two people that are listening at home, there are only four members of the Arkansas delegation, so that was an easy comment from my good friend.

I thank my friend from Utah, who is doing an outstanding job helping lead our Conference and lead our Conference's messaging on this House floor and in our home districts as we draw a distinction between what House Republicans would be doing if we were able to be guiding the executive branch or have both Houses here in Congress, and the failures of the Biden administration.

Mr. Speaker, I want to address a couple of issues I think that are key that are confronting the American people and that we are touching on this week in the House.

Mr. Speaker, the United States went from importing liquefied natural gas just 15 years ago to now being the world's largest exporter. That is a powerful testament to America's technological advances and our ability to harness this clean, abundant, affordable source of baseload power for our own use and for the ability to export it.

President Biden's recent decision to halt the export of American liquefied natural gas is not in the interest of the American worker, the American economy, our allies' national security, or the globe's goal of a clean energy transition.

This is just another one of President Joe Biden's poor decisions in a long line of other failed energy policies since he took office in January 2021: As noted by my good friend from California shutting down on day one the Keystone XL pipeline, denying new permits, discouraging new drilling, discouraging new pipelines, and coercing banks and securities firms across this country to discourage badly needed loans and capital investments in the energy industry by way of environmental social governance, so-called ESG policies.

These reckless decisions have weakened our global leadership and weakened America's energy independence. While President Biden's nanny state regulators consider going full California on the whole Nation by banning your gas stove, Republicans support an all-of-the-above approach to our energy needs and our long-term energy transition.

Republicans believe that we need to tap into American's abundance of natural resources that are crucial to enhancing our own energy security and our own energy independence.

The United States stands ready to export more LNG to Europe, but pipelines and other needed infrastructure are not adequate in this country in order to advance more assistance in the short term. In my view, Mr. Speaker, upstream and downstream infrastructure investments in natural gas are not stranded assets, which is typically the argument made by the opposition.

According to a recent U.S. Energy Information Administration, International Energy Outlook, by 2050, global energy use will increase nearly 50 percent compared to today. Now, let that sink in--50 percent greater than today in just 25 years.

Although the primary energy consumption sources for renewables is expected to grow from 15 percent today to 27 percent by 2050, still 83 percent of consumption will need to come from coal, oil, natural gas, and nuclear.

Clearly, based on global power demands and despite new renewable sources, this globe, this Nation, needs decades of liquefied natural gas access and natural gas in our reserves.

We need to invest and create that infrastructure leading to our own development and crucial export development, which will, if we export, add $73 billion it is estimated to our U.S. economy over the next 15 years, bolstering energy trade, stimulating domestic production while assisting friends and allies abroad.

Increasing U.S. liquefied natural gas exports will benefit our allies, as I note, in Europe and in Asia by adding the U.S. as a reliable source of energy on the global market and offsetting the risk that is being dominated by one supplier--like in the case of Germany being completely dependent on natural gas from Russia at the time of Russia's invasion to Ukraine--or countries being caught in a supply crisis due to war in the Persian Gulf or a war or shipping challenges in the Red Sea.

Just last year, Mr. Speaker, about 13 percent of Europe's natural gas went through the Red Sea. That has now been impacted by the Houthis in Yemen attacking shipping of all flag vessels trying to go up the Red Sea through the Suez Canal to service Europe.

We have natural gas fields across our Nation in Pennsylvania and New York that rival and may even be more abundant than those in the Middle East.

Yet, we will never see, in my view, Mr. Speaker, a pipeline--a new pipeline--built from Pennsylvania over to the East Coast ports under this administration or under future Democratic leadership. I don't think we will see new jobs or development of New York's massive, abundant natural gas in the Marcellus shale under Democratic Governors.

Again, these kinds of policy officials and Biden officials have doubled down, tripled down, on policies that not only raise costs for everyday American families but do nothing in the long run to impact the climate.

Likewise, to aid American technology exports, the Biden administration should work to ensure that international financial institutions like the World Bank or the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development will finance natural gas projects and nuclear power as a part of the energy transition.

Right now they are very reluctant to do that. In the case of the EBRD, they will not finance nuclear.

Now, think about that. They certainly won't finance natural gas.

The EBRD has been insisting on financing renewable green energy projects only to the tune of hundreds of millions of dollars, yet ignores an all-of-the-above energy strategy.

International financial institutions like the EBRD should finance beyond nuclear and include sources of energy like liquefied natural gas to improve access and diversification, particularly in Europe, their energy backbone, their energy sources. It is in their best interest to do that.

Energy policy is a long-term investment in the needs of the globe's future both at home and abroad, and as more and more countries grow and develop and their people become wealthier and their incomes rise, their energy consumption will increase, as well.

We cannot wait and have nothing to offer and certainly cannot impose the Biden administration's energy policies on the world and expect a good outcome or rising wages or incomes.

We should be investing in all of our energy options like oil, nuclear, renewables, and natural gas--not hurting our ability to export and remain energy dominant worldwide but to benefit the entire economy of the globe.

President Biden's mistakes and failed policies today will lead us to not having the energy capacity that we need for tomorrow, and he will be making the transition to a clean energy future even harder and more costly for our families.

Mr. Speaker, this week the Senate completed work on funding for military assistance for Ukraine, Taiwan, and Israel, all critical partner countries to the United States, each a Nation where we have a national security interest in seeing their security needs met, benefiting our economy, benefiting our jobs, benefiting our global reach across the globe. As Americans, it should feel very natural to us that we partner with other nations to help a nation fight for freedom.

Why? Well, Mr. Speaker, as Americans, we are all versed in our own founding, our own struggles with the American Revolution. We recall the lack of food, the lack of pay, the lack of socks and shoes, the misery of the winter at Valley Forge. Every school child in this Nation knows about Washington on his knees at Valley Forge.

What we must remember is that we did not win our independence alone.

From 1775 to 1781, the United States would not have seen victory at Yorktown ending the American Revolution in victory were it not for allied nations making a bet on the grit and the tenacity of colonial Americans taking on the world's largest Navy and the world's largest Army.

France, the bankers in Amsterdam, the Spanish, all opposed Great Britain's empire and backed General Washington's struggling rag-tag Army.

Mr. Speaker, 80 percent of the muskets and uniforms worn by the colonial Army were supplied by France. The French and the Dutch supplied loans and cash, the Spanish supplied gunpowder, and the French Navy were critical to our victory.

Without this help of the other nations, we would not have had the resources to win the American Revolution or become an independent, democratic, dynamic country 250 years later.

As Americans, we understand that sense of partnership that it takes when you are fighting for freedom. This week, once again, I traveled across the Atlantic to meet with President Zelenskyy in Ukraine joining a codel led by Mike Turner, the chairman of our Intelligence Committee, to assess what is Europe doing? What is Ukraine's strategy? How are American investments audited and protected and transparent? What are our options there to make sure that Putin is not successful in Ukraine?

Instead of reading something on the internet, Mr. Speaker, let's go investigate it for ourselves. Let's look Zelenskyy and his generals in the eye. Let's look at American advisers in Germany and in Poland in the eye and ask them: Should Putin be allowed to win in Ukraine? The answer, Mr. Speaker, is clearly no.

Along with dozens of allied nations, the United States should continue to back the freedom fighting, freedom loving Ukrainians to ensure that Vladimir Putin knows he is not going to stay in Ukraine. Let me be clear, he will be denied that opportunity.

Mr. Speaker, in polling, the American people are clear. They do not want Putin victorious in Ukraine. It is bad for Europe, the sovereignty of Ukraine, and for the world.

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Mr. HILL. Mr. Speaker, let me be clear: We need to complete our work effectively on this House and find that sense of partnership that we find the right funding, the right balance of auditing and talent necessary to back the Ukrainians' success in defeating Putin.

Mr. Speaker, the innocent people of Ukraine have been under unprovoked attack for over two years, their lives upended by the vengeance of a megalomaniac illegally invading and attempting to overthrow a sovereign neighbor.

This war commenced in 2014 in the Donbas and Crimea and exploded into a full invasion on February 24, 2022.

American military aid to Ukraine is running out and Ukrainians battling on the frontlines to defend their homeland are running out of ammunition and other crucial military supplies.

They are losing the ability to defend themselves and win this war that they have so valiantly fought for 24 months--and politically and emotionally for a painful decade.

To my colleagues in Congress, it is essential that we pass further aid to Ukraine.

Time is running out.

And when the war ends, and Ukraine hails victory, Putin must bear the responsibility for the death and destruction he has caused in their sovereign nation.

He must bear responsibility of paying for Ukraine's reconstruction.

Alongside my friend and House Foreign Affairs Committee Chairman Mike McCaul, we passed our REPO bill out of committee, which would seize Russian sovereign assets for the sole purpose of Ukraine's eventual reconstruction.

Similar legislation has successfully been passed by the Senate Foreign Relations Committee.

Considering most Russian sovereign assets are located outside of the United States, it is critical that our allies around the world draft and pass companion legislation.

In January, European Union (EU) members unanimously agreed to set aside frozen Russian central bank assets in Europe, taking the first step to benefit Ukraine and its reconstruction from Russia's destruction.

This is a strong signal from our European allies that we are one step closer to seeing crucial draft legislation.

Although the EU has taken a step in the right direction, their action needs to go further. In my view, the ideal proposed draft legislation needs to encompass all Russian assets, not just liquid central bank accounts.

In the meantime, the United States and our allies need to continue to press Putin with further sanctions to deter his aggression.

We also need to ensure Ukraine remains an open economy.

Despite the damages caused by the war, over the past two years, Ukraine's economy is hanging in there.

Ukraine's battlefield victories in 2023 include pushing the Russian Navy to rear, freeing the western Black Sea, reopening it to Ukrainian exports of grain, iron, and fertilizer.

Although Russia's invasion drove Ukraine's GDP down in 2022, their economy is reported to have grown by roughly 3 to 4 percent, in 2023.

More economic recovery and more exports mean Ukraine is generating revenue to support itself and its needs.

Given the nation's current state in the face of devastation and in the wake of Putin's madness, this is remarkable.

As Ukraine is one of the world's largest grain producers, it's key that they continue to maintain an open, thriving economy.

In sum, it's simple: the U.S., Europe and global partners need to continue to support Ukraine with financial, military, and humanitarian assistance; hold Putin responsible for paying for the damages he has caused in this sovereign nation; and discourage him with further and more aggressive sanctions, including secondary sanctions on all nations that help fuel his terror.

For if Russia wins, it opens the door for other foreign adversaries like China to follow in their pursuit of taking over Taiwan, jumpstarting a global war.

If Russia wins, it threatens the 75 years of peace and prosperity in Europe, and risks dragging the United States into a war like we have never witnessed.

We can defeat Russia in Ukraine, if we see their struggle for freedom in the same way we fought for ours nearly 250 years ago.

Failure in Ukraine is not an option.

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