Providing for Consideration of H.R. Unlocking Our Domestic Lng Potential Act of 2024

Floor Speech

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Mr. McGOVERN. Mr. Speaker, I thank the gentleman from Pennsylvania for yielding me the customary 30 minutes, and I yield myself such time as I may consume.

Mr. Speaker, I would say to my Republican friends, enough with the lectures. I just spent the last hour listening to the debate on the previous rule where the Republicans basically were saying the Democrats had an obligation to fix what the Republicans screwed up to begin with, that we basically have to clean up their mess.

I just heard the gentleman talk about our obligation to our allies as the basis for this crummy piece of legislation that we are now talking about. Really, to get a lecture from Republicans about our obligation to our allies while they are blocking aid to Ukraine as we speak? The Senate, with a 70-vote margin, passed in a bipartisan way aid, to provide essential aid to Ukraine so that Putin will not have a victory, will not invade Ukraine.

When I hear my friend talk about an obligation to our allies, I urge him to ask his Speaker to please let the House work its will to bring this bill to the floor. Let us have a vote. What we are talking about here today is ridiculous.

Mr. Speaker, this will be the fourth time this Congress that language either identical or nearly identical to this bill has been reported out of the Rules Committee. First, it passed as part of Republicans' destructive H.R. 1 energy package. Then, Republicans tried to pass it as a standalone bill but had to pull the rule for the bill from the floor because they didn't have the votes. The third time, the bill was put on the floor, but it failed to pass because the MAGA clown show threw a fit after not getting what they wanted. Here we are again, for the fourth time.

I don't know if my Republican friends have looked at the calendar recently, but Groundhog Day was actually last week. Maybe they think this is Nick at Nite, and they want to start airing more reruns.

This is Congress. This is Congress--Congress. The American people vote for us and pay us because they expect us to work together to get things done.

The only real difference this fourth time around is that Republicans--and you really can't make this stuff up--Republicans blocked Democratic amendments that were made in order the last two times. The last two times this bill came through the committee, they made two Democratic amendments in order. Now, they have been blocked because this is a completely closed rule.

Last night, I asked my colleagues across the aisle why. Why did you block two Democratic amendments that were germane and made in order the previous times we looked at this bill? Nobody could answer. My Republican friends kind of just looked at each other and shrugged.

I am assuming it must have been a directive of the Speaker. Maybe Speaker Johnson decided that he doesn't even want to pretend to care about bipartisanship anymore, and that is why he told Republicans to block Democratic amendments that were made in order in previous rules. We are dealing with a completely closed rule. The worst part is that this whole circus is for a garbage LNG bill.

Mr. Speaker, do you know who is happy about this Republican LNG bill? Big Oil CEOs, and fossil fuel tycoons. China is thrilled with what my Republican friends are doing today. Wall Street is applauding them.

This bill is awful for hardworking families. It is awful for people who are worried about high energy prices. It is awful for our climate.

The American people are worried about climate change. They say we need action. I don't know if my Republican colleagues got the memo, but climate change is real. Thankfully, President Biden is doing something about it.

Republicans still can't answer another simple question from us. Why do they want to turn LNG into a Wild West that mimics the oil market? For people who are sick of OPEC and Russia fixing the prices that we pay at the pump every day like I am, just know that this bill makes it easier for that to happen with LNG.

Republicans talk a big game on China. Their bill helps China and other adversaries who rely on American LNG imports.

The truth is this is just another handout to the GOP's best friends. They want to make sure that Big Energy CEOs and corporations can pad their pockets while raising prices on all of us. Follow the money. Look who contributes to them. That tells you all you need to know about why we are dealing with this bill today.

This entire week is just a master class in Republican incompetence. My friend across the aisle tells us routinely how crucial their bills are and how important they are, and then the bills are defeated not by Democrats but by Republicans.

Republicans just wasted time debating a rule that would bring to the floor a 1-year, limited fix to the SALT problem that they created with their Trump tax scam. They caused the problem. Now, we are debating a rule that they didn't have the votes for last week, and it is likely to fail on the floor today.

Last night, they impeached Secretary Mayorkas by one vote. They had to rush and redo that one before Tom Suozzi was sworn in.

The Rules Committee is supposed to meet on a new FISA bill later today, our third attempt this Congress. Maybe this one will pass. Who knows?

Everything we are doing this week is a rerun: another impeachment vote, the FISA bill, the SALT bill, and this LNG bill. This is all because Republican leadership keeps bringing half-baked ideas to the floor without knowing where their own Conference stands. It didn't work the first time or even the second or third time. I guess we have to do it again.

Look at what is going on in this country. My Republican friends are barely hanging on to this majority by their fingernails.

Mr. Speaker, you would think that Republicans would look at the results of last night's election and have a come to Jesus moment. The American people are rejecting Republican extremism. They are voting against Republicans' cynical move to tank the bipartisan border deal.

I don't know if you looked at some of the exit polls and some of the commentary about people who were voting yesterday. People are puzzled why my Republican friends made such a big deal about the border crisis. Then, you have a bipartisan border deal that is negotiated in the Senate, and then the Speaker of the House says it will never see the light of day and that we don't need any legislation. People are seeing through this cynicism.

People are against the sham impeachment of Secretary Mayorkas. What an offensive waste of time that was yesterday. I don't know, maybe MAGA-based donors are impressed by that kind of behavior, but it does nothing about anything at the border. It is more grandstanding. People are sick of that.

Here is the deal. People actually want Republicans to work with Democrats to get stuff done. What a radical idea that, in Congress, people would try to work together to pass legislation to help improve the lives of the people we represent.

That is not what this is today. That is not what we have been seeing the last several months.

Mr. Speaker, I pointed this out the other day, but I think it is worth repeating. The Rules Committee is kind of the traffic cop of Congress. Almost every major piece of legislation that comes to the floor goes to the Rules Committee, certainly legislation of consequence.

The last time the Rules Committee brought a bill to the House floor that actually became law, that passed the Senate and was signed by the President, was 9 months ago. All this time, bringing these messaging bills to the floor, the impeachment of Mayorkas, all this garbage that is being brought to the floor, none of it becomes law.

Why are you here? Mr. Speaker, we are here today considering the same old bills over and over again because the Republican Party has nothing to offer but chaos, confusion, and disarray.

Mr. Speaker, the gentleman from Pennsylvania just kind of regurgitated a whole bunch of statistics. I am not going to rebut every single one of them. He went through a whole litany of things that are wrong with our country.

Here is a novel idea for Republicans: rather than just complain, maybe actually try and find some solutions. If all the things the gentleman says are problems that we need to deal with, then my suggestion is to get about the business of passing legislation in a divided Congress to fix them.

This is the least productive Congress, I think, in decades or maybe even since the Great Depression. My friends have done nothing. They have done nothing.

They come to the floor and they complain. This is not just a do- nothing Congress, this is a do-nothing Congress over and over and over again. We are doing reruns this week. We have dealt with this legislation. This is the fourth time we are dealing with it, and I predict we will probably deal with it a fifth, a sixth, a seventh, and an eighth time before the end of the year when, hopefully, your majority comes to an end.

I don't want to be lectured about jobs from somebody who supported Donald Trump, who when he was President, had the worst jobs record since the Great Depression. I don't want to be lectured about blue- collar workers. I come from an area in Massachusetts where we actually stand proudly with our unions, something that my Republican colleagues fight against every single day in this Chamber.

I will just give some friendly advice to the gentleman based on the results of last night's election, which my Republican friends were predicting a victory, but I am saying that the reason why you did not win last night is because people think that what you are doing is not the right thing.

Your ideas are unpopular, and they are sick of the incompetence and the inaction. They are sick of the complaining and no solutions. You complain about the border. Democrats and Republicans work together in the Senate to come up with a bill. Maybe it is not everything you want, but it was negotiated by some pretty conservative, rightwing Republicans. Rather than bring it to the House floor so we can have a debate and a vote, the Speaker and Republican leadership says it is not allowed to be considered on the House floor.

Again, the gentleman talks about national security. None of us can understand the game the Republicans are playing with Ukraine. How can you do this to the Ukrainian people, playing into the hands of Vladimir Putin? Are Republicans cheering a Putin victory against Ukraine? If so, that is sick.

The Senate passed this in an overwhelmingly bipartisan manner, and the Speaker said it is dead on arrival. We can't even consider it here. I just want to also say, because I think it is important for the record, that last night in the Rules Committee, Ms. Scanlon of Pennsylvania offered an amendment to the rule to make in order amendment No. 2 to H.R. 7176, offered by Representative Houlahan, which requires the commission to deny applications with regard to covered foreign countries including China, North Korea, Russia, and Iran, as well as foreign entities owned by, controlled by, or subject to the jurisdiction or direction of the government of those countries.

Do you know what happened, Mr. Speaker? It was defeated 4-9. Mr. Burgess, Mr. Reschenthaler, Mrs. Fischbach, Mr. Massie, Mr. Norman, Mr. Roy, Mrs. Houchin, Mr. Langworthy, and Chairman Cole all voted ``no.'' They all voted against making that amendment in order, which would have made sure that none of these countries that I just mentioned would benefit in any way, shape, or form.

Sometimes we come to the floor to debate these issues, and I am not quite sure whether we are dealing in reality or an alternate universe. The bottom line is, if the gentleman cared about the things he just said, why couldn't we make this amendment in order and have an up-or- down vote on it? Why was this such a radical idea? Why was this such a bad thing to do?

Boy, that is a lot to try to wrap my head around, listening to the gentleman from Pennsylvania. This is not just reruns week in terms of legislation. It is reruns week in terms of talking points.

The previous President, Mr. Trump, who my Republican friends are so enamored with, let me just remind you of some of what he was all about.

He called President Xi brilliant. He said he got love letters from Kim Jong-un of North Korea, and then he said: ``We fell in love.'' Who says that?

He says Prime Minister Orban is one of the strongest leaders in the world.

He can't say enough nice things about Vladimir Putin. While he was President, Vladimir Putin was planning his invasion of Ukraine.

The other day, Donald Trump said, do you know what? If NATO doesn't do what I want, then I don't care whether or not Putin invades them. Who says that?

Biden has united the world against Putin's aggression in Ukraine. Rather than helping Ukraine stand up to Vladimir Putin, my friends on the other side of the aisle are basically giving him a gift. They are denying essential aid to help the Ukrainian people repel a violent and vicious attack by Vladimir Putin.

What is wrong with this place, Mr. Speaker, that this is where we are?

I don't know whether my friend from Pennsylvania supports the Ukrainian people in their struggle to prevent Russia from invading them or not. If he does, then he should join with us and say let's have a vote. I mean, they are literally down to bullets.

Putin is ecstatic. Putin is thrilled that the Republican leadership in this Congress is holding up aid that will prevent Ukraine from being able to repel a Russian invasion. Putin is thrilled.

Please, give me a break.

Putin is a thug. He is a dictator. He is trying to re-create an old empire. The idea that people in this Chamber are sitting by and saying, okay, do whatever you want, I never ever thought we would ever get to this point, but here we are.

We are debating a bill for the fourth time that is going nowhere, and my friends are pretending like it is some big deal. It is a nothing burger, yet we can't bring legislation to the floor to help the Ukrainian people.

What the American people are sick of is all of this. I mean, the disingenuousness of what is being said here takes my breath away.

The gentleman talks about the border. When conservative Republicans negotiated a bipartisan border deal, and Donald Trump said we would rather have it as an election issue than actually do anything, the Speaker decided to pull it.

The same with our allies. The idea is that Vladimir Putin has viciously attacked Ukraine, and my Republican friends are standing by and cheering Putin on. I can't believe we are at the point we are at in this Congress.

What the American people are sick of is this do-nothing Republican majority, and they can't wait, quite frankly, to replace this current regime, as evidenced by the election last night.

Mr. Roy took to the floor and said: ``One thing. I want my Republican colleagues to give me one thing--one--that I can go campaign on and say we did. One. Anybody sitting in the complex, if you want to come down to the floor and come explain to me one material, meaningful, significant thing the Republican majority has done.''

Frankly, it seems like my fellow colleague on the Rules Committee and I agree on something: The Republican majority has been useless. It has done nothing unless you enjoy lurching from crisis to crisis or peddling sham impeachments.

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

Madam Speaker, my friend from Pennsylvania talked about his good friend, some CEO of some LNG corporation that he is worried about.

You know what? I am more worried about the consumers in this country who will see their energy costs rise, potentially, if this bill were ever to become law.

I will make two quick points. This bill is going nowhere because it is written in such a way that it will not get bipartisan support in the House or in the Senate, and it certainly will not make it to the President's desk and will not be signed into law. For the fourth time, I will say that this bill is going nowhere, and this is a colossal waste of time.

The second point I make is this Congress is doing nothing not only on energy, but it is doing nothing on everything that matters to the American people.

My Republican friends have spent more time electing a Speaker and then replacing a Speaker and on useless, baseless impeachments than they have on actually legislating.

Here is a radical idea. We get elected to Congress. We should work together to try to pass legislation that becomes law, that will improve the quality of life for the people we represent. That is something that is foreign to my friends on the other side of the aisle.

Madam Speaker, it has become a familiar pattern by now. We have a looming government shutdown. We have urgent issues at home that require congressional action. We have pressing national security challenges and wars abroad, and Republicans are wasting time on impeachment stunts, silly censures, and MAGA messaging bills.

I mean, look. They have us here debating the same bill for the fourth time. We can pass it 4 times or 400 times. It doesn't matter because it is not written in a way that can become law in a divided government. My friends won't admit that on the floor, but we all know it is true.

Meanwhile, the Senate is sending us bipartisan bills that Speaker Johnson refuses to bring to the floor. The Speaker doesn't seem to think that his job is to solve problems, but rather, he thinks his job is to block bipartisan solutions.

We had a bipartisan immigration solution. It was blocked.

Well, guess what? My Republican friends now own the issue. You are responsible, solely now, for what is going on at the border. You are responsible for the fentanyl crisis in this country.

We had a bipartisan bill that was passed in the Senate to help aid our allies in Ukraine and in Israel. The Republican leadership is blocking it, can't even get a vote. You are responsible.

Madam Speaker, my friends on the other side are responsible for basically setting the world afire right now, creating all this insecurity and potentially giving Vladimir Putin a free pass to go in and invade Ukraine. I never thought we would be at this point.

The bottom line is this: Democrats want to work together with Republicans to get things done. They seem to be able to do that in the Senate.

I never thought I would ever say anything nice about the Senate, but they are working in a bipartisan way. That is why President Biden had us sit down and negotiate a bipartisan border deal.

That is why Democrats work with Republicans in the Senate to come up with a bipartisan deal to address our national security challenges.

The Speaker of the House says: The House should work its will. Then the Republicans refuse to bring bipartisan bills up for a vote on the floor because they are afraid of MAGA, they are afraid of Trump, and they are afraid that these bills will pass.

Having a campaign issue seems more important than solving a problem. It didn't work for my friends last night. This idea that my friends have about not solving problems, that somehow that is good for their election chances didn't seem to pan out last night.

What Republicans need to realize is that they control one-half of one branch of government and only barely.

They are not dictators--at least not yet. They have a two-seat majority in the House--two seats--because the American people voted against extremism last night.

This bill that we are talking about here today, the infomercials that are being delivered on the floor, they are going nowhere.

The reason why my friends keep losing is they keep following the most extreme Members of their Conference. People don't want the solutions that Marjorie Taylor Greene brings before Congress.

They don't want a deranged former President who has been indicted more times than he has been elected to be calling the shots here. They want leaders that have vision, not petulant children that have nothing to offer but division.

Madam Speaker, my Republican friends lost last night for the same reason I believe you will lose in November. You have nothing to offer, nothing at all, but division, chaos, and incompetence. This is just a continuation of that.

What is happening here is we are debating trivial issues passionately, but important ones, not at all. There are important issues that we need to deal with and to debate and to legislate on right now that affect the people of this country, that affect people all over the world, and we are doing this--bringing back a bill for the fourth time, a bill that we all know is going nowhere because it has been written so poorly and in such a partisan fashion.

If my friends want to be serious about governing, you are going to have to learn to work with us. It is that simple. Take ``yes'' for an answer and work with us for the good of the American people.

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

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Mr. McGOVERN. Madam Speaker, on that I demand the yeas and nays.

The yeas and nays were ordered.

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