During remarks on the Senate floor Wednesday, Sen. Shelley Moore Capito (R-WV) spoke about the Biden Administration's energy policies.
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NewsTranscript
00:00Well, Mr. President, here we go again.
00:03I rise today in this chamber as President Biden and his administration enter yet another
00:08summer of executive overreach, as the administration adds layer after layer of bureaucracy that
00:16spells negative consequences for nearly every aspect of American life.
00:22Actually, I just had the homebuilders in my office today making this very point, the West
00:28Virginia homebuilders.
00:30Throughout the President's time in the White House, we haven't really seen much consistency,
00:34except when it comes to his desire to grow the influence of unelected government bureaucrats,
00:42or to defy congressional intent, or to impose unnecessary rules, regulations, and red tape.
00:54These things will forever define his administration, and as of June 7th of this year, the 946 final
01:04rules imposed by President Biden have cost the American taxpayer over $1.6 trillion.
01:13So for President Biden and his administration, I'd recommend a brief refresher on the history
01:18of the United States and the intent that inspired the framers of our Constitution.
01:25Our founding fathers were quick to recognize that power and authority vested in one body
01:33would create devastating costs for the future of our nation.
01:37That was the motivation behind establishing separated powers, creating a system of checks
01:43and balances across three equal branches of government.
01:47However, President Biden's advocacy for the growth of the administrative state has put
01:54this separation into question.
01:57And it kind of goes against Article I of the Constitution, which states, all legislative
02:02powers herein granted shall be vested in a Congress of the United States.
02:10Let's just take a few examples that we've seen recently of what I would consider outrageous
02:15overreach.
02:17Number one, first, something I've been very vocal about, which is the EPA's Clean Power
02:22Plan 2.0, which will eliminate coal power generation completely, but it will also block
02:30new natural gas plants from coming online in the future.
02:34Don't ask me how we're going to power the nation.
02:37This rule from EPA is meant to put coal and natural gas employees out of work and shutter
02:43those baseload power plants once and for all.
02:48Next, we have the final rule from the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services that imposes
02:54burdensome federal staffing mandates on long-term care facilities.
03:00This is something that could be incredibly harmful to rural states like mine.
03:04Now, safety first in a long-term care facility, but unattainable employee requirements like
03:12this one would force many of our rural nursing homes to shut their doors, especially as rural
03:18health facilities are facing staffing challenges all across the country.
03:24Then there's the Biden HHS rule that endangers the safety and well-being of unaccompanied
03:30migrant children.
03:32Currently, migrant children who enter into the country illegally without an adult are
03:39detained and placed in the unaccompanied children program.
03:43The HHS rule that I'm referring to includes many harmful practices like optional sponsor
03:51vetting.
03:52That is refusal to consider a sponsor's criminal record.
03:56So we're going to put children in to the care and sponsorship of people that were refusing
04:03to see if they have a criminal record.
04:05So you think about somebody who has a history of abuse or neglect, somebody who has a drug
04:11problem.
04:12We wouldn't know.
04:14And weak standards for post-release home studies to determine a child's status or safety once
04:20in the custody of that sponsor.
04:22There are many heartbreaking stories we see with the border crisis, but this exploitation
04:28of children is one of the most devastating, and I would add we've seen article after article
04:34about child labor, child trafficking that is occurring, and the administration is changing
04:40a rule to make it less protective of those children.
04:45Over at the Department of Commerce's Bureau of Industry and Security, they have an interim
04:49final rule that targets U.S. businesses that support America's use of their Second Amendment
04:56rights.
04:57Specifically, it restricts the ability of American firearm, ammunition, and related
05:03component manufacturers to obtain a license to export their products for sale.
05:10Aside from the fact that it's unlawful, the interim rule will have a negative impact again
05:15on these American manufacturers, their suppliers, and the jobs that they support.
05:21And additionally, at EPA, we saw the Coal Combustion Residuals Final Rule, also known
05:28as COALASH, that imposes retroactive and costly regulations on COALASH management
05:35at inactive coal-fired power plants.
05:38This highlights yet again another anti-energy rule from the Biden administration that would
05:43throw our power grid into even more uncertainty.
05:48The volume of these efforts truly goes to show the broken rulemaking process of this
05:54administration.
05:55It underscores the president's bureaucratic blunders and his administration's ineffective
06:01style of governing.
06:04While each rule may seem unrelated to one another, they strike a common chord.
06:10President Biden's administrative state is out of control.
06:13They would rather impose harmful regulations, remember I said 900 of them, that would restrict
06:20America's rights and make life more difficult for our families than work with this Congress
06:25on pragmatic solutions.
06:28And they further escalate the hidden tax generated by these regulations that often receives too
06:35little attention.
06:37The growth of the administrative state has distorted the way that policy and policymaking
06:42and lawmaking works right here in Washington, D.C.
06:45This shifts away from letting Congress legislate, openly defies the basis of which our country
06:54was built on, and takes the power away from the people.
06:57When you take the power away from the representatives, you're taking power away from the people.
07:02Remember, the Constitution starts with we the people.
07:08It does not start with we the administration or me the president.
07:14I encourage President Biden and my colleagues in Congress to recognize that.
07:19So if we look at the summer bucket list, we see, I've talked about all of these, eliminate
07:25coal power, check, block new natural gas plants, check, add burdensome federal staffing mandates
07:32on long-term facilities, check, restrict Second Amendment rights, check.
07:37The President's summer bucket list has been fulfilled already and we don't even have summer
07:42officially here yet.
07:44So while President Biden and his bloated bureaucracy attempt to put major restrictions
07:49on American energy, decimate the healthcare workforce for our seniors, tax and spend their
07:56way to higher prices, and cast our southern border into chaos, and put restrictions on
08:03Americans' constitutional rights, Senate Republicans will continue to fight and hold the administration
08:10accountable and return authority to the American people on the issues that impact them every
08:17single day.
08:19That's why we were sent here.
08:21That's what we were sent to do.
08:24So with that, Mr. President, I yield the floor.