During debate on the House floor, Rep. Kathy Castor (D-FL) tore into House Republicans' resolution to overturn Biden-era commercial refrigerator efficiency standards.
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NewsTranscript
00:00Well, thank you, Mr. Speaker, and I want to thank the gentleman from New Jersey for yielding the time.
00:05I rise in opposition to H.J. Res. 75, a bill to force small business owners to use more energy and spend more money.
00:14Well, here we are at the end of March, and
00:18Republicans have not brought one bill to the floor to lower costs and tackle the cost of living for our neighbors back home.
00:25Instead, Republicans in Congress have stood idly by while American families and small business owners are left to twist in the wind
00:34that make life harder for people back home, more expensive, more difficult to receive the Social Security they rely on,
00:41adding taxes through tariffs.
00:44It's just
00:47unconscionable here, because what people really want, they want us to work together on
00:51solutions, and Republicans in Congress are missing in action, and people want answers.
00:58But Republicans won't have town halls. Gosh, some of them will not even answer the phone.
01:03I also had a town hall back in St. Petersburg,
01:07Florida, last week when I was home, and people
01:11want answers. They want to know what you're doing to
01:14to tackle the cost of living, and then you come up here to the House of Representatives,
01:19and Republicans are making it more expensive, because they don't want you to have an energy-efficient appliance.
01:25This isn't something that happens overnight. This is something that
01:28that manufacturers and consumer advocates work on for years, and the previous
01:34speaker said, well, when did the Department of Energy get into energy efficiency? Well, it's been decades that they've been doing this,
01:41trying to help people save money through conservation.
01:44I know that doesn't align with my Republican colleagues, Big Oil and Gas
01:50allies, but people want to save money. They want to cut pollution, and they don't want you wasting their time
01:58with inane bills like this that are simply going to cost people more money.
02:03But it gets worse, because
02:06Republicans in Congress are barreling towards a massive tax giveaway to billionaires paid for by targeting
02:14family members who we love the most, our parents that rely on skilled nursing,
02:20children,
02:21pregnant women, our neighbors with a disability.
02:26We know what this is. This is an attempt to distract from what is going on
02:33behind the scenes here in Washington, D.C., and I have to say, I think my Republican friends are out of touch with working people.
02:42People are tired of being ripped off by special interests and
02:46politicians in Washington. This bill is another example of that.
02:49This makes it harder for small business owners to save money through energy-efficient appliances. It essentially picks your pocket.
02:57Mr. Speaker, have you ever been in a crowd
03:00where you're getting jostled, and then you reach back and your wallet is gone? Well, that's exactly what is happening right here.
03:08You just hope that Republicans would join Democrats in trying to reduce electric bills,
03:14but nope. You hope that Republicans are going to stand up to Elon Musk as he takes a chainsaw to Social Security.
03:23Nope.
03:24Today, the Republicans don't even want to address the real challenges facing our neighbors.
03:30Helping them with the cost of living, housing, health care. There are electric bills, and this bill will simply make matters worse.
03:38These DOE standards are long overdue.
03:42You know, I think it's been at least
03:45six or seven years since they've had an update. The law says you update energy-efficient standards for
03:52appliances every few years. That's what happened under the Biden administration. They came together
03:58and those kind of standards also incentivize American innovation.
04:05Manufacturers in America have been the leader.
04:07So by weakening these rules, we open our markets to companies and countries that manufacture low-efficiency
04:15products, like from China, at the expense of American companies and American families. It's not right.
04:23And I heard you, Mr. Pallone, say you had a town hall. A lot of the Democrats are having town halls.
04:29I had a town hall. Back in the Tampa Bay area, they want help with hurricane recovery.
04:34And you know what they're having to replace right now?
04:38Appliances. And they want an appliance that is the most modern, that's the most efficient, the most affordable,
04:45that's made in America. And that's what these appliance standards do.
04:50They help you save money over the long run. But they also want you to safeguard their health care.
04:56They want you to have an eye on Elon Musk as he takes his chainsaw
05:03to all sorts of agencies. And Social Security in my town hall was a topic of conversation. And lo and behold,
05:10yesterday, there's a press report
05:13about the backdoor cut to Social Security.
05:17It says, the Social Security Administration website crashed four times in 10 days this month because the servers were overloaded,
05:24blocking millions of retirees and disabled Americans from logging into their online accounts.
05:30In the field, office managers have resorted to answering phones in place of receptionists because so many employees have been pushed out.
05:37Amidst all this, the agency no longer has a system to monitor customer experience
05:43because that office was eliminated by Elon Musk. And the phones keep ringing and ringing.
05:49The turmoil is leaving many retirees, disabled claimants, and legal immigrants needing Social Security cards with less access
05:56or shut out of the system altogether. And I'll ask unanimous consent to submit this for the record. Long waits, waves of calls,
06:03website crashes, Social Security is breaking down.
06:07Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
06:09This is a real cry for help. And we need
06:13Republicans in Congress focused on
06:16Americans' pocketbooks, not trying to distract from the massive tax giveaway to billionaires and special interests.
06:25Mr. Pallone is is absolutely right. They are out of touch.
06:29So let's send a message and vote no on this bill and get back to work on
06:34safeguarding the pocketbooks of our neighbors back home.
06:37I urge a no vote and yield back the balance of my.
06:39Gentleman in Florida yields. Gentleman in New Jersey reserves.
06:43Thank you, Mr. Chairman.