The American people heard from President Biden on Tuesday evening for his State of the Union. Instead of addressing the many crises facing Americans, like inflation, unaffordable energy, his border crisis, and his weakness against China, President Biden doubled down on his wish list for more radical spending and a socialist agenda.
On key issues for the Energy and Commerce Committee, here’s what Chair Cathy Rodgers (R-WA) had to say:
“Americans are paying the price due to President Biden and the Democrat’s radical and out-of-control spending. Soaring energy and food prices, as well as broken supply chains are making it difficult for the hardworking people of this country to get by. From the gas pump to the grocery store, American families are seeing an increasing costs for routine expenses. Families on average have been forced to pay $10,000 more over the last two years for everyday goods and services, and more than a third of U.S. households say they’ve forgone things like food and medicine in order to pay their energy bills. These rising costs are hitting low- and middle-income families the hardest.
“Americans are anxious for a return to the economic success of the previous administration. To build optimism and prosperity again, we must ease regulatory burdens, strengthen critical American supply chains, unleash American energy, and reverse the Left’s extreme government spending and socialist agenda.”
ON BIDEN EMBOLDENING THE CHINESE COMMUNIST PARTY
“President Biden’s pro-Chinese Communist Party (CCP) agenda is ceding American leadership and security to China. It’s no secret the CCP wants to replace the U.S. as a global economic and technological power. The Chinese surveillance balloon last week was another frightening example of how this president has emboldened the CCP. Under President Biden, the U.S. has become more reliant on Chinese supply chains, sold critical assets like farmland and strategic petroleum reserve oil to China, and allowed China to take the lead on many emerging technologies. President Biden is handing the keys to our energy, economic, and technological future over to the CCP. This cannot continue. The President needs to abandon this agenda that’s emboldening the CCP and join Republicans to ensure America, not China, wins the future.”
ON BIDEN’S RADICAL RUSH TO GREEN AGENDA
“President Biden has kept his campaign promise to shut down American energy. On day one he shut down the Keystone XL pipeline. Since then, he’s continued to enact policies that trade our energy security away to the Chinese Communist Party and OPEC+. Energy prices are still higher now than when he took office, which is making life unaffordable for Americans.
“Republicans on Energy and Commerce have laid the groundwork to improve our energy infrastructure, reduce emissions, prioritize energy security, and keep energy costs low.
“Our first order of business this Congress was to pass H.R. 21 and H.R. 22. These bills, which passed out of the House with bipartisan support, would protect the Strategic Petroleum Reserve—a vital asset for American energy security—from being abused by President Biden for political purpose or sold to China.
“In addition, we will continue our robust oversight of how the administration implements the ‘IRA,’ which embraces massive government subsidies and regulations to place unreliable, weather dependent renewables above all other energy sources. It fails to reduce the regulatory, permitting, and licensing barriers that hamper the deployment of American energy and infrastructure, like hydropower, advanced nuclear, and natural gas export terminals and pipelines. These are just some of the solutions we discussed today in our legislative hearing that would have a real impact on reducing emissions and provide people with affordable, reliable, and abundant energy.
“It’s time for President Biden to abandon his radical agenda and embrace Republican solutions, which will unleash our vast energy abundance, make energy more affordable for Americans, and restore our energy dominance.”
ON ADDRESSING AMERICA’S FENTANYL CRISIS
“Fueled by the President’s failure to secure our southern border, the illicit fentanyl crisis is tearing apart families across America. In 2021, synthetic opioids—like fentanyl and its analogues—were the leading cause of death for adults aged 18-49. Yet, the Biden administration has refused House Republicans’ efforts to keep these deadly substances out of our communities.
“Energy and Commerce Republicans have heard from countless families, like Deb and Ray Cullen and Molly Cain, whose 23-year-old sons, Zachary and Carson, were poisoned by drug dealers with illicit fentanyl. For families like the Cullens and the Cains, the Biden administration must work with us to bring those who traffic and sell these lethal substances to justice.
“President Biden has previously said he supports a toothless ban on fentanyl-related-substances that would fail to stop dealers and criminals. It is past time that he support the HALT Fentanyl Act, led by Reps. Griffith and Latta, to stop new fentanyl analogues from being created and bring to justice those responsible for their spread.
“We cannot let this scourge of poison continue to proliferate in America.”
ON ENDING THE COVID-19 EMERGENCY AND TITLE 42
“The Biden administration has severely mismanaged its response to the COVID-19 pandemic, betraying the American people’s trust in our government health agencies. Unscientific mandates, a total lack of transparency, colluding with Big Tech to censor people, and authoritarian shutdowns have only made resentment and distrust in the government stronger.
“President Biden, despite unequivocally declaring in September 2022 that the COVID-19 pandemic was over, has continued to extend the PHE and has increasingly abused emergency powers under this authority for far too long. Worse, he continued to send misleading and faulty signals to the American people about the risks of COVID-19.
“Further, it is President Biden—and President Biden alone—who will make the disastrous decision to lift the Title 42 Order, letting thousands of migrants to flood across our borders. Despite misleading statements from the administration, the laws governing PHEs and Title 42 are completely separate. President Biden could easily reinstitute the Title 42 protections and keep Americans safe. If he chooses not to protect America’s border, he will own the outcome.”
“President Biden refuses to acknowledge that mandating a cap on insulin copays fails to address the root cause of insulin prices. Instead, it will lead to higher premiums for all seniors, and if he gets his way, all Americans.
“By contrast, former-President Trump brought together insurers and drug makers to voluntarily agree to offer drug plans capping seniors’ insulin costs. The model worked so well that President Biden tried to claim credit for it. Unfortunately, Democrats have since scrapped the voluntary model to institute a federal mandate in its place.
“It’s time for the President to abandon his socialist price-schemes and work across the aisle to make insulin products more affordable without jeopardizing insulin competition and innovation.”
ON BIDEN’S FEDERALIZING MEDICAID
“President Biden’s call for Congress to federalize Medicaid and end this important program as we know it would be another step closer to socialized medicine. Rather than radically expanding federal control, states must have the flexibility to serve patients in the most need as Medicaid was designed to do.
“Instead of setting a dangerous precedent for a federalized Medicaid, we should be working in a bipartisan way to address problems like historic limitations in access to care for Medicaid beneficiaries and longstanding Medicaid waitlists for essential home and community-based services for people with disabilities.”
ON BIDEN’S CURES-KILLING PRICE CONTROL LAWS
“Patients around the world in search of a cure look to America and our biomedical innovation for hope. Unfortunately, President Biden’s so-called Inflation Reduction Act, has already had devastating effects on our research and development.
“By placing government prices controls on prescription drugs, President Biden has already caused some innovators to pull the plugs on research on rare diseases, anti-bacterials, celiac, and many others. Instead of passing bipartisan legislation that would have led to more cures with lower costs, he pushed forward with a bill that gives less hope to patients and will make America more reliant on China’s drug development and manufacturing supply chains.
“Republicans will hold this administration accountable and work to mitigate the worst parts of the law, while continuing to support legislation that will keep America at the forefront of the research and development of treatments and cures.”
ON BIDEN’S RADICAL ABORTION AGENDA AND DEFENDING INNOCENT LIFE
“For decades, Roe v. Wade divided America in unimaginable ways over the sharpest, most soul-searching question before us as a nation. It never settled the debate over abortion. It is now our duty to come together and determine how we want to define the human rights issue of our generation. We must lead to defend every person’s God-given unalienable rights to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness for all.
“It is tragic that President Biden, who once said, ‘I think it’s [abortion] always a tragedy […] I think we should be focusing on how to limit the number of abortions’ has come to support a radical abortion agenda that would permit abortion up until the moment of birth and require Americans to pay for it.
“House Republicans affirm the inherent dignity of all human life. We will continue to pursue legislation that defends the most innocent among us, supports moms and their children at every stage of their lives, and protects the consciences of Americans who do not want to fund abortion.”
ON THE BIDEN ADMINISTRATION CENSORING AMERICANS
“President Joe Biden and his administration have become the censorship party. They’re actively silencing American voices in order to control the narrative to benefit their political agenda—we have the receipts.
“House Energy and Commerce Republicans have repeatedly condemned these troubling actions carried out by progressive administration officials and their cozy relationships with Big Tech. We are demanding accountability for their coordinated censorship and efforts to intimidate Big Tech to police content online. These actions are an attack on the First Amendment and our fundamental right to free speech. We will not allow this administration to be the arbiters of truth online.”
ON PROTECTING CHILDREN FROM BIG TECH
“Big Tech must be held accountable for their utter disregard for people’s privacy and data security and well-being—especially our children, who are being manipulated and exploited for profit by these companies. The first step is for Congress to pass comprehensive privacy and data security protections with one national standard that stops Big Tech’s harmful abuse of power. If President Biden truly wants to promote Big Tech transparency and accountability, protect our kids, and strengthen privacy protections for Americans, he should join Energy and Commerce’s bipartisan efforts to enact comprehensive data privacy legislation.”
