Frank Pallone Hammers House GOP For Not Investigating 'Shocking And Unprecedented' Signal Chat Leak

2 days ago

During debate on the House floor, Rep. Frank Pallone (D-NJ) spoke in opposition to a House GOP effort to overturn a Biden-era efficiency standard rule, and condemned the Trump Administration in the wake of a Signal group-chat containing top officials' plans for striking the Houthis in Yemen was leaked.

Fuel your success with Forbes. Gain unlimited access to premium journalism, including breaking news, groundbreaking in-depth reported stories, daily digests and more. Plus, members get a front-row seat at members-only events with leading thinkers and doers, access to premium video that can help you get ahead, an ad-light experience, early access to select products including NFT drops and more:

https://account.forbes.com/membership/?utm_source=youtube&utm_medium=display&utm_campaign=growth_non-sub_paid_subscribe_ytdescript

Stay Connected
Forbes on Facebook: http://fb.com/forbes
Forbes Video on Twitter: http://www.twitter.com/forbes
Forbes Video on Instagram: http://instagram.com/forbes
More From Forbes: http://forbes.com

Transcript

00:00The gentleman is recognized.

00:02I rise in strong opposition to H.J. Res. 24, the fourth

00:06Republican resolution in this Congress to dismantle energy

00:09conservation standards for appliances. And this harmful

00:14resolution guts the Department of Energy efficiency rule for

00:17walk-in coolers and freezers, which will increase energy costs

00:21for businesses and consumers. And I stress that again. It will

00:25increase, if this rule is repealed, will have increased

00:32energy costs for businesses and consumers.

00:35And because it's a Congressional Review Act resolution, it

00:38prevents the Department of Energy from ever issuing

00:40substantially similar standards in the future.

00:43Now, let me say, Mr. Speaker, at a time when Americans are

00:46struggling to make ends meet and facing the reality that

00:49Republicans may soon strip them and their families of health

00:53care, it's shocking that House Republicans are spending

00:56another day here on the floor focusing on repealing common

00:59sense energy efficiency standards that save businesses and

01:03consumers money.

01:04This whole Congress has been a revolving door of

01:06resolution after resolution attacking conservation standards

01:11for different appliances. In fact, we were on the floor just

01:14yesterday afternoon debating another energy efficiency

01:17standard for commercial refrigerators and freezers, an effort

01:21to repeal that, I should point out.

01:23Now, instead of investigating, which is what they should

01:25be doing, the shocking and unprecedented breach of security

01:29and leaked military strikes from top Trump national security

01:34officials, which threatens our national security and our

01:36defense, instead of doing that, we're here once again wasting

01:40valuable floor time debating energy efficiency standards.

01:44Or maybe we should be taking action to protect Social

01:47Security from the Trump administration's funding cuts that

01:50could stop seniors from getting the benefits that they earned

01:53through a lifetime of work. My constituents are already

01:56telling me they can't even call the Social Security office

01:59anymore. There's nobody there. They've cut the staff. They've

02:03cut the phone service. They can't even access the Social

02:07Security administration anymore under this administration,

02:09under the Trump administration.

02:11Or maybe, Mr. Speaker, we should be reversing the Trump

02:14administration's actions to close the Department of Education

02:18and rip away funding from students and teachers and schools.

02:22House Republicans are not likely to take on any of these

02:25actions that I suggested because they refuse to take on

02:28President Trump, even when he's breaking the law.

02:31So it's clear that my Republican colleagues do not have

02:33their priorities in order. In fact, it seems to me their

02:36only priority is securing giant tax breaks for their

02:40billionaire buddies at the expense of American families

02:43and businesses. And H.J. Res. 24 fits right into the

02:46Republican agenda of raising costs on hardworking Americans.

02:50Now, I would not be remiss if I didn't point out the irony

02:53of this resolution. President Trump and Republicans ran on

02:56a promise to cut energy costs in half in his first year.

03:00Yet here we are once again wasting precious time on the

03:03floor with a resolution that would raise energy costs for

03:07American businesses by wasting more energy.

03:10The energy efficiency standards under threat today for

03:13walk-in refrigerators and freezers will save American

03:16businesses up to $6.5 billion on utility bills over the

03:20next 30 years. These businesses include restaurants,

03:23convenience stores, and supermarkets across the country.

03:26And Republicans' anti-efficiency agenda will rob them of

03:30these cost savings. And this is especially concerning at a

03:33time when we're hearing more and more stories about the

03:36damaging impacts of Trump's extreme tariffs, the rising

03:40costs of groceries, and the chaos and uncertainty that Trump

03:43is bringing every day to our economy.

03:46People are concerned about a Trump recession. That's what

03:49they're worried about today. That's what I hear when I go

03:51home. But Republicans don't care about everyday Americans.

03:55They only care about doing the bidding of their billionaire

03:58corporate buddies at the expense of consumer and working

04:01families. Energy efficiency standards for appliances are

04:04designed to reduce energy use and climate pollution while also

04:08saving consumers' and businesses' money. Reducing an

04:11appliance's energy use also helps decrease stress on the

04:14electric grid.

04:16The resolution today is proof that my Republican colleagues'

04:18concern about grid stress, we had a hearing yesterday on that,

04:22and the increased load growth from data centers and American

04:25manufacturing are hollow, merely lip service. If Republicans

04:29truly cared about reducing stress on the electric grid, which

04:33is what they said yesterday at the hearing, they would stop

04:36dismantling energy efficiency standards designed to e-strain

04:39on future electric grid capacity.

04:42The true intent of this anti-efficiency resolution is not to

04:45help American businesses, but to line the pockets of their

04:48billionaire cronies and oil and gas friends. Because, you

04:51guessed it, less efficient appliances means more profits for

04:55big oil and gas.

04:56So I urge my colleagues to oppose this resolution, Mr.

04:59Speaker, and I reserve the balance of my time.

Frank Pallone Hammers House GOP For Not Investigating 'Shocking And Unprecedented' Signal Chat Leak

Category

Transcript

Recommended