Hands Off Our Home Appliances Act

Floor Speech

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Mr. DUNCAN. Mr. Chair, I rise in support of H.R. 6192, the Hands Off Our Home Appliances Act, and I thank Congresswoman Lesko for leading this effort and many others in this Congress.

Throughout hearings in this Congress, the House Energy and Commerce Committee has heard countless times how the Biden administration's energy policy puts special interests over affordability and reliability for Americans.

Through the Department of Energy's appliance standard program, the Biden administration has abused their authority by setting aggressive standards on a variety of home appliances.

Mr. Chair, I don't want Americans to be fooled about this. This effort by the Biden administration isn't about saving American consumers' money, it is solely about ending American's use of natural gas, period.

They started with gas stoves and now they have announced plans to impose burdensome regulations that will raise the cost and reduce the performance of dishwashers, air conditioners, refrigerators, clothes washers and dryers, and several other products that Americans rely on every day.

This is part of their whole-of-government approach to pursuing climate policy over all else.

Secretary Granholm said in our DOE budget hearing just last week: We are obsessed with reducing the amount of energy Americans use. This administration hates fossil fuels and anything that uses fossil fuels.

Their solution is to reduce emissions and preserve energy reliability. Instead of harnessing the abundant resources we have in this country, they want to reduce the quality of life for Americans by telling them how to cook their food and wash their clothes, how much water they can use, and what type of car they can drive.

Congresswoman Lesko's bill puts energy affordability and reliability ahead of the dark money climate lobby this administration is beholden to. This bill reforms the Department of Energy's appliance standard setting process to clarify the DOE's regulatory authority and prohibits new standards that are not cost effective or technologically feasible.

Because of this administration's reckless spending and regulatory agenda, the cost of everything is increasing in the United States of America.

The last thing they should be doing is making the home appliances that Americans rely on even more expensive.

Mr. Chair, I urge all my colleagues to support this commonsense bill and thank Congresswoman Lesko, again, for leading this important effort.

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