[Congressional Record Volume 169, Number 39 (Wednesday, March 1, 2023)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Pages E167-E168]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




    REDUCE EXACERBATED INFLATION NEGATIVELY IMPACTING THE NATION ACT

                                 ______
                                 

                               speech of

                          HON. BETTY McCOLLUM

                              of minnesota

                    in the house of representatives

                       Tuesday, February 28, 2023

       The House in Committee of the Whole House on the state of 
     the Union had under consideration the bill (H.R. 347) to 
     require the Executive Office of the President to provide an 
     inflation estimate with respect to Executive orders with a 
     significant effect on the annual gross budget, and for other 
     purposes:

  Ms. McCOLLUM. Madam Chair, I rise in opposition to H.R. 347, the REIN 
IN Act.
  House Republicans are claiming this bill will require the 
administration to publish the inflationary impact of executive actions 
before enacting them, but if Republicans had taken the

[[Page E168]]

time to hold a hearing on this bill, they would have discovered that 
the bill merely requires the President to ``prepare and consider'' the 
inflationary impact--not publish it. This is yet another misleading 
political stunt from the new Republican majority.
  For two years, House Republicans blamed President Biden and 
Congressional Democrats for inflation and promised they would fix it. 
Yet, they passed on the opportunity to work with Democrats to fight 
inflation by passing the Inflation Reduction Act to rebuild American 
manufacturing and lower the costs of prescription drugs, health care, 
energy, and other goods and services.
  Since 2020, inflation has risen worldwide, exacerbated by supply 
chain delays caused by the COVID-19 pandemic. At the outbreak of the 
pandemic, Democrats worked swiftly to pass relief packages, helping 
American families and businesses survive while preventing economic 
collapse. Recent figures have shown that these programs worked: 
inflation is lower in the U.S. than in the U.K., Canada, and 20 
European Union member states. Today, while Republicans offer this 
thoughtless bill, 432,000 Minnesotans and millions of other Americans 
who have benefited from the emergency SNAP funding are seeing their 
extra benefits run out. This bill does nothing to reduce everyday costs 
for these and other Americans.
  Madam Chair, H.R. 347 is yet more proof that Republicans would rather 
blame President Biden and Democrats for inflation than take steps to 
address it.
  It should be rejected.

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