[Congressional Record Volume 169, Number 58 (Thursday, March 30, 2023)]
[Senate]
[Page S1062]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                         LOWER ENERGY COSTS ACT

  Mr. SCHUMER. Mr. President, finally, on H.R. 1, the House is expected 
today to vote on Republicans' partisan, unserious, and so-called energy 
package that they call H.R. 1.
  First, once again, I want to make it clear: H.R. 1 is dead on arrival 
in the Senate, not because of politics but because it is so ridiculous 
and has been drawn up by a bunch of pro-oil Senators who have no regard 
for anyone else. No Democrat has been consulted. Obviously, the 
Republicans knew that in the House when they passed it, but they seem 
to want to go back. In H.R. 1, they go back to the MAGA supporters back 
home--the big oil companies, the oil wildcatters, and so many of the 
oil States that don't want to pay any taxes and that don't want 
anything to do with moving us forward as the climate gets worse and 
worse.
  The Senate is not going to waste our time on a bill that sets America 
back decades in our transition to clean energy. All it takes is a brief 
glance at H.R. 1 to realize it is just a giveaway to Big Oil. House 
Republicans' so-called energy package just guts important safeguards, 
environmental safeguards, on fossil fuel projects. It would lock 
America into expensive, erratic, and dirty energy sources while setting 
us back more than a decade on our decision to move forward on clean 
energy, which this Nation fully supports. Transmission, of course, is 
hugely important to increasing access on clean energy, but the 
Republican plan hardly even mentions it.
  So, again, the way to do this, Republicans in the House, is in a 
bipartisan way. We have a Republican House. We have a Democratic 
Senate. No party is going to be able to jam its way through without 
consulting the other side. That is true on the debt ceiling. That is 
true on the budget, and it is certainly true on H.R. 1.
  There are Republicans in the House and Democrats in the House, and 
there are Republicans in the Senate and Democrats in the Senate who 
want to sit down and do a serious energy package. We need to do it. 
Let's stop this brinksmanship. Let's stop this political game-playing. 
Let's stop this throwing of bones to the MAGA hard right, which 
represents, maybe, 5 percent of America. Let's roll up our sleeves. 
Let's get down to work and get something done on energy and on so many 
other issues.

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