[Congressional Record Volume 170, Number 172 (Wednesday, November 20, 2024)]
[Senate]
[Pages S6647-S6649]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
Republican Objectives
Mrs. CAPITO. Madam President, a few weeks ago, the American people
spoke loud and clear. They rejected the policies that we have been
seeing through this current administration. But, today, I rise to talk
about the vision my Republican colleagues and I have for this future
and the many solutions that we are eager to get back to work on that I
believe will help get this country back on track.
First things first, this newly formed Republican Senate majority is
ready to close the previous chapter. It is a chapter I think that none
of us really want to go through again. Soon, the Resolute Desk will
change hands, and the Senate, under the guidance of my friend and
colleague and soon-to-be majority leader John Thune, will get to work.
And we have the full support of the incoming President, President-elect
Trump.
The American public wants to see real action. Back home in my State
of West Virginia, people have conveyed to me that they are ready for
real representation--a government of, by, and for the people. Senate
Republicans will deliver responsive and responsible solutions for the
American people.
The task ahead is this: unshackling the American economy, securing
the border, unleashing our American energy, reducing crime and
lawlessness, and restoring American strength and deterrence on the
world stage. These are the issues on which the voters placed their
faith in us.
I also believe that central to this mandate for this new American
leadership is the idea that people really did feel better and preferred
their lives under the Presidency of President Trump. I know for sure I
did.
So as the Senate fulfills its responsibility to pass legislation to
get this country back on track, let's look no further than the previous
Trump administration for the roadmap.
President Trump unleashed American energy production, rolling back
burdensome permitting rules and redtape. Republicans slashed
regulations that canceled pipelines. We erased barriers to our new
ones. America sits on the greatest treasure trove of natural resources
in the world, and a Republican-led energy policy will not squander
that.
West Virginia knows the difference between good and bad energy policy
all too well. We are an energy State. We have been blessed with a lot
of natural resources, and we know that our economy and people's jobs
and people's lives and people's families depend on us unleashing that
energy. The jobs that President Trump saved--a lot of those jobs--were
West Virginia energy jobs. So we can get back to a cheaper, more
secure, and more reliable world by unleashing American energy once
again.
The Republican solution is ``America First'' energy policies that can
result in energy dominance and our own self-reliance--no more depending
on fuels from dictators who hate America or no more reliance on green
energy from Chinese Communist Party-backed supply chains.
It is going to take an ``all of the above'' approach, including
opening up projects like our recently just opened Mountain Valley
Pipeline so that we can deliver energy in markets, promoting carbon
capture and sequestration to use our vast coal resources, nuclear
energy, and renewables, as the market sees fit--and they are growing.
In a few months, I will be chairman of the Senate Environment and
Public Works Committee. I am really excited about this opportunity, and
I cannot stress enough how important these items are to the agenda.
My Senate Republican colleagues and I are prepared to bring forward
legislative solutions to help fuel American growth, and I hope our
Democratic colleagues will join us in moving these solutions forward in
the next Congress.
On the economy, residents from my State--and the entire country--are
still reeling from the elevated costs on all things, from housing,
energy, food, and almost every other everyday essential.
Personal finances are stretched so thin right now. For instance, in
my State of West Virginia, West Virginians are spending, on average, an
additional $930 a month, or more than $25,000 a year, due to inflation,
since 2021. Actually, that is a total of $25,000 since 2021.
The plan to get the American economy back on track is a tried-and-
true formula of energy dominance--repealing burdensome regulations--and
lowering taxes. It is pretty simple. You should keep more of your own
paycheck, and the government should stay out of the way.
I am looking forward to taking up legislation proposed by me and my
other Senate colleagues toward these ends, including an extension and
reauthorization of the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act that we passed in 2017--
including some of the most pro-growth tax reform policies that we have
seen--as well as other potential budget solutions.
Crime and the border go hand in hand. Under President Trump's first
administration, both were managed. But now they are not. Look no
further than the example of the addiction crisis, a direct product of
lawlessness and the free rein of Mexican cartels.
Just a few days ago, last Friday, I convened State and community
leaders in West Virginia for a summit focused on combating the
addiction crisis. The correlation between wide-open borders and the
raging drug crisis was mentioned repeatedly at this summit, especially
during the presentation and discussion with our law enforcement panel.
Here is the fentanyl crisis by the numbers: CBP seized 27,000 pounds
of
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fentanyl in the fiscal year 2023. That is only a fraction of the real
amount that crosses our border. Keep in mind that a minuscule amount of
fentanyl can have a deadly effect.
Of the over 107,000 drug overdoses that occurred in the United States
in 2023--I will repeat that number: 107,000; that is almost double the
size of the capital city of Charleston in West Virginia, where I live--
almost 75,000 of those involved fentanyl.
This out-of-control drug trafficking must end. It is a lawless
scourge that takes more West Virginians per capita than in any other
State in the Union. In sheer numbers, the death toll and calamity
eclipse any other modern drug epidemic.
We know what works because the rise in fentanyl overdose deaths
stalled under President Trump. The bottom line, we have got to close
the border and end the lawlessness.
Yet again, Republicans have the roadmap. We did it once, and we can
do it again. A heightened sense and appreciation for law and order from
the border to the inner cities, to everywhere back home will feature
prominently in this next Republican administration.
President Trump presided over a relatively peaceful period of history
unmatched in our national history. After crushing ISIS, the Trump-led
world order went largely untested by the world's dictators and
demagogues. The same cannot be said about the world today.
China manipulates the Biden administration every day, while burrowing
deep into our critical infrastructure and growing its military. Iran
and its terrorist proxies wage war against our ally Israel. And, of
course, there is the ongoing war in Ukraine. This is the world under
the Biden-Harris administration's watch.
In what seems like the most trying confluence of geopolitical
struggles in a generation, America must lead through strength.
Indecision and weakness have emboldened our adversaries.
Republicans can start the next Congress by restoring deterrence
against Iran and reinstating Trump's maximum-pressure campaign. We
should cut off Iran's funding sources so that they can't continue to
support these attacks against our U.S. servicemembers.
Just last week, the Houthis fired at least eight drones, five
ballistic missiles, and three anti-ship cruise missiles against our
U.S. Navy ships. It was barely even news because this is now just a
regular occurrence under this current administration.
This administration apparently has no clue that our troops are under
constant attack on land and sea, since our current Vice President, in
her campaign, said that she didn't think any U.S. forces were in
combat.
America must protect our servicemembers and put Iran on notice that
their weapons-dealing business is over.
More broadly, a unified Republican government will be prepared to
restore our military strength, refocus our DOD on lethality, and
restock our critical munitions.
I have detailed but a few of the ideas and solutions to this
dangerous, costly, and disordered world that we are inheriting. It is a
challenge fit for a strong government and even stronger leadership, and
it is good that we have a change for who is in charge.
Until then, I suggest the best course of action this body can take is
to work diligently on the outstanding priorities that we have in front
of us. I am talking about the NDAA--the National Defense Authorization
bill--the government funding bills, and the farm bill. That way, the
next Congress can stand at full attention, ready to advance policies to
make our country safer, stronger, and a more resilient place.
With that, I yield the floor.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from North Dakota.
Mr. HOEVEN. Madam President, 2 weeks ago, President Trump was
reelected, and the Senate Republicans reclaimed the Senate majority. As
we prepare for the 119th Congress, I join my colleagues today to
discuss Republican solutions to the challenges our Nation faces.
Among these important efforts, we will work with President Trump to
unleash more American energy and not only make our country energy
independent once again but actually make the United States energy
dominant. We will do that by cutting the redtape that has handcuffed
our energy industry. And instead of strangling regulations, we are
going to boost innovation. That is the right kind of approach for
energy policy in our Nation.
Energy security directly impacts our economic and national security.
That is why we must act on day one to reverse the Biden
administration's regulatory onslaught. From the very beginning of his
tenure, President Biden has sought to curtail American energy. I would
like to take a moment to recap some of these harmful regulatory
policies.
Just last week, the Biden administration finished implementing a new
natural gas tax. Think about that: a tax on natural gas at a time when
the country has been fighting inflation. That natural gas tax was
authorized as part of the Democrat partisan tax-and-spend bill.
Importantly, I intend to introduce a Congressional Review Act
resolution of disapproval to block the Biden administration's new
natural gas tax rule, and we will work with President Trump to repeal
it. Again, this is part of reducing an inflation that affects every
single American.
This costly tax comes in addition to new burdensome rules and higher
fees on Federal energy production imposed by the Department of the
Interior's Bureau of Land Management.
But the Biden administration isn't just increasing costs for
producers. They are working to outright prevent the development of vast
amounts of taxpayer-owned energy resources on public lands.
This year, BLM issued a new public lands rule enabling radical
environmental groups to lock away more of our energy reserves under a
so-called conservation leasing approach. In my State of North Dakota,
the Biden administration is proposing to close off leasing to 45
percent--45 percent--of Federal oil and gas acreage and 95 percent of
Federal coal acreage.
Let me repeat that. In my State of North Dakota--we are one of the
largest energy producing States in the country. We are an energy
powerhouse for this country. In my State, the Biden administration is
proposing to close off leasing to 45 percent of Federal oil and gas
acreage and 95 percent of Federal coal acreage. At the same time, the
Biden administration's regulatory agenda is making electricity more
expensive and less reliable. Think about that. We need more
electricity, not less. These policies not only increase the price of
the electricity that we get, but it prevents us from producing more
electricity.
Under President Biden, the EPA has issued overreaching power sector
regulations that inflict utilities with billions of dollars in
compliance costs. Worse still, these burdensome regulations could force
the premature retirement of reliable coal-fired baseload powerplants,
and we need that baseload to maintain the integrity of the nationwide
electric grid.
The North American Electric Reliability Corporation, or NERC, and
multiple independent grid operators are sounding the alarm of a coming
reliability crisis.
Each of these actions by the Biden administration was specifically
designed to make traditional energy more expensive and to produce less
of it. That is why, in partnership with the incoming Trump
administration, we will take off the handcuffs of our energy producers
and empower them to increase supply and bring down prices for American
families and businesses.
I would also like to thank President Trump and offer my
congratulations to Governor Doug Burgum of North Dakota on his
nomination to serve as Secretary of the Interior and the head of the
newly formed National Energy Council. The Department of the Interior is
incredibly important in North Dakota and Western States, overseeing
more than 247 million acres of Federal land and approximately 30
percent of the Nation's minerals.
As Governor of my home State of North Dakota, Doug has the right
background and experience to lead the Department of the Interior and
all of the new administration's energy efforts. He has been a great
partner as we have worked together to make North Dakota an energy
powerhouse for our country, and I know he will bring that experience to
bear in a positive way for our country. He understands the importance
of productive multiple use of
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our vast Federal estate for energy development, grazing, recreation,
tourism, and all of the multiple uses we enjoy.
I look forward to continuing our efforts together, and he will be in
a tremendous position to help us roll back the harmful policies of the
last 4 years and unlock our country's energy potential. That means
making the best use of our Nation's abundant energy resources--
including our vast oil, gas, and coal reserves--while advancing new
innovations to produce more energy with better environmental
stewardship. That is the right way to do it.
Like I said at the beginning, we are not just going to make our
Nation energy independent; we are going to make our Nation energy
dominant.
With that, I yield the floor.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from Tennessee.