[Congressional Record Volume 171, Number 65 (Thursday, April 10, 2025)]
[Senate]
[Page S2555]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                              H.J. RES. 20

  Mr. GRAHAM. Mr. President, the following Senators join me in this 
statement: Tim Scott, Bill Hagerty, Marsha Blackburn, Thom Tillis, Ted 
Budd, and John Boozman. The day after Christmas, when both Houses of 
Congress were in recess, the Biden administration released a final rule 
setting new energy efficiency standards for tankless water heaters. 
Like any last-minute rule from the previous administration, this effort 
was ill-advised and ill-timed. It should not, and cannot, stand.
  However, the enactment of H.J. Res. 20, which provides for 
congressional disapproval of the rule titled Energy Conservation 
Program: Energy Conservation Standards for Consumer Gas-Fired 
Instantaneous Water Heaters, will create a structural imbalance. This 
imbalance results from the Biden administration's issuance of an 
efficiency rule for commercial tank and tankless water heaters in 
October of 2023, as well as residential tank-filled water heaters in 
April 2024, neither of which could be overturned by the Congressional 
Review Act because it was unlikely to achieve a veto-proof majority in 
the Senate. Through rulemaking, the Department of Energy should write 
new rules to address this regulatory imbalance, whereby traditional 
tank water heaters and commercial gas-fired instantaneous and tank 
water heaters continue to be subject to regulatory standards.
  This structural imbalance, if not addressed, will result in an uneven 
competitive marketplace for water heater manufacturing and sales. While 
the enactment of the resolution may limit the Department of Energy from 
issuing a substantially similar rule, there remains a need to rectify 
the regulatory misalignment. Accordingly, we strongly encourage the 
Department of Energy, with input from congressional leaders and 
affected industry partners, to use its rulemaking authority to ensure 
that regulatory standards for consumer and commercial gas-fired water 
heating equipment are aligned, thereby removing any market imbalance.

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