Pallone Slams Republicans for Making Affordability Crisis Worse at Full Committee Markup

Energy and Commerce Committee Ranking Member Frank Pallone, Jr. (D-NJ) delivered the following opening remarks at today's Full Committee markup of 15 bills from the Energy and Communications and Technology Subcommittees:

Today the Committee will consider 15 bills that were marked up last month by two of our subcommittees.

We will consider seven bills that were marked up by the Communications and Technology Subcommittee. Six of the bills are bipartisan and aim to provide common sense solutions to issues that cause unnecessary delays and difficulty in the permitting process. I applaud Members on both sides of the aisle for their bipartisan leadership on these bills that would update antiquated federal agency application systems, implement standard and transparent fee structures across federal agencies, and remove barriers to deploying broadband across or near railroad infrastructure.

Unfortunately, our Republican colleagues have also decided to proceed with consideration of H.R. 2289, their partisan permitting bill. It's important to emphasize that this is the same package of partisan bills that Republicans pushed last Congress — and ultimately went nowhere — because it is full of bad ideas that are unpopular with both Democrats and Republicans.

Putting arbitrary deadlines on state, local, and Tribal governments to start and finish complicated permit reviews is opposed across the board by the local officials who are responsible for doing the work. Other provisions would gut any local communities’ ability to protect historic and culturally significant sites — especially for Tribal communities.

These bills also went nowhere because they don’t meaningfully address true barriers to broadband deployment. For instance, this legislation shows our colleagues would rather force unfunded mandates onto state, local, or Tribal agencies than make even a modest investment to help those offices hire sufficient numbers of qualified staff to speed up permit reviews.

I urge all members to oppose H.R. 2289.

We'll also mark up a series of energy bills out of our Energy Subcommittee that exacerbate the affordability crisis, threaten our power grid, and hurt our ability to compete with China in the artificial intelligence race.

Congressional Republicans and the Trump Administration spent this year targeting efficiency standards through numerous Congressional Review Act resolutions, gutting clean energy incentives in their Big Ugly Bill, keeping expensive fossil fuel plants online, and imposing costly tariffs that are supercharging inflation. From the grocery store to health care costs to their monthly utility bills, hardworking American families are bearing the brunt of rising costs at the hands of Republicans. Yet my colleagues continue to turn a blind eye to the affordability crisis and double down on their polluters over people agenda, leaving American families to foot the bill.

We are in an affordability crisis, and the Republicans have no plan to address it. In fact, just yesterday, President Trump called the issue of affordability a “con job” by the Democrats. He should tell that to the families all across the nation that are struggling to make ends meet. And not only do Republicans have no plan, they are actually moving bills today that will make the affordability crisis worse. That’s how out of touch House Republicans are with the needs of everyday Americans.

Most of the bills we are marking up today gut energy efficiency programs, make buildings use more energy, and revoke assistance meant to help with the upfront costs of appliances and building code adoption. These bills only serve to further increase monthly energy bills at a time when American families can least afford it.

Electricity prices are already up 11 percent across the country – climbing twice as fast as inflation. This jump is even bigger in some parts of the country. And instead of bolstering commonsense energy efficiency measures that help to both lower costs and help us meet the growing demand for power driven by AI data center expansion, Republicans are attempting to completely dismantle them.

Republicans only pay lip service to lowering costs for American families, their real priorities lie with corporate polluters and keeping President Trump happy, all at the expense of both American competitiveness and Americans' wallets.

And with that, Mr. Chairman, I yield back the balance of my time.

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